Demonstrating servant leadership by wandering around

Feb. 23, 2020

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In Tom Peter’s 1982 book, In Search of Excellence,he teaches that the best leaders spend time managing where the work and workers are.  An hour spent daily in MBWA (managing by wandering around), may well be your best time spent. 

I adopted this method while leading in the public company world in the factory where I worked making aircraft parts and employing around 600 people. What I quickly learned was that MBWA was a great way to help my team win and effectively connect with my workforce.  I was able to help them to succeed, which became my chief goal in leadership.  

Each day I would invest a little time patrolling around with a smile on my face, learning names, what the challenges were, how we were progressing on our company goals, how well my supervisory core team was getting the message to “the floor” and what the results were.

At the same time I was also able, like a doctor in an infirmary, to take the temperature of each person and check in on how they were doing personally. Daily I was able to have discussions with my team members on the shop floor or at the shipping doc or in the maintenance building about what was happening that day. 

It could be things were going along great, or it might be that some equipment was down or some process had gone wrong. People often needed my permission to try something new, fix something that was broken or maybe they would show me some sort of success story.  

Then there were times that they shared about how things were personally… some great weekend experience they had with family or times when a family member was sick or injured or on their death bed.  

Of course, I would always offer to pray. Sometimes I would bring back a word of encouragement through a card or scripture. In most cases, they were eager to see me coming because they knew I was going to be generous with my time or encouragement. I became a type of chaplain to them. These trips wandering around the factory united me with my workforce.    

John Maxwell teaches that you cannot lead people with whom you are not connected. Of course, you can be their boss, you just can’t be an effective leader. In the end it boils down to influence.  

If you want to be a servant leader, try investing some time daily to connect. Yes, you are busy, but there is no better investment of a CEO’s time than these trips around your business. 

You are the spiritual patriarch or matriarch of your business.  Never underestimate how important your visibility and contribution are to those you lead.       

Photo source: istock 

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