Micromanagement sucks.
Have you ever been in a role where, regardless of what you do, your manager found something to criticize? Or had to live with the knowledge that, despite being a functional adult, another person who had authority over you believed you weren’t capable of doing your job? Awful, right? Hopefully this isn’t your life right now!
Micromanagement leads to reduced effort and turnover risk among employees (especially those tricky high performers) and it hurts the business by slowing employee development. Your team members need opportunities to try things for themselves! They may make mistakes but, in the process, they learn and grow their ability to take on the new and more complex tasks to help your business.
The major root cause of micromanagement is a lack of trust. The need to control, hover, and nitpick often emerges from a lack of belief in someone’s ability to perform an activity, at least to some particular level of expectation (which may or may not be reasonable). Building clear, two-way communication that clarifies manager and employee expectations is the most powerful way to build and regain that trust.
A great first step down the path of better communication is for managers to explain the “why” behind a project. In the course of work, whether a team member is stacking inventory shelves or composing an elaborate research project, a variable will arise that will require the employee to use their judgment. Clarity around how a project serves other interests, how it will be evaluated, and what purpose it serves for the organization will help a team member make better decisions and, in turn, increase trust in their work.
Think about how we’re setting up our employees to actually succeed the first time by giving more context in the below examples:
Request: “Can you respond to that email from Legal?”
Better request: “Can you respond to that email from Legal? They’re frustrated that we left out a few items in the last review, so it’s ok to over-communicate to provide all the details on the updated timeline.”
Request: “Can you prepare some new analysis that’s more digestible?”
Better request: “We are getting a push from leadership to create more content that’s suited for mobile viewing. Can you prepare some new analysis that includes more frequent, shorter takeaways?”
Request: “Can you go stack the inventory shelves?”
Better request: “The district manager is coming later and she’s stressed we won’t have enough stock ahead of the holiday. Can you stack the inventory shelves as quickly as possible? It’s ok if the product labels aren’t all lined up as long as we finish.”
Managers: communicate the “why,” help your team members make smart decisions, and build trust.
To learn more about improving communications to end the scourge of micromanagement, check out How to Suck Less as a Manager: A Practical Guide to Making Your Team Less Miserable Today!
