Micromanagement? Micro-success!

Mind Tools Newsletter 72 - 17th April 2007 This newsletter is published by Mind Tools Ltd of 2nd Floor, 145-157 St John Street, London, EC1V 4PY, UK. You have received it because you have subscribed to our double opt-in newsletter. To subscribe or unsubscribe, just click the links at the bottom of this email.

Contents: What's New? Avoiding Micromanagement A Final Note

When was the last time you checked in on a task that you delegated? Within the last week; within the last day; or maybe even more recently than that?

The fact is that all of us find it difficult to delegate, at least some of the time. Mostly, we’d be happier keeping a constant eye on things: Is the work being done well? Will it be done on time? Will the answer you get be the best answer, the right answer, and one you can really trust?

It’s only natural to want to be in control. If you do find delegating a bit tricky, it’s all too easy to fall into the habit of micromanaging tasks you’ve assigned.

However, the consequences for you – and for the people you’re micromanaging – can be serious: Not only do you lose all the benefits of delegation, you spend far too much time checking and worrying, and you cause unnecessary stress and strain for the person you’re micromanaging. This week’s article, Avoiding Micromanagement, helps you spot the signs of micromanagement, and learn how to avoid it - whether micromanager, or "micromanagee"!

What's New?

Another great article this week is Bruna Martinuzzi’s piece on managerial stress, entitled "The Breaking Point." It's a great read, and is packed with practical tips on managing the stress in our lives.

At the Mind Tools Career Excellence Club, we’ve welcomed another 250 newsletter readers over the past two weeks; each of them taking that next step in their personal and professional development. If you, too, are ready to take that step, do join us! It’s just US$1 for the first month, with absolutely no tie in.

Here are just some of the resources club members have enjoyed over the last two weeks:

• Articles that help you build an effective team (Cog's Ladder), and that help you confidently understand and manage risk and uncertainty (Monte Carlo Analysis);
  
• An Expert Interview (podcast) with Harvard Business School’s Tim Butler, focusing on restarting a stalled career;
  
• Dianna's Bite-Sized Training lesson on Improving Productivity and Getting into Flow;
  
• Sharon's Coaching Clinic on "Appreciating What I Have"; and
  
• Our Book Insight (podcast) into “12: The Elements of Great Managing”

Go on - give it a try - you know you'll find it useful! :-)

Anyway, enjoy this newsletter!

Best wishes 

  

James & Rachel

James Manktelow and Rachel Thompson
MindTools.com
Mind Tools – Essential skills for an excellent career!

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New Article
Avoiding Micromanagement
Helping Team Members Excel – On Their Own

You’ve assigned an important task to a talented employee, and given him a deadline. Now, do you let him do his work and simply touch base with him at pre-defined points along the way – or do you keep dropping by his desk and sending e-mails to check his progress?

If it’s the latter, you might be a micromanager. Or, if you’re the harried worker trying to make a deadline with a boss hovering at your shoulder, you might have a micromanager on your hands – someone who just can’t let go of tiny details.

Micromanagers take perfectly positive attributes – an attention to detail and a hands-on attitude – to the extreme. Either because they’re control-obsessed, or because they feel driven to push everyone around them to success, micromanagers risk disempowering their colleagues. They ruin their colleagues' confidence, hurt their performance, and frustrate them to the point where they quit.

Luckily, though, there are ways to identify these overzealous tendencies in yourself – and get rid of them before they do more damage. And if you work for a micromanager, there are strategies you can use to convince him or her to accept your independence.

First, though, how do you spot the signs of micromanagement? Where is the line between being an involved manager, and an over-involved manager who’s driving his team mad?

Signs of micromanagement

What follows are some signs that you might be a micromanager – or have one on your hands. In general, micromanagers:

• Resist delegating;
  
• Immerse themselves in overseeing the projects of others;
  
• Start by correcting tiny details instead of looking at the big picture;
  
• Take back delegated work before it is finished if they find a mistake in it; and
  
• Discourage others from making decisions without consulting them.

What’s wrong with micromanaging?

If you are getting results by micromanaging and keeping your nose in everyone’s business, why not carry on?

Micromanagers often affirm the value of their approach with a simple experiment: They give an employee an assignment, and then disappear until the deadline. Is this employee likely to excel when given free rein?

Possibly – if the worker has exceptional confidence in his abilities. Under micromanagement, however, most workers become timid and tentative – possibly even paralyzed. “No matter what I do,” such a worker might think to himself, “It won’t be good enough.” Then one of two things will happen: Either the worker will ask the manager for guidance before the deadline, or he will forge ahead, but come up with an inadequate result.

