The Fearless Front Line by Ray Attiyah - Book review

The Fearless Front Line

The Key to Liberating Leaders to Improve and Grow Their Business

By: Ray Attiyah

Published: March 5, 2013
Forward: Hardcover, 240 pages
ISBN-10: 193713461X
ISBN-13: 978-1937134617
Publisher: Bibliomotion










"Imagine a workplace that is free from stress of managers and staff always finding problems but rarely acting on solutions, a workplace where teams establish and agree on clear standards of excellence, and a workplace where people are encouraged to propose ideas and make them realities", writes training and leadership developer, speaker, and founder and CEO of Definity Partners, Ray Attiyah, in his empowering and company culture changing book The Fearless Front Line: The Key to Liberating Leaders to Improve and Grow Their Business. The author describes how as companies mature, the number of systems, processes, and tendency to over manage and lead less becomes the norm, and offers a complete blueprint to change this control and fear based model with one that empowers both leaders and front line staff to achieve real organizational growth.

Ray Attiyah recognizes that as companies advance in their life cycle, distractions grow in the form of systems and processes that become the focus of the organization. As these systems and processes increase in number and complexity, leaders rely on them more as a safety net to prevent mistakes. The author points out that instead of leading and growing the company, leaders become more fearful and concerned with micromanaging their front line employees. To counter this organizational tendency toward over managing and under leading, Ray Attiyah offers his Run-Improve-Grow model to maintain relevance, stimulate innovation, and spur new company growth.



Ray Attiyah (photo left) understands that to implement the Run-Improve-Grow model effectively, leaders must give up their temptation to control company operations. Leaders must instead focus on the main objective of company growth as the big picture, and empower front line employees to have a sense of ownership of their roles.

The principles of the R-I-G model zero in on establishing excellence, empowering employees, and transforming leaders into fearless agents for growth. Ray Attiyah proposes the following steps for achieving Run-Improve-Grow model as the foundation of a new and empowered company culture where people take ownership of their roles:

* Run: Creating a fearless front line
* Improve: Liberating leaders to do their best work
* Grow: Blazing a trail for growth

For me, the power of the book is how Ray Attiyah combines an efficient and effective framework for improving leadership, empowering front line employees, and for changing the company culture, with the practical steps to reach that new standard of excellence. The author identifies the challenge facing leadership, establishes the easily understood principles of the Run-Improve-Grow model, and provides the techniques and practices to put it into practice. With the holistic focus of the Run-Improve-Grow model, leaders are empowered to lose their fear of bad situations, stop micromanaging their front line people, and to concentrate on growing the company.

Ray Attiyah emphasizes the importance of changing attitudes from one of fear and control to one of trust, empowerment, and a sense of ownership. To help guide leaders through the book, the author includes many illustrative graphics to better understand the concepts, and each chapter includes a section of takeaways to review the chapter quickly, and to facilitate ease of future reference. The author also includes real world examples of the principles in action to offer more background and context for the practical value of the Run-Improve-Grow model.

I highly recommend the comprehensive and leadership building book The Fearless Front Line: The Key to Liberating Leaders to Improve and Grow Their Business by Ray Attiyahm, to any leaders seeking a clear and concise road map toward ending the fear, unnecessary and redundant systems and over management that suffocate the growth potential of their organization. This book will free up leaders to devote their time improving growth opportunities, empower front line employees to take the attitude that they run the place, and to move ahead of the competition.