In the service industry, the people on the ground are not simply part of the operation.
They are the operation.
They are the ones showing up every day to provide clean, safe, reliable service. They interact with the client. They solve problems in real time. They represent your standards when no one from corporate is in the room.
They are the face of your company.
Ultimately, their performance, professionalism, and image can determine whether a service contract is renewed—or whether the client starts looking for a new vendor.
That’s why I believe one of the primary responsibilities of upper management and corporate support departments is exactly that: to support the people in the field.
Make sure they have serviceable uniforms.
Make sure they have the supplies and equipment needed to do their jobs effectively.
Make sure they receive the training and communication they need to succeed.
And most importantly, make sure they are paid accurately and on time.
These may sound like basic expectations. They are. But when organizations fail at the basics, the employees on the ground are usually the first ones to feel it.
People will stay when they feel supported, appreciated, respected, and—most importantly—valued.
They will leave just as quickly when they don’t.
Never treat frontline employees as expendable. Never adopt the mentality of, “There are more where they came from. I can always find someone else.”
You may find another employee, but replacing experience, reliability, institutional knowledge, and trust comes at a cost.
Treat your people with respect. Treat them as valued members of the team.
And listen to them.
When I was in the Marine Corps, we had a saying:
“If you want to know what’s going on, ask a private. They know everything.”
There is a lot of truth in that.
The people doing the work every day see things senior leadership often doesn’t. They know where processes break down. They know what clients are saying. They know what equipment isn’t working, what procedures don’t make sense, and what could be done better.
When they raise concerns about what is happening on the ground, leadership has a responsibility to listen, understand the obstacles they are facing, and act.
Because accountability has to work both ways.
We expect our people to deliver. They should be able to expect leadership to give them what they need to do so.
Leadership isn’t simply about setting expectations and holding people accountable for results. It’s also about being accountable for the environment in which those results are expected to be achieved.
That means ensuring the right infrastructure, resources, processes, and support are in place for people to succeed—and taking responsibility when they are not.
And when we talk about providing the right infrastructure, we have to understand that infrastructure is about quality, not simply quantity. From an operational standpoint, simply adding more people does not automatically improve performance or solve long standing issues. You have to identify where the organization is breaking down and put the right people, with the right experience, authority, and accountability, in the right positions to address those gaps. Simply adding bodies to an inefficient structure may temporarily relieve pressure, but it does not solve the underlying problem—it puts a bandage over it. Effective leadership builds infrastructure with purpose. Every position should have a clear responsibility, every layer of management should add value, and every resource should ultimately make it easier for the people on the ground to deliver the level of service we expect.
Hold your people accountable. But leadership must be held accountable, too.
Because at the end of the day, without the people doing the work, the company doesn’t exist.
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