Boosting Frontline Performance: Ben Eubanks Highlights Purpose, Trust, and Growth

In a recent LinkedIn post, Ben Eubanks explores how organizations can move beyond viewing their frontline employees as replaceable, instead focusing on strategies that enhance performance, productivity, and retention. Eubanks uses examples from three distinct companies to illustrate how cultivating purpose, fostering trust, and enabling internal growth can significantly impact the frontline workforce.

Eubanks opens by posing a critical question about employee perception: “If your frontline feels replaceable, they’ll act like it.” He emphasizes that this perception is not an abstract concept but a tangible driver of employee behavior and organizational outcomes.

“Purpose-driven work is the ultimate hedge against burnout.”

The first case study Eubanks highlights is Scripps Health, where the Mercy Outreach Surgical Team’s long-standing commitment to delivering care across borders serves as a powerful example of purpose-driven work. As Ben Eubanks notes, this mission extends beyond physicians to include nurses and support staff, signaling that their work contributes to something larger than daily tasks. This connection to a greater purpose, according to Eubanks, is key to enduring challenging workdays and acts as a vital defense against burnout.

Fostering Trust Through Autonomy

The second example comes from UScellular, which transformed its retail operations by empowering employees. Previously, frontline staff had to escalate even minor customer issues through multiple approval layers, leading to inefficiency and a sense of disempowerment. Eubanks explains how UScellular removed this friction by granting employees the autonomy to resolve customer issues within a defined financial threshold.

According to Ben Eubanks, this shift led to measurable improvements in both productivity and customer experience. More importantly, it instilled a sense of trust among employees. “Our data show that flexibility in frontline roles comes down to control and autonomy,” Eubanks writes, advocating for a management style that defines responsibilities but allows employees flexibility in execution.

“Tell your people what they are responsible for, but leave the ‘how’ up to them.”

Cultivating Internal Mobility and Growth

The third organization featured is Chipotle Mexican Grill, which tackled its significant manager turnover problem by changing its hiring strategy. Ben Eubanks highlights their decision to cease external hiring for manager positions and instead focus on promoting from within.

This approach, as Eubanks details, required leaders to be held accountable for developing their existing staff. The immediate positive impact stemmed from a clear signal to employees: the company offered a viable career path with opportunities for advancement. “If you want to retain your frontline, show them a path that doesn’t lead to a dead end,” Eubanks argues, underscoring the importance of visible internal growth opportunities.

“This isn’t a job with a ceiling.”

Addressing the Execution Gap

Eubanks acknowledges the inherent difficulty in consistently implementing these strategies, even though the underlying principles are not new. He points out that leaders are often bogged down by administrative tasks, approvals, and manual work, which detracts from their ability to focus on reinforcing purpose, enabling trust, and building internal mobility.

This is where, in Eubanks’s view, technology solutions like Cue from Fountain can play a role. He suggests that such tools can remove operational friction, freeing up leaders to concentrate on these critical people-centric initiatives. Eubanks posits that these platforms can actively help build plans to achieve objectives and execute steps at scale, enabling innovative practices rather than hindering them.

Ultimately, Ben Eubanks concludes by urging leaders to consider the most valuable use of their frontline managers’ time. “So here’s the real question: If you could give your frontline leaders 30 minutes back every week, where would they invest it? Doing more busy work, or building trust and connection?” he asks. The answer, Eubanks suggests, reveals the true nature of the organization being built.