|
|
 Frontline
Leadership can be learned!
Frontline Leadership: Motivate-Inspire-Involve any Group or Team ______________________________________ An Introduction
The next five tutorials will guide you through a five-action process which will start you off on a journey to win the hearts and minds of associates towards long-term focus, learning, and commitments. Importantly, these actions will only complement/continue and not change any programmed or procedural activities you currently execute. http://thankingcustomers.com/cycle6.jpg This five-step course will help you build a "cycle of engagement" between associates, customers (or beneficiaries), and partners alike. Develop a career skill to lead continuous learning, focus, and commitments through daily activities. The five-steps can best be described as a "secondary asking process" and a missing-link in most daily operations. They are activities to lead a group/team in asking (mostly non-verbal) the critical questions for "How are we doing?" from a daily operations perspective. The reason this is so important is that while associates, partners, and even customers receive feedback from colleagues and supervisors/administrators, they also need feedback directly from the activity itself in order to stay fully engaged in the group's efforts. While learning experiences are certainly supported by feedback, it is asking/reflection which most often initiates and continues any learning experience. Leading any group/team of people toward a common goal or objective using a practice of appreciation, participation, reflection, involvement, dialogue and recognition. Whether you are leading a group at school, church, club, or workplace this practice will keep everyone involved and everyone committed to the same objectives. - We will use the following terms to define "others" during this course:
You'll learn how to keep everyone, in any group, on the same page and committed to the same goals or objectives. We call the idea "Frontline Leadership" and basically it is continually striving to lead experiences, foster beliefs, practice actions, and celebrate results through frontline daily activities. Leading situations and moments of truth through daily activities. Please understand this course is not about changing anybody, rather, using activities based on human nature and experiences to lead everyone in the same direction. The five actions which make up the process that continue into the practice are about performing activities with associates and not to associates. My name is George Reavis and I'll be your guide for these 5 tutorials. However, I can't claim all the credit for this big idea - it's roots are from a best practice over a half century old. Rooted in the " entrepreneurial ethic" which links a valuable idea/service/product with those people that benefit from it (customers). Also building a continuous dialogue between those providing products and services and the customers or beneficiaries of those services and products. I hope you're as excited about this course as we were when we were putting it together. Months of work backed by years of experience as an entrepreneur and practitioner have created what I think is a critical career skill for you to involve and self-motivate associates. The " secondary group asking process" ( http://thankingcustomers.com/process.html ) is five action steps to address six principles ( http://thankingcustomers.com/principles.htm ) we believe are necessary to win and maintain the hearts and minds of associates as well as customers and partners. The practice is a simple, back-to-basics approach with a primary cost of time and attention (like most things that keep working on the frontlines of daily activities) rather than money. Over the next five tutorials you will be shown five actions which when executed in sequence will give you a process you can practice to build a career skill to lead any group or team toward their objectives. If you lead/direct/manage any group of people currently or are considering doing so in the future this course will be invaluable (and it is free!). We offer it because more effective groups and teams are beneficial for society, whether they be in schools, churches, associations, workplaces, social clubs, or special interests. An effective group achieves their objectives and makes a contribution, even when the beneficiaries of their efforts are themselves. Effective groups also nurture the human spirit, innovation, cooperation, learning, a sense of purpose, pride, self-motivation and worth. In short, we view effective groups as a win-win-win for group members, beneficiaries, and supporters (including, hopefully, society). If you are considering taking your new career skill to a business enterprise or organizational level we highly suggest our eHandbook Propel Frontline Leaders. The handbook is the "how-to" develop and maintain the practice within any organizational framework. Our coaching tips (CT) throughout this course are references to this handbook for just such a purpose. http://thankingcustomers.com/coursegateway.htm The course is unique because it is rooted in human nature and is user-centered or designed for use in frontline daily activities It is simple enough that its practice is not dependent on previous managerial or leadership experience. Creating continuous learning, focus, and commitments through involvement and self-motivation! By "self-motivation" we mean the ability to get others to motivate themselves from within which is far more lasting than external forces creating a temporary motivation. So that we are all on the same page during this course it is important to define the following terms as follows:
The course is a practice which you as a leader can learn as a career skill and tool for any enterprise. As the name practice implies you learn and get better at it the more you do it. During the course we will define and explain a process consisting of five actions. I have witnessed this practice, first-hand, provide involvement and self-motivation (the lasting kind!) to not only associates of a group/team but also partners and even customers! What follows is a brief introduction, followed by your first Tutorial. Please read from here as there are several important things to do before beginning the course. First though, here's what a couple of our subscribers had to say -----------------------"QUOTES"--------------------------- "I read your course and eHandbook about 4 times since finding it last week. It's so realistic, simple, practical and adaptable that it's brilliant". Thank you, Tom Hanks (unfortunately not the actor) --------------------- "Dear George, Your Course and Team Leadership eHandbook have been incredibly helpful to me and I feel that others might benefit also. Having been promoted for working hard I received all my training on systems and almost nothing on leading people. That part of supervision was a complete shock with many sleepless nights. I now look forward to the people part of my job. I used to feel like the "enforcer" of policies and procedures and a slave driver for performance. With your sequence of actions we all support each other. The whole experience of working through the Free Course and the Leadership Handbook has given me a whole new perspective. I feel confident with a tool for giving everyone what they really want--the ability to participate, be appreciated, and involved in "How are we doing?" as a team and enterprise. I no longer have to prod everyone to stay focused on their daily activities. They are coming to me with questions, opinions, and ideas on how to be better themselves and as a team! <Name removed - anonymity requested> -----------------------"END QUOTES"------------------------ The reasons we spent so long putting the course together 1) I had used the 'best practice' and was amazed by how it kept everyone focused, learning, and committed toward their common goals but since it wasn't a program no one had ever set it up from scratch!
