Taking a Bite out of the Middle

When a company wants to increase their profitability, they often turn to the frontline. Senior management takes a look at the KPIs, quickly identifying their best performers. To achieve the quickest, most positive results, they push those top employees to work even harder.

This philosophy may seem to make a lot of sense. After all, why wouldn’t you use your most engaged, motivated staff members to shore up slumping sales figures?

The problem with this is that the company’s success rests solely on the shoulders of only those top employees. Why should they be the only ones responsible? What about the rest of your work force?

Think of your frontline staff in terms of a bell graph. The majority of your employees (60 – 70%), the core, make up the high curve in the middle. At either end are the lowest performers and the top employees, about 15% each of the total work force. If you are only relying on 15% of your staff to do the job of all, then you are paying for a lot of dead weight.

Here’s a new concept: work on developing those average performers which make up the bulk of your frontline staff. Effective coaching methodology moves those average employees to the end of the bell curve – taking a big bite right out of the middle.

The key to turning average employees into top performers lies in how they are managed. Top performers are already exhibiting the appropriate behaviours to achieve success and showing the desired results so they need little direction other than an occasional affirmation. Core employees require a different style of management.

Observe both groups and it will quickly become apparent what those critical behaviours are that separate the two types of employees. This is the first step in coaching – identifying those activities that the average employees have not adopted.

The second part of coaching focuses on leading staff members in a way that encourages the use of these critical behaviours and develops consistency. Those activities that place an employee at the top end of the bell curve should become second nature to core staffers. It takes timely, consistent, and motivational coaching in order to turn that average frontline employee into a top performer.

Effective management of the frontline results in the company’s bell curve changing for the better. Move that high average worker percentage in the middle curve to the tail end. This is one of the best ways an organisation can achieve higher profitability, better KPIs, and increased employee satisfaction and engagement.

For more tips on helping your average employees turn into top performers see my blog http://www.frontlineleadership.com
James Brava is a specialist in Frontline Leadership which results in significant improvement in employee engagement and business performance.