How to improve employee performance on the run

1. Smile & ponder

Although he didn’t know it at the time, Melbourne publican Jimmy Richardson was one of Australia’s first exponents of the term popularised by Tom Peters in the 1970s - Management By Walking Around (MBWA).

Jimmy owned a string of hotels in Melbourne before World War 2. Every morning he would conduct a tour of his establishments to make sure that everything was up to standard. He’d check out the kitchens, scour the accounts and takings, and even look into rubbish bins for any signs of wastage.

His staff looked on his visits as an irritation but, because Jimmy followed the same route every day at around the same time, they were ready for him.

Jimmy Richardson’s efforts all those years ago taught us what not to do in terms of improving employee performance using the MBWA approach. Jimmy confused supervision with snoopervision. He would have achieved much better results by varying his visiting times and, importantly, by working with staff instead of submitting them to a daily inspection.

2. Smile & ponder

A senior manager briefed his boss on some major personnel changes - brought on by poor performance - that would involve several terminations.

The boss asked the manager how long he had been working with those people. ‘Seven years,’ came the reply.

‘If you’ve been in charge of those people for seven years and their performance is still unsatisfactory, I think the issue is your performance,’ said the boss.

3. Don't forget

The biggest room in your building is the room for improvement. …