Management by Wandering About

Back in the day there emerged a concept called Management by Walking Around. The idea behind it was pretty sound: you can't lead people from behind a closed door, but instead need to get out there and see what they're doing, listen to what they have to say, and so on. It's a motivational tool and also a way to keep information flowing and communication open. This works better than an "open door policy" because honestly, that's a pretty passive thing for the boss. You're waiting for employees to come to you and one problem with that is, by the time they DO come to you, it's often because a problem has gotten big, a problem that could have been dealt with sooner.

Anyway, Management by Walking Around is a very useful idea. It gained popularity in a time before e-mail, so some might say that now information and communication can flow electronically without the need for personal contact. I think that's wrong. First, your employees need to know you're interested in what they're doing, and getting out from behind your desk demonstrates that. Plus, they might be doing some pretty specialized tasks, and that's simply not going to translate in an e-mail. And of course, if they're having trouble producing, you'll have a better idea why if you've actually been out there interacting with and observing them.

But there's another way this could go...what I call Management by Wandering About. And this one's not so great. For me there's a big difference between this and Walking Around. Walking Around is all about 2-way interaction with your employees so you can create a better workplace and a better product. Wandering About is all about self-gratification, cornering your employees so they have to listen to you. It's about walking into people's cubicles with your coffee and interrupting the flow of their work. Too often, it's about walking in and regaling them with tales of your time in the French Resistance, or this great restaurant you found in Kuala Lumpur. Ultimately, you end up abusing your authority -- because really, people can't just tell the boss to piss off -- by making people listen to you even when they have better things to do.

The worst, of course, is when you wander into people's work and tell them how to do what they're doing when you don't have any real expertise or knowledge of what they've done before now.

If it sounds like I have experience with a boss like this, I do. And you probably do too. In my earliest days in government I had a boss, a really good guy whom I respected. He was a good leader and this was the only truly annoying habit he had so we could certainly forgive him that. Unfortunately, after 20 years of living around the world he was full of stories that were occasionally interesting but that also ran on and on and on and on (and on and on). And these were one-sided stories -- as soon as you mentioned something of your own that would remind him "of that one time" and he'd be off. Interesting though it might have been, he really gave his employees the idea that he didn't view what they said as very important because he was always cutting people off in favor of his own tales. And of course, he interrupted their work, which in a creative field can be a little tricky, since once people start running with a good idea it's often best to let them keep going.

So don't be that guy. Get out there, yes, and talk with your employees, but that's talk WITH, not just talk TO. Communication goes both ways. And if you get the feeling that by strolling around the office you might be annoying your employees rather than motivating or helping them, you're probably right.