Management by walking around

By Fred M’mbololo Page 1

LEADERSHIP STYLE, TEAM SPIRIT AND MANAGEMENT BY

WALKING AROUND IN TINTORIA LTD

PREPARED BY FRED M’MBOLOLO (ACCA), CPA (K)


TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 What is an Entrepreneur

1.1 Entrepreneur spirit and team spirit

2.0 Leadership

3.0 Vision and mission statements

3.1 Vision

3.2 Mission

3.2.1 Learning

3.2.2 Innovation

3.2.3 Building relationship

3.2.4 Pioneering

4.0 Tintoria Ltd Statement of Core Values

5.0 Organizational chart

6.0 Management by walking around (or WALKING AROUND) in Tintoria Ltd

6.1 Tintoria’s management makes WALKING AROUND part of their routine

work.

6.2 Tintoria’s management does WALKING AROUND on a one or two

manager basis.

6.3 Visit everybody on an equal time basis.

6.4 The management of Tintoria Ltd usually asks for suggestions and

recognize good ideas.

6.5 The management of Tintoria Ltd would normally answer staff later in

case we do not have on the spot answers.

6.6 The management of Tintoria Ltd doesn’t usually confront the staff

upfront or publicly criticize them.

7.0 Conclusions


1.0 What is an entrepreneur?

The entrepreneur is usually a sole proprietor, a partner, or the one who owns the

majority of shares in an incorporated venture. In the case of Tintoria Ltd the

entrepreneur here are the directors. Our directors are not necessarily motivated by

profit but nevertheless, it is regarded as a standard measure for achieving success in

running of the business. Tintoria Ltd is always trying and does create new businesses

through opening of new branches in new malls around the Nairobi City. This certainly

can carry a high risk because it requires money to set up a new business without

knowing if it will give a return on the investment. In a nut shell, we can say that Tintoria

Ltd always organizes and operates its core business directed by the articles of

memorandum and is always looking out for ways of increasing its market share through

opening of more branches and signing new sales contracts as also guided by the

company’s strategic plan, thus it takes on much greater risks than normal financial risks

in order to do so.

1.1 Entrepreneurial spirit and team spirit is an approach. The management of

Tintoria Ltd has an attitude and a method of thinking ahead that vigorously pursues out

change, rather than waiting to adapt to changes in the environment in which the

business operates in for instance we target our niche market and not any other market.

We focus on delivering quality services and timely services at an affordable prices to

our customers and in that regard we don’t worry so much about our competitors. It's a

mindset that involves critical questioning, innovation, service and continuous

improvement.

We encourage team spirit and working towards attaining the company’s strategic plans

and ensuring all employees are contributing towards accomplishing these set targets.

We ensure that everyone understands the company’s vision and mission and that we

are all on the same page so as to eliminate goal incongruences.


2.0 Leadership Style

The management of Tintoria Ltd leadership style is mainly working towards achieving

the company strategic plans and it is also vision based. We lead our team effectively

towards accomplishing our mission and goals and we are guided by the company’s

core-values. We encourage organized learning, creativity, and the development of

strong relationships among the working team. This leadership style is useful for Tintoria

Ltd as we are more focused on achieving the company short term and long term

strategic plan, we thus have an entrepreneurial spirit. While every visionary leader

manages differently, many of our leaders share a few common characteristics as shown

below:

Leader of Your Life Top people are long-term thinkers. Average thinkers think only about the present, and about immediate gratification. But leaders think about where they want to be in five and ten years, and what they have to do each hour of each day to make their desired future a reality.

i. Leaders inspire others because they are inspired themselves. They are excited about the possibility of creating an exciting future for themselves. They get up every morning and they see every effort they make as part of a great plan to accomplish something wonderful with their lives.

ii. Leaders are optimistic. They see opportunities in everything that happens, positive or negative. They look for the good in every situation and in every person. They seek the valuable lessons contained in every problem or setback. They never experience "failures;" instead, they write them off as "learning experiences."

