Reaching Your Potential: The Signs of Micromanagement

In general, micromanagers:

• Resist delegating
• Spend their time overseeing the projects of others
• Start by correcting tiny details instead of looking at the big picture
• If they find a mistake in delegated work, they take it back before it's finished
• Discourage others from making decisions without consulting them.

If this sounds like you and you're getting results by keeping your nose in everyone's business, why carry on?

Micromanagers often try to validate their approach by giving a team member an assignment and then they disappear until the deadline. Is the team member likely to excel when given a free reign? Possibly, if the team member has incredible confidence in his/her abilities.

But, under micromanagement, most employees become timid and tentative, even paralyzed. Their thoughts are often ‘no matter what I do, it'll never be good enough'. Then, one of two things can happen; either the team member will ask the manager for guidance before the deadline, or he/she will forge ahead, but come up with an inadequate result.

In either case, the micromanager will interpret the result of his/her experiment as proof that, without constant involvement, his/her people will not come up to the mark.

So, does this validate micromanagement or condemn it? An effective manager enables his/her subordinates to succeed. Micromanagers, on the other hand, prevent employees from taking responsibility for their own actions, when actually, it's precisely the process of making decisions and living with the consequences, that helps people to grow and develop. In other words, helping their people to become more self-directed. For further reading on this, click here. Remember, those who are micromanaged, whether they are individuals or teams, are limited in what they can achieve, because everything has to go through the boss.

So, are you a micromanager, or are you being managed by one? In either case, here are a few tips on escaping micromanagement:

• Talk to your people, and listen to them. No surprises here but sometimes managers forget that employees often have valuable insights. Ask what the individual needs in order to complete the assignment, and then provide it. People who don't feel listened to become disengaged.
• Force yourself to delegate and set expectations for predetermined review points, and stick to them.

If you feel you're being micromanaged you can improve the situation by:

• Helping your boss to delegate to you more effectively by prompting him/her to give you all the information you need up front, and to set interim review points along the way. In other words, start by setting clear expectations (for you and your boss).
• Volunteer to take on work or projects that you're confident you'll be good at. This will start to increase your boss's confidence in you (and in his/her own delegation skills!)
• Make sure that you communicate progress to your boss regularly, to avoid him/her chasing you for information just because he/she hasn't had any for a while.
• Concentrate on helping your boss change one micromanagement habit at a time. (Remember the elephant – one bite at a time!). Your boss is only human and can make mistakes too!

Follow these tips and you'll find micromanagement becomes less of an issue.