Independent research conducted by James Heskett and Frederick Reichheld in the early 1990s, and confirmed by Gallup research during the past few years, shows that higher levels of employee satisfaction and engagement translate to improved customer satisfaction scores and bottom-line profits.

At The Ken Blanchard Companies^®, we believe that job satisfaction is one of the major issues that employers will have to face now and in the coming years if they expect to remain competitive. While product innovations and marketing strategies can easily be copied in today's business environment, the attitude and committed effort of the employees working for a firm cannot. As a result, The Ken Blanchard Companies believes that raising the level of employee morale and satisfaction at work is one of the best ways a company can guarantee success now and in the future. Only by cultivating an environment in which people are encouraged to be their best, and are given the tools to accomplish this, will companies be able to create and sustain any type of long-term competitive advantage.

The Ken Blanchard Companies has been studying employee motivation for over 25 years. While there are many ways that an organization can improve its overall work environment, we have found one factor that stands out above all the rest. It is the relationship that an employee has with his or her direct supervisor. Our experience shows that the quality of this relationship is the greatest determinant of employee morale, and satisfaction. Based on this fact, we believe that the best way to address employee morale, satisfaction, and productivity is to improve the quality of frontline leadership in an organization.

Look at your own organization and analyze the situation. What departments or work teams are the happiest and most productive in your company? Is there a correlation between these high performing groups and the quality of the person leading them? In our experience, the answer is yes.

While there are many aspects of being a great frontline leader, there are three main skills: partnering, performance management, and interpersonal.

Partnering skills are the frontline leader's ability to accurately diagnose the individual competence and motivation levels of his or her direct reports, and then use the appropriate leadership style for the situation. Is the direct report an eager beginner with the task? An overwhelmed employee with moderate skills for the task? Or an experienced veteran who has routinely handled this task successfully in the past? Each of these employees requires a different management style and an effective frontline leader will use partnering skills to diagnose the level of development and then partner with his or her direct report for the best style of leadership for the task.

Performance management skills refer to the effective frontline leader's ability to set clear performance expectations, reward and recognize progress toward goals, and provide negative performance feedback when necessary. Interpersonal skills are the glue that holds it all together. If partnering and performance management skills are what today's frontline leader needs in order to manage effectively, interpersonal skills are how he or she goes about doing it. It is the ability to communicate effectively, listen actively, and maintain each employee's self-esteem while getting the job done. And in today's work environment with more to do, fewer resources, and larger spans of control, it's harder than ever to do it well.

To "move the needle" in your organization, look first to improve the quality of frontline leadership in your company. That will have the greatest impact on improving employee morale, satisfaction, and productivity. If you look at the highest performing teams and departments in your company we're willing to bet that you will find a great frontline leader is a common element of each team. Study closely and we think you'll find a frontline leader with a great combination of partnering, performance management, and interpersonal skills. The right combination of skills gets things done in a way that is mutually satisfying to frontline workers, their immediate supervisors, and the company as a whole.

Don't wait for people to check out in your organization. Don't settle for less. Improve the quality of frontline leadership in your organization today. It's the number one way to improve performance, satisfaction, and morale.

If you'd like to learn more about improving frontline leadership in your organization, please join The Ken Blanchard Companies for a FREE online Webinar.

Wanted: Better Frontline Leadership
Friday, August 13, 2004
9:00 -10:00 a.m. Pacific Time (12:00 -1:00 p.m. Eastern Time)

Today's work environment demands highly skilled frontline supervisors. Dealing with frontline leadership challenges requires mastery of a variety of managerial and interpersonal skills to handle all leadership interactions.

In this Webinar, Blanchard Consulting Partner Patricia Stewart shows you why great frontline leadership is needed now more than ever and how you can improve frontline leadership in your organization today.