iii. Leaders have a sense of meaning and purpose in each area of their lives. They have clear, written goals and plans they work on every day. Leaders are clear about where they are going and what they will have to do to get there. Their behavior is purposeful and goal-directed. As a result, they accomplish five and ten times as much as the average person who operates from day to day with little concern about the future.


iv. Leaders accept personal responsibility. Leaders never complain, never explain. Instead of making excuses, they make progress. Whenever they have a set-back or difficulty, they repeat to themselves, "I am responsible! I am responsible! I am responsible!"

v. Leaders see themselves as victors over circumstances rather than victims of circumstances. They don't criticize or blame others when something goes wrong. Instead, they focus on the solution.

vi. Leaders are action-oriented. They are constantly in motion. They try something, and then something else, and then something else again. They never give up.

vii. Leaders have integrity. They tell the truth at all times. They live in truth with themselves, and they live in truth with others.

3.0 Vision and mission statements

3.1 Vision

Current Vision: To achieve international status as a quality service business enterprise

and to be the first choice for dry cleaning and laundry in the highly competitive

environment.

Revised Vision: To be an environmentally friendly, world-class quality service

enterprise and the first choice for dry cleaning and laundry utilizing state-of-the-

art technology.

The management of Tintoria Ltd usually aim to be successful in creating a positive and

inspirational vision in accordance with our strategic plan and conveying the company

vision in an engaging manner that attracts committed employees. The management of

Tintoria Ltd knows and appreciates the importance for meaning and purpose of having

committed employees, hence inspires them to achieve more and to build better futures.


The staff are thus more motivated by the vision and often have a sense of solidarity

within the working team because of the pursuance of the same vision.

3.2 Mission:

Current Mission: To offer professional dry cleaning and laundry services and to

maintain quality standards and customer services at affordable rates.

This mission statement remains unchanged.

3.2.1 Learning

The managers of Tintoria Ltd realize that learning encourages the development of

personal skills and the ability to make effective decisions. The management of Tintoria

Ltd finds learning highly motivating, and instills that same eagerness to learn in it’s

employees by creating various learning opportunities with the day-to-day complexities in

the workplace. This results in highly skilled and knowledgeable employees contributing

to the success of Tintoria Ltd.

3.2.2 Innovation

Innovation is vital to a business, because to remain successful a business must

continually grow, improve, and find new ways to achieve goals. The management of

Tintoria Ltd thrives on innovation and change. These leaders encourage creative

thinking and problem-solving skills in employees. The management of Tintoria Ltd

embraces change and views the use of new ideas and processes as progress. It tries to

find better and quicker methods to achieve success.

3.2.3 Building Relationships

Building respectful and empowering relationships with employees is a characteristic of

the management of Tintoria Ltd. We believe that our managers have the above-

average communication skills, and always apply those skills to nurture a partnership

approach with employees. The management of Tintoria Ltd encourages respect, team

spirit, team learning, and a type of family atmosphere in the group. We use conflict


management skills to unite team members, and we prefer to use a friendly approach,

rather than a bossy approach.

3.2.4 Pioneering

The management of Tintoria Ltd encourages employees to develop a pioneer spirit,

doing what others have never done and going where others would never go. This

pioneer spirit manifests both in attitude and in action for the management of Tintoria Ltd

and its employees. Tintoria Ltd likes to project itself than its competitors and has been

growing much and intends to continue doing so in the near future. The current

managers of Tintoria Ltd also are actively involved in developing future managers to

play an important role in the future of the company.

4.0 Tintoria Ltd Statement of Core Values

In an effort to be thoughtful, careful and visionary about decision-making in Tintoria Ltd,

we feel it is important to set forth the core values of the organization.

1. INTERGRITY- TINTORIA LTD recognizes the benefits of having high moral

standards and being honest in dealing with our customers

2. QUALITY- TINTORIA LTD strives to be a leading laundry service provider in

terms of quality.

3. PROFESSIONALISM-TINTORIA LTD recognizes the benefits that accrue to our

customers, suppliers and staff when we do things professionally.

4. TEAMWORK- TINTORIA LTD recognizes the benefits associated with sharing

expertise, time, energy and resources.

5. CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION-TINTORIA LTD intends to be a nimble, flexible

and dynamic organization, able and willing to adapt to the evolving needs of

members and the shifting landscape of technology.

6. DIVERSITY-TINTORIA LTD includes multi-type shops which operate locally, who

serve a diverse clientele including personal and corporate clients. TINTORIA

LTD recognizes that their customers may have diverse missions, disparate

resources and distinct needs. Decisions undertaken on behalf of the organization

are made with the greatest respect and support of these differences.

7. ACCOUNTABILITY-TINTORIA LTD recognizes that it must take care of client

clothes by washing them properly, making small repairs and ensuring that they

are good condition and not damaging them, in case of lost items, TINTORIA LTD

will be responsible.


5.0 Organization Structure of Tintoria Ltd

Tintoria Ltd Limited is governed by a Board of Directors to whom the Managing Director

is responsible for. The company has three main departments mainly operations, sales

& marketing and finance departments. The company has about seventy (70)

employees and most of them are in the operation department working as either sorters

or pressers given the laundry services is mainly labor intensive.


6.0 Management by walking around in Tintoria Ltd

Management by walking around, as you probably know from your Internet search, is the

habit of stopping by to talk with employees face to face, get a sense of how they think

things are going, and listen to whatever may be on their minds.

This is how the management of Tintoria Ltd runs its laundry and dry cleaning company.

The main reason beyond such an approach is because the work is labor intensive and

periodic watching over the staff will ensure that lateness to work is reduced,

absenteeism is minimum, boredom is eliminated and that the quality of work is

maintained at all times and that there will be no wastage of time like cat fighting,

gossiping especially for the back office staff or mishandling of our client’s garments

through pilferages and losses. The management also checks to find out if there any

water or oil spillages, the laundry machines are operational, spare parts are purchased

on time and that maintenance of these machines is regularly done so as to reduce

machine breakdowns and down times. Above all we ensure that all the company

policies and procedures are carried out and followed accordingly.

It might be that checking on our employees suddenly is, as you think is an interruption

of their work but we are adamant that this exercise also produces tangible benefits.

“Management by walking around really helps us to be more visible, connect with

employees and share ideas, and invite suggestions for doing things better,” This also

enables us see the cleanliness of the premises, whether the security guards are alert

and that they are at their work stations and to see if both our front office and back office

employees are working towards meeting our own goals and objectives. Also because

not all operations are carried out in one building, it is paramount to walking around to

see if all the employees are working towards achieving the company’s goals and

targets, corrective action of plan can also be implemented in case of any problems that

may arise.

Further than the observable benefits of keeping a close eye on the heart of the

business, employees are also more probable to be more engaged and productive, if


they see the management of Tintoria Ltd checking on the daily running of the

organization and chatting with them regularly than if they don’t.

This of course may sound like common sense and you will realize that even sending out

of e-mails and memos has not replaced the usual face-to-face contact in Tintoria Ltd.

Also our front offices staff and especially our back office staff are not allowed access to

the social media either through the computers, other gadgets or their own personal

phones, so that they can be focused and composed and not disrupted from executing

their daily work routine like washing the garments, ironing the garments and sorting the

same garments in a timely and orderly manner.

“There has been a tendency to manage other employees working in the other Tintoria

Ltd branches via email, memos, text messages and formal meetings,” partly because

our managers and supervisors just don’t have the time to meet with these employees

informally, however our Managing Director and other staff usual make random checks

to ensure that everything is operating in accordance to our working time and besides

that our clients queries are attended to in accordance to our terms and conditions of

acceptance to be serviced by us and that the garments are collected on time by our

clients and that the old stock which has not been paid for yet is still accountable.

So, the management of Tintoria Ltd has the following guidelines of how to apply this

management style of walking around or rather like some employees would say,

managing by walking away), Tintoria Ltd offers these guiding principle of proposals for

doing it right:

6.1 Tintoria’s management makes WALKING AROUND part of their routine work.

Random checks on employees’ workspaces for an informal chat is most effective if it is

not done on any fixed schedule, since one will notice that the greatest returns are

seeing what is going on when employees aren’t prepared for us, this the management

of Tintoria Ltd has learnt over-time. But we do plan for a bit of walking around on our

own calendar every day, and it is usually for about half an hour only. “The more often

we do it, the more beneficial it is to us


6.2 Tintoria’s management does WALKING AROUND on a one or two manager

basis.

