I WAS chatting with friends one time and one of them said that somebody I previously worked with already got promoted. I was surprised and asked them what the new position was and they said jokingly: “Micromanager.” And they all started talking about how this person annoys and irritates his team by repeatedly telling them how to do their work and asking for updates by the minute.
We all know a micromanager—someone who wants things done in a certain way and takes it
upon themselves to constantly look over your shoulder to see what you are doing, or they do the work themselves when you make a mistake. At the heart of every micromanager is the belief that relinquishing control will not get the results they want because they need to be on top of things all the time. And if their team is to succeed, they need to monitor every single facet of the workflow so they can prod people to their idea of the correct way to do things.
However, do not get me wrong. Micromanagement is a valid management style depending on when you use it. You need to micromanage especially during onboarding, when a new team member needs to understand the processes and tools of the group. There is a lot of coddling and hand-holding during the first weeks but eventually, when the new team member has understood the key objectives and deliverables of the team, the leader has to gradually ease off and allow for the new member to discover their role and how they can add value to the team. Otherwise, you perpetuate a mindset where people are not free to make decisions for themselves.
When this happens, they will turn to you for every little problem they encounter in their work, which will result in a kind of learned helplessness. Your team will not be able to make decisions on their own for fear of reprimand or worse—they know that if they do not do their work, you will do it for them anyway. Your role as a leader is to provide the needed tools and training for your team to do their work. And if this means coaching and disciplining them, then so be it. But do not set yourself up as the clearinghouse for all decisions. If this happens, you become the bottleneck for all decisions in your team, resulting in work delays, lower productivity, and even the demotivation of your team.
When you micromanage and take away your team’s autonomy, they will also begin to disengage and stop providing alternatives to work problems because whatever they bring to the group, they will think that it will always be your decision anyway. The team will not be able to adapt to new situations because they will constantly look to you on how to go about their work. This impacts their desire to better themselves because what would the point be of learning new ways of working when their manager will just tell them how to do it anyway.
This could result in burnout on your part from doing all the work and making all the decisions for your team because you spend all your time hoarding all the work and responsibility. Your team might also get exasperated with the bureaucracy of having to get your approval for every single step of their work. They might even make it as an excuse to not do their work because they are waiting for your decision. You get lost in the details and end up fire-fighting rather than focusing on the bigger picture. As a leader, your role is to provide direction and guidance to your team where to go. You cannot possibly see where you are going when your head is buried in the specifics of your team’s work.
Micromanaging also propagates lack of accountability because your team can always hide behind your decisions without taking any risks themselves. While it is true that the buck stops with you, it does not mean that your team should not share accountability. As a leader, your role is to empower your team to do their work the best way they know how and provide a safe environment where they can discuss and implement new ways of working. And when they do make a mistake, your role as a leader is to understand why they failed and the lessons which can be gleaned from the experience so others will not commit the same mistakes. While you are accountable for your team, your team should be accountable to each other for what they contribute to the team’s success.
A high turnover rate can also be attributed to incessant micromanaging. Most people do not like to be micromanaged because it takes away the fun in doing work. Your job is an extension of who you are as a person and your work is an expression of your abilities and talents. Your sense of fulfillment partly stems from knowing you have done your work well. However, when someone monitors your work constantly or tells you how to do your job all the time, work becomes tedious, boring and unfulfilling.
I think the bottom-line issue why people micromanage is distrust. They do not trust their team to carry out the work as they should, because they either think everything rests on their shoulder or they think their team cannot do the work. But as a leader, we are not expected to do everything. We are, however, expected to get results by working with and through people to achieve organizational goals. Trust is an essential element in building a solid foundation to a highly productive team. We need to be able to articulate what needs to be done, let go and allow our team to do their work the best way they know how so they can surprise us with new ideas and new ways of working. Otherwise, we will end up in a constant to keep everything together.