MBWA - management by walking about...

i had worked for a plant manager who rarely ever go down to the shopfloor unless there was a crisis. One fine day, an important machine broke down and he rushed down quickly leaving me and others gasping for air to follow him . First and foremost in his mind was to find out WHO did it. When he reached the machine, no one was around. Scanning the surroundings, he saw a man sitting on the floor leaning on the wall at the back of the machine, about 10m away, puffing away on a ciggie. He approached the man and screamed "why are you sitting down and smoking here?". The man replied "who are you to tell me this?". Taken by surprised of the answer, he picked out his name pass from his pocket and showed it to the man and said "i'm Hashim". The man replied "What's the big deal! I got that too" and took out his. Realising that the man did not recognise him and feeling a bit embarassed as we are now gathered around him, he left.

I believe that you must always do your rounds, show your friendly face, pat people on their backs or in short, show that you care for them. Earn your respect this way...not by creating fear and showing off your authority. People will respect you if you respect them first. You'll be surprised that this simple activity and gesture will increase the morale of your employees and ultimately your team's productivity and quality.....

COWBOY MANAGEMENT

I've coined this term after observing that this rampant style resembles the way cowboys look after their herds. Imagine this 'cowboy on horse with lasso' going to his staffs, shooting his gun, announcing his grand entry (for so-called respect) carrying work (which he's just found that he's not able to do by himself) and start chasing after anyone in his sight, lassoing them before slaughtering them.

I have seen them at many levels - there are top level cowboys, middle management cowboys - and many of their victims as the cows, boy!

They thought they could prosper like the real cowboys (not the one in the movies though)? Not a chance....many of these 'cows' would escape or get transfered or resign, once they realise that their bosses are actually 'cowboys'. However, due to high supply of cows in the job market, the cowboys wouldn't feel there is a disparity between him and his cows. But he'd found out so when the day he would be promoted (due to seniority nonetheless) that none of his staffs (because they are always new cows!) are ready to fill up his current position. Some ended up not getting promoted, but the lucky cowboys could be, leaving a huge gap between him and his cows (e.g General Manager with Assistant Cow...ooops Manager).....

Yeah, most of these cowboys always seem to be lucky in their life......as evident in my finding many of them at the top......YEE-HAW......

Bet you are familiar with this scenario - i had the experience seeing a factory manager do this to one of the operators and I also saw the flying object hit his head...

From that day onwards, production output immediately plummeted, quality problems surfaced out of nowhere....company could not fulfill its orders...customers kept complaining...and the manager, under tremendous pressure, had to resign. I covered for him and within 2 months things went back to normal...the boss asked me what and how did i do it? I just smiled and told him its something that they do not teach at college. One lesson is, never ever do this in a factory environment (at least)
To the manager: You'd have thought that you could get away with it? you did not realise how big the implications turned out to be? Was it worth it?...........running people..:))

running people....how not to...

people...there are many types of people in this world...physically, spiritually, culturally, characterwise, they are never ever similar to one another.....

running people (or in the modern professional term, managing human capital) has never been and will never ever be easy to do. In fact, to me at least, it is THE hardest function of all when compared against managing for other resources or areas. If we can do this well enough...more than half the battle would be won.

many managers (or are they 'runners'??) fail to take note of its importance and learn to address them properly. Needless to say, most fail miserably in all that they do. This not only lead them to failure at their personal or inter-personal levels but would be led eventually, to an even catastrophic consequences to the organisation.

this blog would contain my original thoughts mostly gained from my many years of experiences in dealing with all sorts of people, be they at work, play and maybe at home too. I will start by writing on "how not to 'run people'" and be a success!!