Good leadership skills are important in any role and have many benefits. Leadership isn't just about managing people and performance. Frontline workers can, and often do, exhibit leadership skills every day and everywhere.
Leadership isn’t just a title. You don’t have to be a manager, a CEO or business owner to be a leader.
What is everyday leadership?
The importance of leadership skills in frontline workers
Leadership skills and behaviours help the workforce:
- use their initiative, make decisions and make things happen.
- inspire others to do the best job possible and make a positive difference.
- take responsibility for their actions and their own wellbeing.
- speak up with ideas to improve services and raise any concerns about poor practice.
- support others and work together.
For the manager, there are many benefits of a workforce displaying strong leadership skills. These can include:
- an engaged and confident team who feel trusted and valued in their roles
- improved retention rates – a happy workforce means a lower staff turnover
- reduced time spent managing staff performance
- help to evidence actions towards key lines of enquiry
- ultimately, those who need care and support receiving a better quality of care.
'Leadership starts with me'
We’ve created five short films to support the development of leadership skills in frontline workers. The films can be used in 1:1 supervisions or as a group exercise.
Access the films and guidance
Ideas to promote leadership skills in frontline workers
Recognising and rewarding leadership skills is one way of ensuring that the value of leadership skills becomes embedded within your organisation. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Awards – recognise those workers who display strong leadership skills on a monthly wall of fame.
- Team member of the month – invite team members and people who access the service to nominate their colleagues who show strong leadership skills.
- Additional responsibilities – consider different roles workers might be interested in undertaking for example; champion roles or becoming mentors.
- Additional continuing professional development – support keen workers to access additional training opportunities or to go on learning visits for topics they are interested in.