Could Micro-Management Be Good For You?
Many of my conversations over the last month or two have focused on this topic. Not by my introduction or encouragement, but something that has been brought up by the leaders that I coach.
I suppose it’s noble that they want to avoid micro-management. They want to allow their people to do the job they’ve been hired for. They don’t want to be overbearing or to be that boss. Perhaps they’ve been micromanaged before, and they don’t want to do that to others. Overall, micromanagement has a pretty negative connotation, and I find that most of the leaders I work with want to avoid this at all costs.
Upon further explanation, that avoidance may have a higher cost than we realize, and we might be abusing the term micromanagement, or using it to avoid leading in ways that are critical to the success of our team or company.
Challenge #1: Misdefining micromanagement.
I once had a boss ask to see all of my emails that were going out during some shared work that we were doing. They would be written by me, then read by him, sent back to me (after some period of time) with requested corrections that were generally done to make it sound more like him. For clarity, these emails were coming from me, not me writing them for him.
After some time, I explained to him that if he wanted the emails to go out quickly, either I should write them and send them, or he should write them and send them. I also explained that if he wanted the emails to sound like him, that he should write them and send them.
If, however, he trusted that I might be able to compose an email after 12 years as a teacher and communicating with parents as a large part of my job, me having earned my doctorate, and me having owned businesses which required professional communication as a part of my success, then I would write the emails and send them out.
*I didn’t say the last part, but I wanted to.
That to me, was micromanagement. I had not proven incapable of writing an email and the email corrections were not done to adhere to a company standard. They were done to make me, sound more like him. Which was not better or worse, it was just more like him.
That might be a good definition of micromanagement to consider: Making corrections or overseeing actions in an effort to make your team or employees sound or act more like you.
The formal definition is: controlling every part, no matter how small (or unimportant), or an enterprise or activity.
However, upholding your standards, setting up frequent check-ins or coaching, challenging people to do better, correcting people on your expectations, coaching people on important details, these things are not micromanagement.
I challenge you to pay attention to your biases, and see if you might be avoiding some of the things above, as you seek to avoid being the bad boss that you had in the past, or that you don’t want to be for others.
There is a difference between leading, holding standards, and teaching details, and actually micromanaging.
Challenge #2: Your Own Fears
The second thing we need to be careful about is hiding behind a formal, negative term, to keep us from taking action on things we are afraid of.
It’s “safe” to say, “Oh, you know, I don’t want to micromanage”.
It’s honest to say, “I’m afraid how they will respond if I______”. or “I’m not comfortable addressing ______”.
For many leaders, we don’t want to address things that we aren’t comfortable addressing or that we are unsure how to address. So we fall back on excuses like, “I don’t want to micromanage”, because that is an acceptable explanation, or so we think.
We do this with all sorts of phrases and explanations. We find things that we can talk ourselves into or safely explain to others, and we use those to hide behind when we don’t want to do hard things.
My encouragement, to you and to me, is to pay attention when we are hiding behind acceptable explanations.
There are ways through the fear.
But the cost for not holding the standard, addressing the issue, coaching the details is high.
Maybe your team needs coaching and leadership at the micro level. High level success is most often found in our discipline to the details.
I’m pulling for you,
Bryan
I think, write and coach on leadership, business, and personal development.
I partner with dedicated leaders to help them lead, grow, and build in a way that is both sustainable and aligned with their values.
You can learn more about me and check out my business coaching services at www.efournine.com.
