When Should Client-Facing Employees Be Leaders?

Leadership Coaching Notes August 2009

When Should Client-Facing Employees Be Leaders?

Blake’s client service team was talented and dedicated, but he lamented that they needed to be more “aggressive” about serving customers and helping to build new business. “They need to be leaders!” When I asked what that meant, we discovered 3 practices you may find help your team add more value as well.

1. Ask for Forgiveness not Permission: Blake’s staff colored inside the lines. They followed procedures and rules – to a fault. Blake explained that company procedures were intended to help them improve customer loyalty and business results. In the current economy, he was certain some rules and policies were outdated. He defined broader opportunities for “discretionary judgment” and asked staff to stretch, get creative, help discover and make changes that produced both happier customers and stronger business value – obviously within limits of ethics and acceptable risk.

What You Can Do: Yes, We Can Handle That: Check: How clearly and consistently do you ask service staff for new leadership behavior? How recently have you asked them for examples of choices they made that improved both customer satisfaction and business results?

Make your vision for new leadership clear, give examples and explain compelling benefits for changing. Define limits clearly, too. Then, encourage new efforts to act like the entrepreneurs you want them to be. Invite those who succeed to share new “best practices” with your team so all learn and see your commitment to empowering new effectiveness.

If they overstep company limits, correct those practices quickly, but keep encouraging their leadership, too.

2. Ask for the Other Half: Blake had fallen into old habits that hurt him, his team and their results. He’d become a “leader” by showing others his good ideas and creative problem solving abilities. Unfortunately, when his staff brought concerns and issues to his attention, he kept using his proven skills instead of developing theirs.
He learned to consistently ask for “the other half” of a problem or complaint – a possible solution. He helped them identify both the source of issues and their recommendations for change.

What You Can Do: Give It Your Best Shot: Check: When staff brings a problem or opportunity to you, how quickly do you seize and address it yourself? Stop, stay quiet and ask, “What’s your best shot at a solution for this? If you were in charge, how would you handle this?”

Use complaints and concerns as opportunities to coach your staff to think and act like entrepreneurial leaders. Ask questions, offer possibilities, and support them to take the ball and give it their best shot… not yours. Cheer on all successes.

3. Turn It Upside Down: Blake’s organization chart showed frontline service providers at the bottom so it was easy for them to believe they were to follow those “above” them. He turned his chart upside down to show “Customers” at the top, service people next and senior leaders at the bottom.

He explained that senior leaders share ultimate accountability for advancing customer loyalty and building value in the business. Blake therefore asked his staff to act like leaders, find opportunities to improve beyond what they could control, figure out what needed to change, and then challenge him to convince senior executives to help provide distinguished customer service. He asked them to operate like the future of the whole business depended on them…it did.

What You Can Do: Be a Leader with Your Peers: Check: When do you assume you can’t change things and go along with the status quo?    Choose to lead on behalf of the people who cope with the impact of executives’ “silo mentality” every day. Ask staff to tell you what procedures and misalignment hurt customer service. Tell them what you will do to help and follow through.

Accept accountability for improving alignment and optimizing the contributions of senior leaders to improve client experiences in value-creating ways. You may need to tune up your political and influencing skills, but your leadership can improve results and will win lasting gratitude from staff and clients.

Business Impact

Client feedback and retention metrics slowly rose. Recruiting became easier, too. Service staff learned the skills of entrepreneurial leaders – ok, after Blake learned to listen well, coach them effectively, allow more risk than he or they were at first comfortable with taking, support them even when new ideas failed, give them all the credit when they succeeded and lead more powerfully himself. One win at a time, the “bottom of the chart” became service people with an “attitude,” a really good one.

What’s Next

If your team includes frontline service providers who are not yet delivering the potential value you want and you’d like to find ways to help them improve, please contact me. I am happy to assist you to think through your situation and options to improve. If you are working to develop leaders facing this challenge, tell them they are welcome to call as well. First calls are always free.

Liked the article? Didn’t like it? Have any questions? Drop me a line mkimbell@corporateadventure.com. I’d love to hear from you!

All the best,

Meredith Kimbell
Executive Advisor,Strategy Consultant
Corporate Adventure

Leadership Coaching Notes uses real or composite client examples drawn from 25 years of coaching and consulting with leaders committed to solving their toughest personal, interpersonal and organizational issues.
Unless otherwise attributed, all material is copyrighted by Meredith Kimbell © 2011. All rights reserved. You may reprint any or all of this material if you include the following:
“Leadership Coaching Notes © 2011 Meredith Kimbell, Corporate Adventure, Reston, VA. Used with permission.”