Alive and Well at the End of the Day, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 5MANAGING BY WALKING AROUND

You can observe a lot just by watching.

—Yogi Berra

When it comes to sending everyone home alive and well at the end of every day, there is no substitute for the presence of the leader on the job, where the work of the business takes place. Every leader on the planet knows safety performance can’t be managed from the confines of the office, and every front‐line supervisor understands one of their most basic duties is the observation of their followers as they perform their jobs.

But knowing that to be so doesn’t always mean that’s where the leader is most likely to be found. The competing demands on a leader’s time—meetings, phone calls, conference calls, e‐mail, forms—all too often push spending time out on the job well down the daily to do list. The urgency of those other matters requires a leader to focus on them. By comparison, time spent simply being “out on the shop floor” doesn’t seem to produce any tangible results. That makes the practice feel as though it’s something that a leader can engage in when there is the luxury of time.

There will never be enough time. That reality serves as the premise on which the incredibly valuable tool called the Moment of High Influence is founded.

Were a leader to fully understand and appreciate the benefits—and the need—for their presence on the job, the investment of the time to do that would always be seen as a high priority.

ON BEING SEEN

To begin to appreciate the benefits to be found in ...