I was a twenty-year-old Marine standing before the board that would decide whether I would be promoted to Sergeant. The officer in charge was a Major who had started his Marine career as a private. He landed at Iwo Jima and that adventure gave him a scar the started above his hairline and disappeared behind his shirt collar. The Major said I was seeking promotion to “the most important rank in the Marine Corps.” Then he said:
“Those generals may win a battle or two, but it’s the sergeants that win the wars.”
That’s true for effective organizations of all kinds. The sergeants, the first line supervisors, are the ones who carry the everyday load of getting the work done. They are the organization to most of the workers.
When a frontline manager does his or her job well, the team is productive and the team members are engaged. When most of the frontline managers do their job well the company is profitable and filled with engaged people who will stay a while.
So, why do so many companies spend their money on just about everything except helping frontline managers do a better job?
Leadership development for the forgotten frontline managers
A 2014 survey by Harvard Business Review Analytics and Halogen Software could only come up with 12 percent of respondents “who said their organization currently invests sufficiently in the development of frontline managers.” A McKinsey study, “Building capabilities for performance,” found that just 7 percent of the training budget went to frontline managers. That figure is rock steady since 2010.
Leadership development priorities
The test of priorities isn’t what you say. It’s how you spend your money and how you spend your time. Why not put your time and your money into leadership development for your frontline managers? They’re your sergeants. And generals may win a battle or two but it’s the sergeants that win the war.
