Author: Mike Urgo
Micromanagement.
If you ask most employees on the surface about micromanagement, they will say it’s a bad thing. Ask most managers, and they will say they do not like it. But is micromanagement the devil we build it up to be?
Or has it become a scapegoat for people to deflect attention away from their own transgressions?
To me, as with most things, the answer isn’t cut and dry.
Great leadership can’t be canned.
This is because great leaders can understand the moment, the people, and all the contributing factors to a situation as they lead. This is why there are so many excellent frameworks to help guide leaders as they grow to be as prepared as they can for given situations, which includes situations that leaders have never experienced before.
For now, let’s remove the thought of micromanagers with nefarious intentions. Which means, I don’t want to spend time on those managers / leaders with no interest in being a good leader and lean on micromanagement as a means of control and power, because their only focus is on themselves and their own success. I would like to believe that these leaders are not as prevalent. Instead, let me start by looking at leaders who are viewed as “bad” by their employees.
In a previous role, I had a leader confide in me that they were so frustrated because they felt like they were being micromanaged.
My immediate question to them was: what are they doing to make you feel micromanaged?
Their answer surprised me. They stated that they felt like they were constantly being checked in on, and didn’t have the time or freedom to work and then report back. They felt like they were wasting time putting together weekly reports that weren’t being read and most importantly that their manager did not trust them.
That’s the first issue I think of when it comes to micromanagement: trust.
When I am managing a team, one of the first messages I have to the team is that I expect them to be “masters of their domain”. The expectation being that I would prefer to trust them to stay on top of things that they can control within their purview and that if and when they need help, they would ask. I think it’s important, especially if you are leading a new group to show them that you, as a leader, are starting off by trusting the team. That trust though, comes with a caveat. The caveat is that if that trust is broken, it then needs to be built back up.
Trust is a two-way street. Employees need to trust their leaders just as much as leaders need to trust their teams. What I have seen get in the way of trust, which can lead to micromanagement, is a lack of documented expectations or unclear expectations. As a leader, if you don’t set clear expectations with your team, they could be falling short and not know it. Then, when you start to implement more checks as a leader, they could perceive this “micromanagement” coming out of nowhere, which leads to mistrust. There is also an ownness on the employees to speak up if the expectations of the leader are not clear.
Example, a leader sits their team down and says they expect to have an update on the progress of their work by the end of the week, they ask if that makes sense, everyone nods and the meeting ends.
The leader left the meeting expecting three slides from each employee which show the status of all their work in flight, the pipeline of work coming up, and a slide detailing all risks and issues.
Here’s what they received after their first week:
- Employee A sent an email on Friday at 4pm stating: “The team is on track for all items in flight, the pipeline hasn’t changed, and there aren’t any big risks or issues to note for now.”
- Employee B sent an email which contained a screenshot of the system that tracks their work and said: “let me know if you have any other questions”.
- Employee C put together a twenty-page slide deck with two slides for each of their assignments and sent a ten-paragraph email notating the day-to-day activities they accomplished for the week.
- Employee D sent nothing.
I have worked with leaders whose first instinct is to lash out to their employees. Wondering how they did not receive the reports in the format they expected. It’s imperative as leaders that we set extremely clear expectations for our employees and create an environment where they can feel comfortable asking questions or making suggestions. In this scenario, employee B may be on to something where maybe their leader can get most of what they need to see from the system. It could have also saved employee C hours of time if what they sent was over kill.
Are you focused on employee D?
The kneejerk reaction may be to deflect the inconsistencies the leader created and focus on the employee who didn’t send anything. However, I have learned that many times those employees are the most valuable, they just need to feel comfortable sharing feedback. I have experienced conversations where an employee decided not to complete an assignment and their reasoning was valid, or they had an idea to reach the same result in a more efficient way. As leaders, prior to jumping into micromanagement tactics, it’s important to reflect internally and ensure we have given our people clear instructions which the freedom to ask questions and achieve the result with a sense of trust and freedom.
As leaders, it’s important to let your employees know that you trust them while also making sure they understand and are ok with your expectations. If you find that the manager you are reporting to is micromanaging you, I have found that the best way to talk to them is first about trust after self-reflection. Before anything productive can happen, you and your supervisor need to be on the same page with where your performance stands. As an employee it’s important to own any mistakes you have made and if you aren’t clear on the expectations, be sure to ask for them.
Now what about those toxic managers?
This may be an unpopular opinion, but if you have honestly tried to connect with your manager and understand their expectations, while sharing what will help you as an employee be the most productive and their style doesn’t change; it’s time for you to leave. What I have found is that many times employees in these positions have not done their true due diligence to connect with their leader. They have alluded to smaller things, or complained to peers, or they don’t want to take the full look in the mirror on things that they could do better to help the situation.
But what about those employees that need structure?
I had an employee that was so impressive and as a new leader to the team I started to notice inconsistencies in their quality of work. Rather than bring them into my office and start questioning them like they had given up top secret information to the enemy, I asked how they were doing. I told them I wanted to make sure I was cultivating a working environment that would contribute to their success. This employee was so impressive to me, because they opened up and said that while they appreciate the trust I put in the team, and they had confidence in their role, sometimes they would struggle staying on task.
They needed more structure from me in order to be successful. For me, this was uncomfortable as I don’t like following up with people or feeling like I am babysitting. However, those feelings are mine and so long as I am not spending extra time, I had no problem working with this employee to create an environment where they could be successful, and we were able to create a working rhythm that worked for both of us.
So, if you feel like you are in this position, I strongly recommend looking in the mirror to see if you are the best communicator, you can be. If you have, and you are truly one of those unlucky people whose manager just struggles with leadership and uses micromanagement as a means of control and power, then it may be time to tune up your resume and start looking for something new. To be clear, I don’t think in all cases that this is the leader’s fault. In some cases, it just may be a case where the two parties do not work well together.
To summarize, I think we focus on two lenses or perspectives. The first as the leader ensuring you are setting of the correct expectations. If the direction is ambiguous, be sure not to expect an exact result. As the employee, be sure to ask questions to make sure you understand the expectations, so you and your leader are on the same page. Ultimately good communication is going to be the best tool against micromanagement. Good communication builds trust and trust is the cornerstone of all relationships.
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