Senior executives and nonexecutive managers are unhappy with the performance of their companies’ frontline managers, according to a McKinsey survey.¹ The low level of satisfaction, the results indicate, stems from the way frontline managers’ jobs are structured and from inadequate training, not merely a lack of skills on the part of frontline managers.

Other McKinsey work has shown that empowering frontline managers to make decisions, anticipate problems, and coach their direct reports (rather than simply following and giving orders and solving crises) generates higher productivity and other benefits.² However, the results of this survey indicate that most companies do not enable frontline management to focus on the right priorities and become more productive. Respondents say the most common role for frontline managers consists merely of performing assigned tasks, identifying and fixing problems, and successfully confronting unexpected, everyday challenges or crises as they arise (Exhibit 1). Only 11 percent say their companies’ frontline-management roles are structured so that managers focus on coaching and developing their direct reports.

Further, while frontline employees receive extensive training and development, their managers—who may have had no previous experience leading others—do not. At all levels, executives believe that the little training they do receive fails to prepare them to take on leadership roles successfully.