Celebrate Managers – Boss’s Day 2020

 

If ever there were a year where we needed an excuse to celebrate, it’s 2020. Our world has been turned upside down. We’ve all been thrown by the pandemic into work and life situations we weren’t prepared for by the pandemic.  

Last month we wrote a blog about Management by Walking Around – the concept introduced in the 1980s by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman in their book, In Search of Excellence. “How’s that working for you?” as Dr. Phil would ask. When we wrote the award-winning book, The Manager’s Answer Book, one piece of advice we offered for managing remote workers was to use technology. Let’s take a pause on that for a moment.  We’re all weary and stressed from screen time and Zoom meetings these days. If we can’t walk around (managers and employees alike), and if we’re stressed from technology overuse, maybe it’s time to return to some other old-school methods of engaging. 

I remember the year I joined the corporate HR team in a Fortune 500 company. That holiday season I was stunned to receive a holiday card from our vice president. We lived and worked on different coasts and didn’t have much daily interaction. It wasn’t the card itself that touched me; rather, it was the personal note he took the time to write. Every year thereafter I received a card with a note, as did every member of the staff.  The note was either something about a work project or a personal event that he was aware of.  All these years later, I can still remember what some of those notes said. Talk about a motivator and a real leadership quality.

A personal, hand-written note to staff members is a powerful way to keep them engaged. With texts and emails and social media, we’ve lost the art of letter writing. Time to pick it back up. Another old-school method is to simply pick up the telephone and have a one-on-one conversation. It doesn’t have to be long. Just take the time to check in, ask how someone is doing, and mention something positive about their work. 

Of course, this works both ways. Team members should recognize that their bosses are stressed these days as well. If there were ever a year bosses needed to hear how appreciated  they are, it’s 2020. Being a manager is hard work, and being a great boss is even harder. Normally, we’d advise doing something festive for Boss’s Day, which is this Friday, October 16; but remote work and social distancing take away the options of decorating offices and having team lunches. What if everyone sent cards to the boss’s home, or ordered a pizza lunch for the boss and their family? If you want to send them a gift, consider a copy of The Manager’s Answer Book for their library.  We’d be honored if you did so.

Management by Walking Around

 

Some of you may remember Tom Peters and Robert Waterman’s wonderful book, In Search of Excellence. If you don’t know it, I highly recommend it. It’s filled with good business practices that, while from the last century (and yes, the last Millennium), still hold up.

I was reminded of this book while on one of the many Zoom calls this week. When an applicant, responding to a question about his management philosophy, he mentioned he was a fan of managing by walking around. Simply put, MBWA, as it’s sometimes known, is getting out from behind your desk or out of your office and being seen by and talking with your employees face-to-face in their environment.

Great idea and smart managers were doing this a long time before it had a name. However, this started me thinking if and how this concept can work in our current (and maybe forever) remote environment. Today, managers may be thinking, “If I’m not seeing my employees, other than on a screen, how will I have the connection I want, a connection which used to happen when I walked around the office or spent time on the factory floor?”

I used to work for an organization where the CEO was the best at managing by walking around. Every day, and I do mean every day, he started the day by speaking personally to every employee while walking around the office. The employees loved it and were comfortable talking with him and sharing ideas and concerns. (I think some of the middle managers were less fond of this practice because he learned things they didn’t know, but that’s a subject for another blog.)

I’m thinking that in our remote world when managers don’t see people in person anymore, the only way they can have that personal, one on one connection is to call each one and have a chat. I know this is time consuming, and I’m not suggesting it is something to do every day.  However, maybe it’s a practice that might create that all important connection we crave in our remote world.

What do you think?