What are the major components needed to manage a business successfully? Something like planning, organizing, staffing, delegating, controlling and budgeting crosses the educated psyche.
Indeed, all that is needed. But just like anything else, business management can be overdone. This bites into the thought of a common practice across many businesses — Micromanagement.
What is Micromanagement?
Micromanagement is an approach in business management that involves excessive supervision on the minutes of the tasks that a team or an employee has to perform. People who have worked in big organizations might relate to this. Remember that time when your manager would come to you every hour for those nightmarish progress checks? That’s what that was about.
What causes Micromanagement?
Managers may develop a tendency to micromanage due to the following reasons:
1.) Some managers simply have a ‘controlling’ thought process and practice it in their everyday lives.
2) They know the better way to perform a task than their subordinates and hence, hate the idea of the latter’s workflow getting compromised.
3.) They fear failure from their employees.
These reasons do seem legitimate at face value, but they create several big problems for the business.
Why is it a problem?
It wastes time
Employees are already overwhelmed by so many management apps and tools that often distract them, despite enhancing their workflow. And now you come along with those 5-minute reporting sessions to impede their workflow and distract them once again. Trouble ensues when you time those 5-minute reports throughout the day, each hour! You see how much time you could save with just one or two of them?
Impedes learning
Fine, it is understandable that managers have a lot of responsibility and want to avoid any kind of failure in a task. But how else are the employees going to learn when they are given less work than they should, and aren’t given much chance to make mistakes?
“Why do we fall? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up” – The Dark Knight Rises
Compromises freedom of employees
Who dislikes freedom? Exactly, nobody! We all want at least some autonomy as to how we are to go about a piece of work. Freedom in terms of the time we take to complete the task and the approach we take to complete it is paramount for our satisfaction. Alas, the micromanagers don’t understand that and interfere with their subordinates’ peace of mind, and often have unrealistic expectations from them.
Breeds frustration among teams
Nobody likes to be spoon fed all the time. Apart from compromising autonomy, micromanagement also causes frustration in employees owing to the lack of learning and growth. And it doesn’t take a genius to know that satisfied employees are more productive. So here’s another one, micromanagement also reduces productivity.
All that is enough reason to get rid of it. Micromanagement really, is mismanagement.
How to handle it?
Watch your behavior
Your manager might just be extremely particular about a particular habits of yours. Watch out carefully for what it is about you that constantly bugs your manager. It could be something as little as punctuality which may be preventing them from trusting you completely. Yes, fix that. This way, you win their trust and also allow them to have confidence in delegating more work to you.
Step into the manager’s shoes
Try to look at things from their perspective. Ask yourself, what would be your top most priority if you were in their place? This helps you perform better and find out the mistakes that you need to avoid, thereby winning their confidence.
Take initiative
It is understandable that micro managers resist delegating work. But, mind is flexible. The more you offer yourself to do more work, the more their mind will open up to that idea. Plus, it also shows your confidence and will to contribute more to the growth of the organisation. Hence, taking initiative helps.
Communicate often
Communication solves nearly all of the little problems in an organisation. The more you communicate with your manager, the more you will be able to understand their concerns and hence, pacify them. It builds a healthy relationship between you and your manager and enhances her trust in you.
It is hence clear that managers need to chill out a bit. Micromanagement demotivates employees, de-empowers them and impedes productivity of your business. Businesses must avoid it like the plague!