2) Another reason is that I wish I'd had access to a
3) In today's fast paced and global society people's attentions and even intentions are bombarded constantly often leaving little time for even reflection. The rewards are incredible when individuals are provided the opportunity to participate in a group that is focused, learning and committed toward the same goals!
4) Most literature about coordinating a group's efforts is about abstract leadership ideas, do's, don'ts, or managing behaviors and not specific actions one can take "with" their group to lead participation, enjoyment, and commitment. You'll find this course powerful in it's simplicity by presenting five actions which when continued with your group will make achieving results easier and more enjoyable. I want you to be able to lead cooperation and enthusiasm and potential
without getting 'side-tracked' or duped, and without --------------------------------------------------------------- As you may know, or may soon find out as a team leader, winning the hearts and minds of team members can be really difficult. And you must do it not once in a while but every day! Conversely, when you have a practice for involving them it can become a career skill, with practice, AND enjoyable as well!
Our objective is for you to learn a career skill that you can call upon anytime in the future you need to move a group of people toward a common goal or result. A five-step action cycle which can be initiated to keep everyone involved and self-motivated for the long-term.
Sounds like a mammoth task and it can be overwhelming and stressful without taking action to get everyone involved and self-motivated. In fact, in business it has a name--the "caught-in-the-middle syndrome." Frontline managers can learn, focus, and commit to actions for the execution of programs, policies, and procedures to create structure and discipline for their team but often feel it is a constant struggle without the hearts and minds of all their associates. ----------------------------------------------------- How much more effective would you be if everyone's attention was focused on the job in hand? - If everyone is demonstrating their intentions to make commitments and reflecting to learn more, how much better will your group efforts come across and make a leaders job easier? Allowing a leader to play a servant and support role rather than an enforcer and critic role. -------------------------------------------- Welcome to the first Tutorial of your course to motivate-inspire-involve everyone. Over the years here at ThankingCustomers.com, we have helped frontline leaders of enterprises with the people-part of their daily activities. Understanding and taking action on the soft skill issues which are often intangible, non-verbal, and even unconscious. Leading, through daily activities, enterprise relationships and experiences for everyone. Not taking actions to them but with them. Building and maintaining teamwork, service, and collaboration all simultaneously. The reason we're so pleased with this course is because it lets us share what we have learned with you. Allowing you to accept leadership, not with fear and frustration, but with simplicity, enjoyment, confidence, and rewards. -------------- THE COURSE TO MOTIVATE-INSPIRE-INVOLVE EVERYONE (Associates, Customers, and Partners) During the course, you will be asked to do things that might not be a habit or routine. All are simple, back-to-basics, and rooted in human nature. Do not make them a big deal or complicated. If they don't take at first just learn from the experience and try again. We'd like to ask you to JUST TRY IT! Remember that the course and practice is simply for the people-part of your enterprise and does not change a single thing/procedure that you are doing now. One of the things we'll be talking about is that regardless whether you call them managing or leading it is always ACTIONS that get results. Actions create experiences that, in turn, provide valuable learning to grow interests, confidence, challenge, and skills. The sequence of actions:
And, if you are serious about maintaining involvement and self-motivation in others, you do not change a single thing you are doing now (number one rule). Rather use the following actions to look for ways to complement what you are already doing. Provide associates the opportunity to ask themselves (mostly non-verbal) "How are we doing?" We will introduce you to each of the five actions, in sequence, and give you ways to implement them. As this is not a program it should not come with timetables, budgets, meetings, schedules, or even announcements. Simply look for ways to lead (introduce) the steps into your daily activities solely for the benefit of you, your group members, and those who you serve or provide benefit to. Keep in mind the five actions can each foster multiple activities and become greater as they continue to cycle http://thankingcustomers.com/process.html I compare the "human nature" physics here to that of a large stone flywheel which takes practice and effort at first to begin rotating but as it builds momentum it takes very little effort to keep going. Another analogy would be to that of an old-fashioned hand water well pump-- http://thankingcustomers.com/waterpump.htm 15 MINUTES A WEEK for something that could radically change your life for the better. Worth it? We think so. -------------- OK, so on to the nitty-gritty! This is the way the course goes together. Tutorial 1 (this one) : A process (set of actions) that begins and re-starts
with THANKING -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2005 George Reavis - george@thankingcustomers.com |
|
