Leadership and the Art of Developing Your Team

By Peter J. Donlevy, Proudfoot Consulting

Regardless of your product or service offering, ultimately it is the front-line supervisor and workers that drive the quality and efficient delivery of your product to your customers. You will not be successful if your team is not motivated to succeed with you – it’s as simple as that.   “Your people are your most valuable resource. If you don’t mentor and motivate them, they will not take ownership of the goals and vision you have for the organization.” Every CEO, department head, manager and front-line supervisor has heard this mantra a thousand times. During the everyday challenges and the occasional crisis, however, the truth of these words gets eclipsed by the need to “just get it done”.  For your employees to develop the motivation and dedication to succeed, you must lead above all else.

Leadership means setting goals and vision, a strategic framework to guide your team to attain a goal and rewarding them when they exceed it.  

Just as importantly, it also means showing them how to achieve through example and coaching. Applied with alacrity and enthusiasm, leading will drive your team to learn, unleashing them to grow and surpass your every expectation. 

My company, Proudfoot Consulting, is an operational management consulting firm that spends a great deal of time helping companies turn their strategy into reality by leading change to enhance productivity and profitability.

Often we find that companies need the most urgent help in the areas of front-line management and supervision. Front-line management must take the strategy (vision, wants and goals) of senior management and apply these in a way that produces results while maintaining positive employee relations.

Many managers and supervisors arrive at their position as a result of vacancy during a crisis, rather than through preparation, training and deliberative selection. 

In a previous job, I worked for a conglomerate renowned for developing front-line managers through effective and continual leadership training at all levels.I started as a worker and progressed through various levels of responsibility. At each level, my training stressed my knowledge of systems, processes and managing people. This was particularly true when making that first step from the front-line worker to management. 

Immersed in our vision with daily coaching and evaluation, I always knew what I was supposed to do, how to do it, and never had to look for a supervisor when I needed clarification. Feedback was quick and to the point but always supportive of my success.  

I received regular leadership training where I learned how to apply these principals to solving problems that any business faces day in and day out. I also learned how to use measurements that we reviewed at regular intervals to learn from our past performance. 

After returning to the operation as a new leader, I wasn’t sure what had changed. I was working with the same people but now I was giving the instructions instead of someone else.

Then one day a crisis developed and my bosses barely had time to pass directions to me and certainly no time to explain. It was up to me to connect our leaders strategy to the assignment we were chosen to complete, helping my team to understand why it mattered and how to achieve the results. It was up to me to drive our success and ensure the wellbeing of my workforce in the midst of crisis. 

I found that despite my new title and position, simply passing down instructions didn’t drive my team. I had to lead with precise clear assignments and get acknowledgement of their understanding as there was no time to repeat work. I found that it was critical for me to show them how I wanted an assignment done and to provide them with constant feedback, and solicit theirs. The crisis tried us all, so regular coaching and support were critical in driving success. We learned a great deal about each others skill, abilities and motivations. When issues arose we solved them with each team member participating.  

We measured our progress against our assignments and the strategy of the organization regularly and made immediate corrections to get back on plan.

Success depended on how I led people, while we all relied on the processes we’d been taught and our skills with the systems and tools used to execute. The result was a cohesive winning team that came through the crisis more prepared for daily challenges and even the next crisis.

That conglomerate as you may have guessed, is the U.S. Army. I have used those lessons as a leader with various companies since, but Proudfoot is the first company I’ve worked with that embodies those same principals. While we engage and align the company to the executive officers’ strategic vision, one of our key differentiators is the manner in which we train and coach our clients’ front-line managers and supervisors in how to manage and lead people.

This is accomplished not only through traditional classroom training, but on the floor development participating with the supervisor in dealing with real issues by applying what they’ve just learned.  

Supervisors develop a behavioral matrix that guides them in the application of their new skills. We coach and work with each supervisor, providing both positive and negative feedback to each participant on their performance daily.

We also coach them through improvement of their interactions with workers and managers, installing the behaviors that will enable them to lead their team to support the newly designed processes which drive consistent and sustainable results.

We stay with them on the floor until it’s ingrained. People are different. What motivates one person may actually upset another. Leaders overcome this by knowing and understanding their people as individuals, often learning what is personally important to them and what special interests drive their strengths and weaknesses.

Understanding these motivations enables the leader to show workers how new processes work for them. The supervisor does not have to pry into their private lives, but learns these things in the course of reaching goals together and providing mentoring for both successes and struggles. I work with companies in the middle of change. Many of the people in those companies found change, whether good or bad, to be a crisis. I found great similarity in the lessons I’d leaned in that former job, and the way Proudfoot guides these companies through change.  

