Three fundamental impediments to developing leadership are
spending time on the wrong function,
putting the wrong person in a position, and
spending too much time with draggers.
Ray Attiyah
We spend a lot of time talking and writing about leadership and about teams. We spend precious little talking about the link between these two groups, the managers, and how this all fits together.
Ray Attiyah’s new book, “The Fearless Front Line” gives us a model, and everyone’s favorite topic, the data we need to bridge the gaps to help our people and our companies grow and go into the future.
Ray focuses on his patented R-I-G system. These stand for the components of business: Run, Improve and Grow. These are the methods by which companies get things done, innovate and mature. According to Attiyah, our front lines, the people who have either face-to-face dealings with the customers, or the people responsible for making our products and services are disheartened and demoralized by mismanagement. And this is behavior they pick up from our managers who are discouraged and lack innovative drive and energy because they are locked into being part of the front line dysfunction.
If our managers, for any number of reasons which are outlined in the book are caught up in the everyday running chaos, who then is left to improve processes, expand products, and really enhance customer service?
This Gordian knot of stagnant business behavior can only be unraveled by empowering people. And that’s what this book aims to teach us. How to empower ourselves and others. Empower leaders to make good decisions. Empower managers to grow and become leaders and innovators. And most of all, to empower the front line workers to believe in themselves, their products and their services.
Ray provides us with a step-wise set of instructions on how to transform our team’s focus, remove the daunting and paralyzing fear of the future, expose and eliminate the dead weight that drags everyone down, and remove the superfluous, dead-end and non-productive practices that hold our companies and our people back from raising and stepping up to the proverbial bar of excellence.
Ray’s book gives us a system of observation, evaluation and concrete suggestions in how to develop and maintain forward momentum. All of the information in this book can be easily translated to any and every industry. RIG will work to get you to that next level of performance whether you are making and selling widgets, running an RV factory, manning a laundry business, or delivering medical care in a busy Emergency Room.
Feeling stuck?
Here’s a handbook on how to take the next step forward as leaders, managers, front line workers and individuals, so that everyone in your organization can say, “I own this!” When people have a stake in something they give their best effort. They also make sure their peers up and down the line are supported in giving their best as well. With the right members on you now appropriately focused team, you can once again enjoy and concentrate on the real reason you do what you do, grow.
Ray Attiyah is an entrepreneur with 17 businesses. He is an innovator who developed the Run-Improve-Grow™, a management system that ensures that everyone in the organization is trusted and equipped to excel in their most valuable role. The system has top leaders focusing on finding avenues for new growth, while middle managers implement proactive improvements. The front line, meanwhile, own, manages and leads the daily operations of the company. Ray is also the Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Definity Partners, a hands-on training, process, and leadership improvement firm.
Related articles
[…] I am/ was a backup writer, a bench-warmer. Earlier this week, I ran a book review on “The Fearless Front Line“ by Ray Attiyah. And these two things have blended together quite fortuitously for […]