AchieveGlobal's blog

Managing by Wandering About (MBWA)

By Andrew Calvert In one of my roles at a large US-based manufacturing company, I spent a portion of my week wandering around the office and plant. There were over 300 people in my building – tech support, finance, marketing, purchasing, material handlers, DTP operators and customer service. Quite a mix: Baby boomers, Nation builders, Gen X, Gen Y ... As I wandered around I would stop and chat to people. Often I would have a joke to tell, a story to share, or a question to ask. And that last point is most important ... a question to ask. You see, by wandering about I learned about the people I worked with, their challenges, victories, hopes, and fears. I found out whose daughter just got into medical school, whose parents were visiting (or driving them mad). I also found out who had a proposal into a ministry or was dealing with a troublesome vendor. And it is this information that allowed me to ask questions the next time I saw the person, to build a relationship that I could leverage into meaningful results when I needed to. There were many managers in the building – more than a dozen I can recall. But only two of us used the principal of MBWA. The other managers were ill-informed about employee morale and opinion. People didn’t share ideas with them – even when they were encouraged to. The reason was that speaking to those managers was strange and unusual. By MBWA, my colleague and I were making it normal and safe to speak with us. Fast forward to this economy, where fewer have to do more than ever before. Engaging EVERY employee as fully is possible is critical to getting results. So the next time you have the chance, get out of your seat and take a walk.

Leading Through the Sudden Impact on Morale

By: Chris Blauth Last week, I discussed unnerving actions companies have been forced to make in response to quickly declining revenues. Even more unsettling, a recent AchieveGlobal study found 59.6 percent of leaders predict a hiring freeze and 43.6 percent expect to downsize or conduct layoffs throughout this year. These depressing trends have an equally depressing impact on employee morale. More than half of the leaders who responded to our survey reported that stress is a problem or severe problem for their employees, and slightly less than half the respondents admitted that stress is a problem or severe problem for them! So – how is a leader supposed to handle that? Very carefully. Still, even with all of this bad news, leaders are finding ways to boost morale and productivity:

• A majority say they “motivate employees through ongoing, positive communication.”
• About half say they “offer special recognition for employees who perform well.”
• 40 percent say they “hold fun events at or away from work.”
• 38 percent say they “offer non-monetary incentives or rewards such as time off.”
• 24 percent say they “offer monetary incentives.”
• 5.6 percent say “my employees don’t need more motivation and their morale is good.”
• And, thank heavens, only 5.2 percent say they “do nothing.”

What are some things you do, as a leader – or an employee – to help boost morale? With the economy always in mind, let’s assume that a big fat raise is out of the picture.