Management By Walking Around (MBWA)

I have recently been reminded of the effectiveness of this style of management, once when I was a customer in a restaurant watching the manager doing his MBWA and again this week when reviewing the management style and practice of a particularly impressive coaching client of mine.

The background to the theory:

The management consultants Tom Peters and Robert H Waterman used the term Management By Walking Around in their 1982 book In Search of Excellence: lessons from America’s best-run companies.

The concept is of an unstructured management style, where the manager wanders around the workplace to check with employees how the work is going, connects with customers, watches how the equipment is working or performs general checks.

The purpose of MBWA is to listen, question, observe and keep your finger on the pulse of the organisation. I adopted this style of management following my attendance on a management skills course in the early 1990’s and I found it worked for me. Previously, I’d kept one to one’s as formal discussions but I found I was much more “on the ball” and alert using the MBWA style.

Anyway, I’ll tell you about how inspired I was working with my coaching client this week.

Who is he? – Lee Bosley, Underwoods Town & County, Northampton

Lee is the Lettings Director of Underwoods Town & County, a Northamptonshire based business focused on high end property sales and rental. Lee and his team sit in the front office and their job is a varied, stimulating, interesting and reactive one – they never know when a prospective or existing customer may walk in, or what the person’s query may be.

Over his eight years working at Underwoods, Lee has developed – without the theory – his management style of Management By Walking Around.

Here are some of Lee’s MBWA practices:

Watch and Listen

Lee likes to take in everything around him. He has a young team and they have thousands of permutations to learn and it can take years to gain the experience. Lee says “None of us know what might happen…it could be a tenant who is upset with an arrears letter or a landlord upset because a tenant isn’t paying their rent…so I need to be aware of what my people are saying.”.

By observing his people, Lee can advise staff on their wording on the phone, provide coaching in the here and now and provide immediate feedback. He can also pick up on motivation. “Sometimes, you have a run of anxious or upset people and it can affect you. I am there for the celebrations and to encourage them to take time out when they need to talk to recover from emotion.”

Ask Questions

MBWA means we have the opportunity to observe those “moments of truth” when observing how our staff interact with our clients. Lee facilitates the self-learning of his staff by encouraging them to think about their actions.

“What do you think about how the form is completed?”

“What might the implications be in not having the keys ready for the client?”

“Could you have said anything different then?”

“What is the next step?”

He finds this enables him to map out where development needs are and what his staff are achieving.

Have fun

Lee likes to have a relaxed office. “Customers come in, so we need to look professional but also we need to be approachable. We’ve been given the feedback that the atmosphere in our office is happy by many of our clients. That’s what I want.”

Lee says he likes to be informal with his staff.  “I can be friendly but I’m not your friend”. This means he can maintain a friendly relationship, however he is the manager. “We have a laugh about things…often it might be learning opportunities to release tension…however I take care never to be disrespectful to a client as I don’t want to role model that…”. Lee says he is careful things don’t get out of control and just states “OK…back to work everyone.”.

 

In another blog I will introduce three more techniques of MBWA however my summary is that I often work with managers who are remote and distant from what their staff do on a daily basis. It can make one to ones and formal appraisals a challenge. Adopting the MBWA approach means “I can know exactly what’s happening…and be there to support.” (Lee Bosley). That finger on the pulse again.

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