“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people, and they tell us what to do.” ~ Steve Jobs
One of the biggest challenges employees struggle with on a regular basis is dealing with a leader who micromanages.
A clients once shared that their manager would go back into her reports and change margins and layout styles. When she asked why, she was told, “The President wanted it this way.”
Another client shared how their leader would sit in her office and send emails to people three levels down asking specific questions about a project and skipping over all the managers in-between on a daily basis!
I guess you can justify anything you want to regardless of the damage it does your people and your brand.
Justifying Micromanaging
Micromanagers are people who have an enormous need to control all aspects of a project, task, or team. Oh sure, they can justify that things need to be done a certain way (their way), or that they need to make sure the projects get done on time, or that everyone doing their job the same way they would do it, or yadda, yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah.
Most folks don’t like change. Some folks will change once they see that the cost (pain) of continuing down the same path is greater than the perceived cost (pain) of changing.
For a leader to change and stop micromanaging, they need to first realize they are a micromanager! Second they need to understand the cost of on themselves, their people, and the bottom-line.
10 Hidden Costs of Micromanaging:
- Micromanagers silently send the message to their people that they are not valuable or capable of doing their jobs. The negative impact on morale is staggering.
- Micromanagers limit the pace of productivity because nothing moves forward without their approval. They create bottlenecks.
- Micromanagers limit the growth of their people because they have no opportunity to branch out, develop, and try new things.
- Micromanagers wreak havoc on their teams because they project their inner fears onto others and then attempt to control all the pieces, parts, and people in an attempt to lessen their fears.
- Micromanagers limit their ability to move-up and lead more people because they don’t scale. Micro-managing 20 is easier than attempting to micro-manage 500!
- Micromanagers drive talent away from them. Sometimes it is away from their department, sometimes it is out of ‘ve the company, and sometimes, right to the competition.
- Micromanagers rob their folks of purpose and meaning at work, because they are consistently being sent the message that they aren’t trusted to do their jobs.
- Some executive leaders allow micro-managers to continue because they fail to see the long-term effects they have on morale & productivity. They believe the micro-manager gets things done and therefore, the end justifies the means.
- Micromanagers create undue amounts of stress on themselves and others because they feel the need to control things, even those things they have no control over.
- Micromanagers make miserable leaders because they are more focused on themselves (their work, their way, their reputation, etc.) and less on growing and developing their people.
Micro-managing = Fear = Loss
What most micromanagers will not admit is that at the core of their micromanaging issue is fear…their fear. Fear of being wrong, fear of losing, fear of losing control, fear of not being important, fear of looking bad, fear of being out-shined, fear of doing things differently, fear of change…shall I go on?
Fear is almost always associated with loss. To learn more about how to overcome this fear Click here and learn a simple and easy process to overcome your fear.
If you want or need to take a giant leap towards becoming the leader you know you can be than follow this link! Click here
Micromanaging certainly doesn’t bring out the best version of you as a leader or the best version of your people. And isn’t bringing out the best in yourself and others what leadership is all about?
Till next time!
