How to Stop Micromanaging Your Team

Transcript

Presenter: Managers need to focus on detail. But micromanagers take this to the extreme. Over time, this can be really demoralizing for their team members.

The most successful managers, on the other hand, avoid micromanagement – they find just the right balance between empowering their people, and staying aware of what everyone is doing.

So, how can you tell if you're a micromanager?

One sign is that you have trouble delegating tasks to others.

Another sign is that when you do delegate, you can't help but oversee every aspect of the task.

Also, you might not allow team members to make even small decisions without your approval.

The good news is, is that there are plenty of strategies that you can use to stop micromanaging people.

One is to delegate more tasks to people on your team. Delegation might be difficult at first, so start slowly – pick one or two easy tasks that you normally handle yourself, and pass these on to someone who's well suited for the job.

Then set specific times to check in with this person so that you can monitor progress and answer questions. But remember, this doesn't mean that you check in every few minutes to see how they're getting on!

The first time you delegate a task, you may spend longer managing it than you would do doing it yourself. But once you've delegated it to the right person, you'll never have to do that task again.

When you stop micromanaging, you give your people more freedom and control over their work. This will boost their morale, and help them to learn and grow.

Now read the article that accompanies this video, and learn more ways to avoid micromanagement.