WALKING AROUND works best as a continual stream of one-on-one conversations

with individual staff. Walking around with supervisors or assistants will certainly just

hinder the discussion by making the employees more uncomfortable or, worse still

make them feel that we are spying on them or that we are on a witch-hunting mission.

6.3 Visit everybody on an equal time basis.

As Tintoria Ltd management has realized that spending more time regularly checking on

certain members of staff is likely to create some resentment. Hence we make an effort

of trying to spend roughly the same amount of time — not necessarily all in the same

day or even the same week, but over the long run — with all the back office staff and

front office staff. Although as an exception we would tend to visit the branches which

are not meeting the company’s goals and targets more than the other Tintoria’s

branches that normally would meet their targets.

6.4 The management of Tintoria Ltd usually asks for suggestions and recognize

good ideas

“The management of Tintoria Ltd normally asks all of our staff of their inputs on how to

improve maintenance of the laundry machines, processes, sales, or service,” The

management of Tintoria Ltd always recognizes the good suggestions and rewards

exceptional work performance through bonuses to employees who have initiatives of

improving the operations and staff relationships.

Generally, if someone’s idea leads to a positive result, we make it known to the staff

whose suggestion it was and demonstrate our willingness to give credit where it is

deserved.


6.5 The management of Tintoria Ltd would normally answer staff later in case we

do not have on the spot answers.

In eventual scenario that the management of Tintoria Ltd can’t answer an employee’s

question on the spot, we would usually get back to the concerned staff with the

appropriate answers at a suitable time, this is besides being polite and friendly, it also

builds confidence and trust from the employees.

6.6 The management of Tintoria Ltd doesn’t usually confront the staff upfront or

publicly criticize them.

We are mostly on a information-gathering mission, with also another major role of

creating and establishing a warm and cordial working relationship with our staff.

In order to cement working relationships and create harmony and motivate our staff, the

management of Tintoria Ltd usually restrains itself from immediately disapproving our

employees actions or even shouting at them.

If we find them not performing their duties correctly and not in accordance to the

company policies and procedures, we don’t try to change their behavior on the spot

unless only in exceptional cases where deadlines will not be met or the company may

incur unnecessary damages and liabilities. Instead if it not an exceptional case, we take

note of that and address the problem at another appropriate time and manner and at

times it may be through issuance of verbal warnings, warning letters or simply

reallocating the work station of the concerned staff.

Undoubtedly, WALKING AROUND requires more time, patience and effort from our

managers but apart from that it has real advantages over other laid back approaches,

the management of Tintoria Ltd certainly does enjoy it.


7.0 Conclusions

Leadership in Tintoria Ltd is about goal definition, vision creation, and mission

articulation. A poor leadership or complete absence of the same, as it relates to

scalability is detrimental to our objectives. Scalability is the capability of a system,

network, or process to handle a growing amount of work, or its potential to be enlarged

in order to accommodate that growth. The management of Tintoria Ltd usually

emphasizes that employees, the structure of the company, the management styles, and

the leadership approach are all important to scalability.

Employees are the most important element of scalability, as without employees there

are no processes and there is no state of art technology to be applied. The effective

organization of our employees is paramount as it will either get us to where we want to

be faster or hinder our efforts in producing scalable systems. On the other hand the

management of Tintoria Ltd realizes that employing more staff usually increases the

company’s throughput, but the average production per staff tends to decline as well.

Management of Tintoria Ltd is about achieving company goals and objectives. A lack of

management or a weak management team is definitely likely to distract the scalability

course way. Management and leadership approaches used by Tintoria Ltd are just the

push and pull factors, respectively, in this scenario. Moreover our leadership style

assists to inspire employees to greater achievements and the management is there to

motivate the staff to attain the company’s goals and objectives.

Leadership & Management

Management by walking around