We often encounter companies with great strategies full of promise, with clear vision and stated goals but with a message that gets lost before execution on the floor. Development of the front-line leadership is often an afterthought. Supervisors were often the most senior person or the best operator in the function they now supervised.

Often it was presumed that their tenure or demonstrated technical knowledge would allow them to instinctively lead, when in fact, front-line leadership is a skill that must be learned. There are seven requisite behaviors that must be put into play when a front-line supervisor becomes an active leader to his team:

1. Assigning Work – this is “The What”, as the supervisor clearly describes the tasks to be performed to support and connect to the vision of management.
2. Giving Direction – “The How”, as the team hears clearly what is expected from them, the process to be followed and benchmarks for success.
3. Following Up – “Clarification” or “How are we doing?” a critical phase where the supervisor regularly monitors performance, not as a spy, but as a support mechanism, available and ready to assist.
4. Feedback (Positive) – “What are we doing well?” providing opportunity for praise, or (Negative) not to blame but to resolve issues or misunderstandings.
5. Coach & Support – “The Training”, where the Supervisor looks for ways to enhance the team’s skill set through further training, knowledge sharing and team building exercises framing their task with the “big picture”.
6. Problem Solving – “What’s really wrong, how will we resolve it?” taking a deeper look at problem areas WITH the team, inviting their suggestions for improvement.
7. Reporting – “Reviews, How did we perform?”, where the Supervisor compiles a complete and accurate report, adding his interpretations – and those of the team – for future planning that informs and guide strategic adjustments.

 Collectively, the above seven behaviors are known as Active Supervision. A central tenet of Active Supervision is “Walk the floor” – literally, walk among your team and solicit input and provide immediate feedback. Do they see the goal? Do they think it’s attainable?

This is the “buy-in” you, as a leader, are trying to obtain from your people and your team at all levels including the executive floor.  It’s not unlike a leader in the Army walking the field with his troops reinforcing these elements throughout battle. 

Finally, after a day’s work has been completed, a supervisor needs to sit down with his team to go over the day’s events. What went right? What went wrong? How can we sustain success and improve on shortfalls and get back on plan? 

The benefits of this approach are clear – I see long delayed strategy implementations driven to fruition at client companies when we “install” one of our productivity programs.  

- Individuals are brought together to share knowledge, skills and experiences so that the big picture can be brought into focus.

- Real-time work-related situations are used as opportunities for learning.

- Solutions are developed utilizing the input of the team.

- The company enjoys a climate of continuous learning, support and ownership.

- Employee morale improves because they have a clear understanding of their tasks and expectations, as well as how to use the support system in place to help them perform those tasks.  

Done properly, this process allows workers to voice their opinions and suggest improvements. They become an important component of the decision-making process that constantly informs and tweaks the strategy making each feel as though they have a positive impact on the success of the organization.

A supervisor that isn’t encouraging his or her people to grow both personally and professionally is performing a great injustice for all concerned. At the very least your people should aspire to have your job some day. You should be helping them to get there. 

Several years in the U.S. Army taught me myriad lessons. I enjoyed successes as a leader and endured setbacks as well. I walked away from a good day’s work knowing that I had served those who worked for me. I also had days and weeks where I would not sleep because I knew that I could have served them better. I remember the principles of leadership and coaching learned during my service and see how they are reflected and applied by companies like Proudfoot.

So when you and your company are about to execute your next “sure” strategy, remember these leadership lessons and you will be the winner. 

Leadership is a 24-hour-a-day job. It is always active and it always takes effort. It cannot be left on cruise control. Commit to leading and coaching your people and your team, and the entire organization will succeed beyond your greatest expectations. 

About the Author: Peter Donlevy is head of business identification for Proudfoot Consulting, and has led teams on projects that saved clients hundreds of Millions of dollars. Proudfoot is the recognized leader in operational management consulting. For more than 60 years, Proudfoot has specialized in implementing change to achieve measurable and sustainable performance improvement in client companies. Its teams work with client company management, and with people of all levels of the organization, to design and install programs and increase bottom-line financial results. Proudfoot is a part of Management Consulting Group PLC., one of the world’s top 25 consulting firms, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Recent client engagements include BHP Billiton, BNSF Railway, CertainTeed, ING, Thomson Group, Exide Technologies, Foster Wheeler North America and the HRW division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 

For more information, contact Joe Froelich at 404-260-0557 or visit www.proudfootconsulting.com.