Building a Front-Porch Attitude
How do you talk with visitors on your front porch at home? In a caring, comfortable and attentive manner. Heres how a front-porch attitude works on the job:
- Once a day, leave your office for at least 30 minutes
- Walk (or drive if necessary) through your area of responsibility
- Listen to your employees. Ask them about their assignments, their challenges and about their lives
Your goal is to create an environment where people realize you know what great things they are doing and that you care about them on a personal level.
While conventional wisdom may call it wasting time, the best managers call it an investment. After all, who do you work harder for someone who cares about you or someone who seems aloof and self-important?
So at least once a day, effective leaders are seen in their area of responsibility chatting, listening and taking notes. We know, you havent taken notes since high school English. But its time to start again. The things you learn about your employees that Paula lives for dark chocolate, that Kyle loves a particular vegetarian restaurant, or Scotts kids are Ryan, Hannah and Scotty Jr. can be used later to recognize them. And if you dont write these tidbits down, you wont remember.
And when you do remember, just watch what happens to employee commitment.
