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How to Add a Little Charisma to Your Leadership

Use MBWA to Create Passion in Your Team

Discover the secret that turns MBWA into Leadership

What if we could show you one leadership technique that will take only five Minutes of your time and will leave people saying positive things about you for years to come.

That is right, one five minute task that will add a little charisma to your MBWA and will leave your people feeling so valued that they talk about your leadership for years.

This leadership technique is so simple you will wonder why more managers do not use it!

Recap of the first two steps to adding leadership to your MBWA

You will have discovered that Management By Walking Around is a technique that will help you to “Get in to the minds of your employees and motivate them to share your vision”.

You will be doing this by firstly taking a strategic view and focusing on your key business priorities, and then identifying the employees who will best help you influence your team.

Now it is time to give you some edge, to help you to discover a unique technique that will make people want to follow you ……. Not straight away, you will have to use this technique for 3 – 6 weeks before people begin to share your vision.

After discovering this technique, you will notice that so many leaders could achieve so much more it only they knew.

The MBWA Secret That Adds Charisma

Here it is …… take five minutes each day before you set out on your Management By Walking Around to become aware of the things that matter to your people such as their

Performance or improvement in performance
Quality or improvement in quality
Ideas or suggestions for Improvement, or any
Training that has occurred, or
Targets that were met

However, remember to be strategic, be consistent with your key priorities

Your people will be impressed and amazed when you are always knowledgeable about their contribution to your key priorities, you will be seen by your people as more charismatic.

To illustrate the point, to be aware, lets follow the sales example from the previous page

Your Key Priority	Your Plan
Improving Sales Performance	Jan to March: Focussing on cross-selling
	April to June: Focussing on up-selling
	July to Sept: Focussing on seeking referrals

You are going to talk to your employees about your priority: the need to improve sales performance with your sub priority cross selling.

Before you start you will need to find out current relevant information; such as

Who are the top 5 employees at cross selling?
Has any one improved recently?
Do you have anyone not performing and not improving?
Is anyone working on a new process or sales technique?
What minimum standard of performance are you targeting?
How is the business going compared with your aspiration?
Other relevant data

Now you know the secret to adding charisma to your MBWA, however keep reading to discover how to keep your radar always on and be in tune to receive relevant information throughout the day

MBWA: What is the best time of day?

But first: What is the best time of day? Not the best time for you, what is the best time of day for your employees? When will your employees be most receptive to your messages?

Given that you want to talk to your people about their contribution to your strategy, it is important not to have other business issue distracting them. Some managers think that they are more important than their business and even will talk to an employee while a customer waits

Never distract an employee from a customer to listen to you
If your people are busy when you go to talk to them, don’t hold them up …. Come back later

Don’t set out to do your management by walking around at exceptionally busy times of day or during break times, find times that work for your business, and don’t be afraid to try several different times of day to see what works best for you.

Gathering your MBWA knowledge?

Having information available will add charisma to your leadership

Initially you will probably gather your knowledge just before you start your walk, but as you become more practiced your radar will be “always on”, you will be continually receptive to inputs that relate to your business priorities.

For example: If you attend a customer service improvement meeting where 2 of your people are nominated to trial a new customer greeting technique for a trail period of few weeks, you will make a mental note to ask these two employees how the trial is going, not once but a few times during the trial.

Through experience, you will begin to have your radar always on.

By having your radar “always on” you will be in a position to follow up on initiatives that employees are involved with, by following up you are indirectly saying this is important and are well positioned to offer positive encouragement or assist if the employee is struggling with some part of the task.

The above example is relatively simple and easy to deliver.

The art of management by walking around does become a little more complex if you are trying to improve technical skills such as sales technique, customer service, OH&S or quality. With these scenarios, you will need to have an understanding or vision of the end state that you are looking to achieve.

The art of management by walking around begins with you developing a list of business priorities followed by identifying your current performance.

For example: If you manage a financial services processing team and you have identified that giving more regular feedback will improve morale, then, before you complete your floor walk identify things that you can give feedback on, such as

the current level of employee performance, noting people who are struggling, have improved or are doing extremely well
reflect on any recent actions from a team member that are noteworthy such as organised team BBQ, worked extra hours due to high volume calls.

Now you have current facts on your priorities you are equipped with the information required to provide additional feedback during your MBWA.

The next step is doing the walk, find out what good leaders do that makes the difference.

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