The management styles of your top executives can affect your overall business flow and revenue performance more than you know. Employees join companies but leave managers. Gallup, an analytics company that help leaders and organizations in knowing the attitudes and behaviors of employees, customers and citizens backed up by its 80 years of experience with global reach, organized a poll of more than 1 million employed U.S. workers. The poll concluded that the number 1 reason people quit their jobs is a bad boss or immediate supervisor. 75% of workers who voluntarily left their jobs did so because of their bosses and not the position itself.
In spite of how good a job may be, people will quit if the reporting relationship is not healthy. And for some isolated situations, micromanagement is impacting that relationship.
Micromanagement is a management style whereby a manager closely observes or controls the work of his subordinates or employees, which might affect the sense of professional freedom of employees.
The need to feel trusted and valued is a key ingredient to which every corporate manager must first remember to fulfill on their employees, in order for their business goals to be achieved.
In our world that is hungry for fast-paced and perfection-driven results, many organizations nowadays choose to hire managers who seem to be in control of everything, every nook and cranny of the trade. The consistencies of the production of good results, however, eventually dwindle, due to the erosion of their workers’ confidence. Next thing you know, the people are calling it quits.
According to the Philippine Statistic Authority, 79 per 1,000 employees are either resigning from their jobs or got laid off in the fourth quarter of 2015. The workforce may have diverse reasons for leaving their jobs, but the organizations are often at fault for unconsciously sending them away.
Here are the 5 unavoidable sequels of micromanagement every business should be wary of:
1. Diminishing Productivity
The manager’s constant giving of input and alteration of employee workflows can result to slow employee response time. And in some case, even mediocrity. In order to address this as an entrepreneur, you can train your top managers to give feedback per department instead of per individual if the situation applies. If his feedback will generally improve and shorten the processes of the employees without sacrificing the quality of their outputs, then his feedback should be valued too.
2. Reduced Innovation
Living in constant fear of criticism can result in the employees’ less creativity and lower initiative to take risks.
“Sometimes, you get bottled down to the details and it’s not really good. Focus on strategy and focus on executing that mission and vision,” said Jean Henri Lhuiller, Cebuana Lhuiller President and CEO on an interview in ANC’s The Boss. He believes that reading is good to improve as a leader, also mentioning “I make sure my managers do the same.
3. Decline of Morale
Employees that are made to feel that they cannot make decisions without the input of their managers may lead to them being consumed with the thoughts that they cannot do anything right by themselves.
“As a superior and an individual, you work differently from others. But when you micromanage, you are basically telling your employees – who, themselves, are unique individuals – that your method is the only right one to do.” said Ron Cullimore, Head of Client Services and Customer Service Manager of Manila Recruitment, a leading recruitment firm in the Philippines for headhunting, executive search, expert, technical and IT recruitment. If you are interested in their insightful solutions and services as an established entrepreneur, you may visit their site at https://manilarecruitment.com for inquiries.
4. High Employee Turnover
Due to unhealthy micromanagement, capable employees might feel that they are entering a labor camp since their every movement is being monitored, restrained and harshly criticized. Let’s admit it, nobody wants to be or even feel shackled whenever one is going to work. In the long run, suffocation will set in and the one thing left to do is resign.
An a business-owner, you may invest in the trainings of your managers in terms people management and mentoring the employees below them, creating a culture of mentorship and empowerment.
5. Loss of Trust
A culture of trust within your company is something any business-owner should aspire to have. Constant micromanaging leads to an employee’s discouragement that will pave way to the collapse of trust; not only towards the manager, but also towards the employee’s perception of his own skills.
Some micromanagement tactics may result to the employees’ perceptions of the manager. An employee may no longer sees the manager in a professional light, but as an oppressor whose focus is to control, scrutinize and demoralize one’s work.
Del Monte Philippines and Nutri-Asia, one of the most successful food companies in the Philippines, highlights how a sense of trust within workplace impacts their success. “We treat our employees more as a family. It’s a little paternalistic and suits the Asian context where it’s more non-confrontational,” mentioned by Joselito Campos Jr., Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Del Monte Philippines and Nutri-Asia. “My dad always said that loyalty is a two-way street. You have to take care of the employees, and they will work long and hard for you.”
The micromanagement approach may not be a good way to go, especially if you want to have a more receptive manner in managing employees. Micromanaging sometimes, even with the intent to just help and advise, only breeds resentment and creates a very stressful work environment for the staff. A leader needs to balance assistance and should know when to back off in order to let the people learn and grow in their craft.
Upon remembering an important scenario from the family comedy movie, “The Beautician and the Beast” that I watched when I was 12 years old; the once harsh and cold leader in the story finally realized his old ways and enthusiastically announced to his subordinates this remarkable line with a smile on his face, “A happy worker works harder.” Empowering your people that make up the business, nurturing their talents with proper training, support and giving them space for their work to flourish will result in the best ideas that will maximize the total performance of the company.