In either case, the micromanager will interpret the result of his experiment as proof that, without his constant intervention, his people will flounder or fail.

But do these results verify the value of micromanagement – or condemn it? A truly effective manager sets up those around him to succeed. Micromanagers, on the other hand, prevent employees from making – and taking responsibility for – their own decisions. But it’s precisely the process of making decisions, and living with the consequences, that causes people to grow and improve.

Good managers empower their employees to do well by giving opportunities to excel; Bad managers disempower their employees by hoarding those opportunities. And a disempowered employee is an ineffective one – one who requires a lot of time and energy from his supervisor.

It's that time and energy, multiplied across a whole team of timid, cowed workers, that amounts to a serious and self-defeating drain on a manager’s time. It’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to keep up with analysis, planning, communication with other teams, and the other “big-picture” tasks of managing, when you are sweating the details of the next sales presentation.

Escaping Micromanagement

So now you’ve identified micro-managerial tendencies and seen why they’re bad. What can you do if you know you’re exhibiting such behaviors – or are being subjected to them by a supervisor?

From the micromanager’s perspective, the best way to build healthier relationships with employees may be the most direct: Talk to them.

It might take several conversations to convince them that you’re serious about change. Getting frank feedback from employees is the hard part. Once you’ve done that, as executive coach Marshall Goldsmith recommends in his book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, it’s time to apologize and change. This means giving your employees the leeway – and encouragement – to succeed. Focus first on the ones with the most potential, and learn to delegate effectively to them. Read our article on delegation for more about this.

And if you’re not sure what you should be doing with all the free time, once you stop micromanaging, read our article on Team Management Skills for more information.

Tip: Part of being a good manager, one often lost on those of the micro variety, is listening. Managers fail to listen when they forget their employees have important insights – and people who don’t feel listened to become disengaged.

As for the micromanaged, well, things are a bit more complicated. Likely as not, you’re being held back in your professional development – and probably not making the progress in your career that you could be if you enjoyed workplace independence.

But there’s a certain amount that you can do to improve the situation:

• Help your boss to delegate to you more effectively, by prompting him to give you all the information you will need up front, and to set interim review points along the way.
  
• Volunteer to take on projects that you’re confident you’ll be good at. This will start to increase his confidence in you – and his delegation skills.
  
• Make sure that you communicate progress to your boss regularly, to discourage him from seeking information just because he hasn’t had any for a while.
  
• Concentrate on helping your boss to change one micromanagement habit at a time. Remember that he’s only human too, and is allowed to make mistakes!

Key points:

Micromanagement restricts the ability of micromanaged people to develop and grow, and it also limits what the micromanager’s team can achieve, because everything has to go through him or her.

When a boss is reluctant to delegate, focuses on details ahead of the big picture and discourages his staff from taking the initiative, there’s every chance that he’s sliding towards micromanagement.

The first step in avoiding the micromanagement trap (or getting out of it once you’re there) is to recognize the danger signs by talking to your staff or boss. If you’re micromanaged, help your boss see there is a better way of working. And if you are a micromanager, work hard on those delegation skills and learn to trust your staff to develop and deliver.

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The Mind Tools Store:

• The Career Excellence Club (The Mind Tools members area): Make career development and every-day part of your life with member-only discussion forums, the Mind Tools Extended Toolkit, downloadable MP3-based Book Insights and Interviews, regular coaching, training, and much, much more. More >>
  
  
• The Mind Tools E-book: All of the tools on the Mind Tools website in one convenient, easily-downloadable, easily-printable PDF file. We have excluded advertising to enhance clarity and have formatted sections to be easy to read, print and use. More >>
  
  
• How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You: Learn the 48 simple but essential skills you need to become a top leader in your industry. More >>
  
  
• Personal Coaching from Career Excellence Professionals: Find career and life direction, bring your job under control, build self-confidence and put yourself on the path to long term success with a Mind Tools coach. Our coaches give you the focused personal coaching you need to make the very most of your career and life. More >>

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A Final Note From James

Micromanagement is definitely something to avoid if you want to get on in your life and career.

I recommend anyone to learn the skills of delegation, and also to be on the look out for those signs of micromanagement. However experienced you are as a manager or team leader, there will be situations and people that might lead you astray. So keep hold of that thought. Look out for the symptoms from time to time, and hopefully you'll avoid it!

On another note, I'd like to thank everyone at the AACC (Australian Association of Career Counsellors) conference in Perth for the warmth of their welcome: It was a great event, and a real pleasure to meet so many newsletter readers "down under"!

Next week, we’re back with our showcase newsletter, featuring the Journey Technique. Until then, enjoy Mind Tools and have an excellent week!

James

James Manktelow

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