The walkabout
There is an old aboriginal ritual called the ‘Walkabout’ which is a ceremony that marks the stage where aboriginal boys transit from childhood to manhood. This spiritual transition requires the boys to embark on a journey of self discovery by venturing into the wilderness, for months, where they would discover more about themselves and adapt to their environment - to both survive and thrive. The ‘coming of age’ ceremony is a significant rite among many cultures. Whilst it is an important milestone it marks a difficult period for many young people; too old to be considered children and yet struggling to find their place in the adult world.
In the business world, there are similar analogies. For example let’s say after years of long hours, hard work, and making sacrifices for your company, a promotion into management comes your way. It seems like a dream come true. However the euphoria soon fades away once you realise that with the new job comes new responsibilities. It’s like becoming a father or mother once your baby is born. All of a sudden you’re a mother or father and you’re supposed to know everything there is to know about taking care of an infant. Thankfully, newly promoted managers don’t have to venture into the wilderness for months. Instead they can resort to using a leadership tactic referred to as Management By Walking Around (MBWA).
Even for the most gifted individuals, the process of becoming a leader is a difficult journey of continuous learning and self-development – like that ‘walkabout’. Most often though, managers get trapped between either attending or calling for around 25 – 30 meetings during the week, and spending the rest of the time in office, answering emails, phone calls and reading reports behind closed doors. And that’s a mistake, because not trialing the ‘walkabout’ involved in this rite of passage is sad.
During my early days after making it to senior management, I discovered that the hotel’s operation seemingly depended on a series of meetings to determine the on-going state of affairs and to make decisions sitting at a table. Soon after, during an internal ‘appraisal’ exercise for senior executives, I was happy to note that the 15 or so people reporting to me, had made mainly positive observations about my work, with a single exception. Many commented that they do not get to interact with me, outside of scheduled meetings, to have informal one-to-one discussions with them about everyday problems or get feedback on certain things or ask questions. That got me thinking because it was true. Swamped with my own work I was steadily rooted at my desk most of the time, although I did have an ‘open door’ policy.
I then discovered that MBWA was not that difficult to slot in during my busy workday. What I did was to combine a few tasks, so that I was able to practice MBWA without it becoming an unplanned act. For instance, if I had to send an email to another manager and unless it was urgent, I would opt to take a copy of it over to that person before emailing it. This way, I not only had an opportunity to have a face-to-face discussion with my peer, but also grab the opportunity to interact with other members of staff when trudging between my office and that of the copy receiver.
I would regularly walk into the offices of my subordinate managers (i.e. those who reported to me), to talk to them. By doing so, I was able to observe how employees were working, sometimes get important productivity clues about whether they are overwhelmed or underworked, or encourage and praise employees to their faces for recent good work rather than via an impersonal email. Other times, it enabled me to find out for myself how some tasks are actually carried out, which was useful insights for planning and managing more effectively.
So when a manager tells me that a regular walkabout is out of the question due to piles of work on their desks, it makes me wonder whether they are confusing workload with output.
I’ll leave you with something that someone said, that rings true in both Hospitality and Education. “What got you here won’t get you there…because it’s not what you know, it’s what you do, with what you know that will make a huge difference.”
MBWA will help you on that journey of discovery…
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Ex-Hotelier
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