When I was lecturing in employability skills I used to do an exercise where I would ask a student to pour me a squash…and despite being confident and academic people (after all they volunteered!) by the time I had criticised and winced and huffed my way through the experience – they would look to me to check for approval before they took a step forward!
…and that’s the effect of micro-management.
As employees, we know it and we hate it, and yet as leaders…is it sneaking through unchecked on occasion?
Do you take a sneaky look at your team’s work and then “make a gentle suggestion” if they are not doing it the way you would?
Do you redo what they have done so it looks more like something you would deliver?
Do you constantly “advise and support” when you really ought to be giving them the tools and getting on with your own tasks!?
Micro-management is the lightweight version of the phrase “teaching your grandmother to suck eggs” – you often end up telling people exactly what they know OR (if it isn’t a grandmother, and they are boiling eggs for the first time) – you are not giving them the space, tools, and opportunity to grow and learn.
Three key reasons why people micro-manage are:
- A fear of failure (this was classified as a specific phobia in the DSM IV (1994))
- A struggle with relinquishing control
- The person they’ve tasked with the job can’t do it.
Unfortunately, the potential consequences of doing so exacerbate the very thing you didn’t want:
- It can lead to a mish-mash of ideas which are neither fully formed nor fully executed
- If your team feels you don’t trust them, it can diminish their quality of work, as well as their opinion of you; and in practical terms it can lead to projects taking longer and a significant under-development of individual skill as they start actively requesting your opinion and input constantly.
- If someone isn’t up to the task, then it is about offering training rather than “backseat driving.” – and further, learning from their own experience (good or bad) is a very powerful form of growth!
A lack of confidence within a team member can result in them taking less initiative, reductions in productivity, and can potentially have a negative ripple effect on others if they are having to pick up what isn’t being done. Further, they are less likely to come to you and your own personal development suffers because micro-managing tendencies are not a skill many are proud of! …and at worst, they may even carry that confidence knock into their next job!
Here are three ways you can address your desire to micro-manage:
Understand the task and delegate it to the person who can do it
Delegation is a necessary part of leadership. It is a way of developing your team’s skills as well as ensuring your own work is completed, or that you can turn your attention to growth or other aspects of your role. However, successful delegation (without micro-management) sometimes relies on knowing who “can do it”…
This means, your choice of delegate is as much about ensuring someone has the authority and the tools they need at their disposal, in addition to the ability or skills to do it.
Communicate the task effectively
When it comes to setting a task, explain:
- What you want – and what the outcome needs to look like
- Your expectations of process including timelines
- If there is a specific “how” which needs to be followed, explain it, if not let your team work in their preferred method (you might learn something!)
For tasks that are always needed, or those that require a specific methodology, a template can save time.
Offer appropriate time and support for completion
Be clear with what you are expecting, as well as by when, and in what format. Then if you are worried, you can build in “check back” time, which means that you and your team know what is needed at each check-point. If your team is new to the task, clarify that if they recognise they are not on track before the next check-point, they can ask you for help through a specific channel.
The management of expectation at the outset means that you have given them both power and accountability in getting things done…if they are not, micro-managing will not help the underlying performance issue which will be uncovered!
