Weekly Management Tips
“Everybody can be great You don’t have to have a college degree to serve You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
~ Martin Luther King
When was the last time you got out from behind your desk and just wandered around your department or organization with no particular agenda in mind other than to just talk with the members of your department or staff? It is called MBWA. Never heard the term? Management by walking around.
Don’t have time? Too busy? Too much on your plate? Excuses, excuses! I will guarantee you that the benefits of getting to know your people and letting them know you care about them will go a long way in improving morale, communication and employee performance and this time spent with them will have dramatic indirect positive rewards for you as a manager or business owner.
If you are stuck all day in meetings, conferences, research whatever – I will guarantee stuff is falling through the cracks and you won’t even know it until all h_ _ _ breaks out – a lost customer, vendor or your best employee is just the beginning.
You can’t manage your organization from behind your desk. You can only coach, train, inspect, lead and direct when you are in the presence of your employees.
You would be amazed at how many managers hide behind paperwork, meetings, busy schedules and a variety of other avoidance tactics. I guarantee, if you are not visible to your employees on a regular basis, that you are not in touch with reality.
Being visible allows you to:
- Catch people doing things right and recognize them.
- Catch people doing things wrong and modify behavior through coaching.
- Keep in touch with the reality of your department or organization.
- Be available for questions, concerns or the needs of your employees.
- Find new creative ways to run your department or business.
- Be a sounding board for your employees.
- Send the message to your employees that you care and are interested in them and their jobs.
- Fix things before they break.
- Break things that need to be broken.
- Determine common perceptions that people have about the business, their jobs, customers, etc.
The most effective managers and leaders today get to know their people. They know their frustrations, concerns, questions, beliefs, problems, dreams, goals, strengths and weaknesses. You can’t know any of this barricaded behind piles of reports, non-stop meetings and a heavy workload. The job of a manager is to manage it not do it.
How are you doing these days?