THE DANGER OF MICROMANAGING - 2

There are many ways to know if an organization is being micromanaged, or if you as a leader are a micromanager. Some of these are:

1.???? Micromanaged organizations usually have a high staff turnover. People have no reason to stay long in an environment that appears not to value their contribution

2.???? A toxic work environment where the “boss” manager breathes down the necks of his subordinates to the point of being sometimes personally abusive and downright suffocating.

3.???? There is little or no delegation. Work is delegated with reluctance by the leadership as an exception rather than the rule.

4.???? Rules are more important than relationship. Performance is esteemed over improvement.

5.???? The feedback loop is constantly busy because the leader wants to know every minute detail of the process and progress of a delegated task. He insists on being copied every e-mail, involved in every conversation, and wants details of every conversation on the task.

6.???? Micromanagers don’t trust their team to perform. They actually expect the team to fail, especially if the team’s decisions or outcomes do not have the manager’s direct input or imprint

7.???? Absence of trust and loyalty – team members don’t feel like they are stakeholders.

8.???? Diminished employee engagement. Micromanagers spend more time dishing out instructions to, rather than seeking input from their team members

9.???? Perpetuation of mediocrity and the atrophy of initiative since every thinking is limited to the level of the micromanager leader

10.Low morale in the team, and very little motivation for excellence

11. The leader is the lone voice in the room during a team meeting. Micromanagers love the sound of their own voice and end up speaking more than listening during a team meeting

12. Exhaustion and its attendant frustration on the part of both the micromanager and the micromanaged.

13. There is no sense of a bigger picture as the leader is more focused on process than the product or expected outcome.

Micromanaging causes more problems than it could ever solve for any person or organization. Apart from stifling personal and corporate growth, it is the death knell of creativity and innovative thinking in any group. The thought of a superior breathing down one’s neck all the time can be energy-draining and exhausting. Pressure to perform is not the same as actual performance. In the micromanaged environment, people feel that they are not valued and so their input is of no meaningful consequence. When people don’t have a sense of stakeholdership in an organization, you might as well be paying robots to do the work. People perform best when they are inspired to work, not when they feel goaded to. Micromanaging creates demagogues and corporate idols who lead by fear rather than by inspirational influence.

As a leader, if you want to be effective, you need to break away from the lure of micromanaging. How? By learning to D.E.L.E.G.A.T.E. You succeed through people. And your success is amplified when you allow others around you to also succeed.

1.???? Divest yourself of

absolute power and authority

2.???? Empower your subordinates to ideate, create and execute while you supervise what is being done

3.???? Lead from the front. Demonstrate what you want and trust them to do the same or even better.

4.???? Elevate people. Prioritize your relationship with the people on your team above the directives you issue to them. Make people feel important and valuable by looking for and acknowledging their good points

5.???? Gain perspective. You are not indispensable. Your work is a reflection of you, but you are not your work. If you drop dead, you would probably be replaced by one of those whose competence you underestimated.

6.???? Assign specific, defined work with appropriate timelines for delivery and hands off, only to check in to monitor progress

7.???? Trust the delegate to perform. If you notice that he is not doing too well, build him up by guiding him on what to do. One of your jobs as a leader is to raise people who can outperform you. That only happens by inspiration, not by intimidation or condemnation

8.???? Expect what you inspect. People don’t do what you say. They do what they know you will inspect. Delegation of an assignment is not the same as abdicating responsibility for the assignment. The buck still stops at your desk

The Messiah Complex is a myth. The only Messiah that the world would ever need, has come, done His work and finished it. The world isn’t expecting another. Even He did not micromanage. He worked with at least twelve disciples at any given time!

No one is indispensable. If you want to gauge your indispensability, get a bucket, and fill it with water. Dip your arm all the way down to the bottom of the bucket. The Law of Displacement goes to work, and you will see a slight rise in the water level to make room for your arm. Then, slowly remove your hand from the water. Can you see the hole in the space where your hand was? That shows you how indispensable you are.

You want your organization and you to be around for a long time? Take your hands off before you micromanage yourself and your team to death!

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is

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