I was about to sleep already last night when I felt the urge to check on one of the sites (The POC or The Philippine Online Chronicles) where I'm a contributing writer. One of the latest articles posted caught my eye and moved me to click it so I can read it in full. It was about the Top Peraisipan Reads for 2013. Our editors usually post this kind of article at the start of each new year and I have been blessed in the past years including this year because I usually have one article that's included in this list.
What makes the past year extra special for me is the fact that I didn't contribute a lot of articles especially in the latter part of the year since I had been busy with my latest book Breastfeeding: A Journey Worth Taking. So, this piece of good news is indeed a wonderful blessing from God last night. It inspired and encouraged me to contribute still to this site in spite of my busyness.
My prayer is that God would continue to enable me to write good articles that will inspire and empower my readers.
Here is the article that landed on the top spot of Peraisipan's Top 2013 Reads.
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Management by Walking Around
I learned and experienced MBWA (Management by Walking/Wandering Around) in my first job as a Management Trainee in the restaurant industry. I was fresh out of college and it was something new to me. I was more knowledgeable of other management principles. But I’m grateful that I was exposed to this style of management early on for it made a lot of difference in my career as a manager and as a leader eventually.
I remember one of my mentors then. She had a keen eye for details and the moment that she arrived in our store, it’was like her radar is on. She would greet the people in the team, go around the store and in a matter of minutes, I’d notice that she already had a lot of items listed in her small notebook. I also observed that it was a fun way of discovering what work needed to be done and finding solutions to problems. I used to wonder how she did that until she shared this and some of her tips to all of us members of her management team in one of our meetings. In fact, she made it a policy in our store (branch) to close the office at certain periods of the day so that all the managers are on the floor or in the work areas interacting with the team members and walking around with a purpose. Then, I started walking in her shoes. Slowly but surely, I got to pick up the skill of managing by walking around or wandering around. And guess what? I started to see the things that I didn’t notice before.
What does it really mean? Do you just really walk around? How does this help one become a better manager?
BusinessDictionary.com defines Management by Walking Around or (MBWA) as unstructured approach to hands-on, direct participation by the managers in the work-related affairs of their subordinates. According to this website, managers who practice MBWA spend a significant amount of their time making informal visits to work areas and listening to employees with the purpose of collecting qualitative information, listening to suggestions and complaints, and keeping a finger on the pulse of the organization.
So, managers don’t just walk around without purpose or talk to employees for the sake of being seen with them. Having conversations with them is not an end in itself. Walking or wandering around is simply a tool or management style to find out the concerns of the people in their organization, solicit suggestions and solutions, and gain insight on how to better manage the people in the team or in the organization as a whole.
Let me share some benefits of practicing this management style.
It’s a morale booster because through this practice, the manager makes his/her people feel important, valued and heard. When the manager or the boss stops to greet and chat with an employee, it’s like telling the employee non-verbally “I’m not too busy to notice you or care to find out how you are in your job.” “I’m not too busy to listen to your concerns, suggestions or ideas.”
Click here to read the full article.
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