Joepster Blog Goodness

Sorry for the one liner blog yesterday. I started it and then got caught up in making my flickr photo of the day and thought about just marking the day on here to mark the final curtain call of two great entertainers.

Anyway, that’s done, and here I am ending another day.
I had just come from a two day leadership training for managers. I’d love to post all my key learning here, but I won’t. If you want it, you gotta be a leader in my company to get it. The content of the training is very relevant to the success of a leader and I am very happy to have received this kind of training for FREE. A lot of folks pay big money for this kind of thing and I am so grateful for the chance to learn and be given this particular tool for success. I just hope that I will be able to execute the plans that I now have in place.

I won’t be sharing the course, but here are a few thoughts that I had during the training (I hope my team is reading this!) I hope as well, that you would find this helpful. Call it paying forward.

We all know this leadership tool: MBWA or Management by Walking Around, right? If you don’t, it’s a pretty common practice. Leaders are expected to walk the floor and spend time with their people, and not isolate themselves in their offices/cubicles/workstations/Starbucks reading their emails. As a leader, you are expected to be with your direct reports and give them the support they need.
The funny thing is, a lot of leaders actually end up walking AWAY instead of being where they should be. We joked about it in class how MBWA can mean the total opposite, but it stuck in my head because it is a reality for some leaders and they don’t even realize it.
If you’re a leader on the floor, ask yourself these questions:
1) Where am I when my direct report needs a document to be signed?
2) Where am I when my direct report wants to raise an issue about their pay?
3) Where am I when my direct reports are requested to do overtime?
4) Where am I when my direct reports have failing scores/sales numbers/quotas?
5) Where am I when my direct reports fail to come to work on time?
6) Where am I when my direct report is seeking personal advice?
7) Where am I when my direct report succeeds?
8 ) Where am I when my direct report struggles with a certain process or methodology?
9) Where am I when I see my team’s performance is heading anywhere but north?
10) Will my direct reports know where I am when my boss looks for me?

If your answer is anywhere near the “they will know where to find me” or the “What kind of question is that? I am always with them! I even know how often they go to the bathroom!” (Stalker! ) Well, if you know you’re there, good. That’s 1/4 of the skill! You still have 3 parts to go:

1) When you’re there, are you sure you’re interacting with them? You can be physically present, but your mind is still far, far away from where it should be.
When you tell your team that you will be there, make sure your mind is present as well. Your direct reports need more than a warm body on the floor.
2) Now that you’re physically and mentally there, are you using the proper tools to engage with your agents to make your presence useful? A lot of leaders would often have coaching sessions and feel that they have “prepared” themselves for it only to find in the end that they have wasted both their time and their direct report’s time. It takes more to it than saying “I have the tools.” You have to know WHAT tools to use and most importantly and which leads to the last piece of the puzzle:
3) You have to know HOW to use those tools and be EFFECTIVE in using them. There are a lot of interventions out there that a leader can do to bring their teams to success. But this last bit takes the longest time to master. When you want to Manage By Walking Around – you have to be there, know what intervention to use (ie: side by side, skill transfer, giving immediate feedback) and know how to do all these effectively. All of your effort will be in vain and it (this will sound harsh) might be better for you to walk away because it is all a game of “much ado about nothing at this point.”

So I challenge you leaders out there to take MBWA seriously and not just treat it as a common management tool. It is not as simple as you think. There will be a lot of stumbling blocks before you can make this as effective as you want it to be, but don’t give up. As our trainer said, “Practice makes PERMANENT!” (Sounds so wrong without the “perfect” huh?) but the permanency of this best practice is what you need to seek to make you successful.

I am officially a geek. 8-D

*disclaimer* These are all just thoughts and ideas that have challenged me into making my leadership skills better. If you found anything of value here, by all means use it. If you find anything wrong, feel free to comment and bring up your points. I am not a John Maxwell. Just an open and willing learner.