How to Stop Micromanaging and Start Empowering

I’m always on the lookout for articles about leadership. Here are a few snippets:

As a new manager, you care. A lot. We get it. We appreciate it. But when caring turns into having to control every single thing, from the wording choices in a consequential email to the shade of blue used in the internal team website, you’ve taken it to the extreme, and it’s time to rein it in.

When we think of the controlling boss, we often think of someone yelling at their employees, telling them they can’t cut it, and creating an all-around hostile work environment. But this is often not the case. It can be a slippery slope from kindly “wanting to be looped in” to full on micromanagement. By micromanaging, I mean being overly prescriptive on tasks and follow ups — to the point of taking learning opportunities away from your team. Yes, your greatest weakness can?be that you care too much.

This can be especially hard for new managers, who are working to make their mark as a leader while feeling pressure to perform well and prove themselves to their direct reports and boss. But fear not, here are ways to break the cycle:

Talk about the outcome, not the process.

When you ask someone to complete a task, look closely at how you frame it. For instance, if you say, “I’d like a workshop organised with A people, on B day, covering C topics, to get to D resolution,” you’ve figuratively and literally spelled out the whole process for someone. This level of detail and direction makes people feel like you don’t trust them to figure things out, or that they’re just here to follow marching orders.

Sometimes, marching orders are exactly what a task requires. But whenever possible, you should give people the autonomy and space they need to step up and be leaders. This is what great managers do — they allow people to experiment, make mistakes, learn, and grow, so that they can become stronger performers.

The next time you assign someone a task or project, talk about the outcome you want — not every step you want them to take along the way. In her book Dare to Lead, Brené Brown discusses the concept of “painting success.” This means talking with your team about what “done” looks like and what a “good job” looks like to keep everyone on the same page.

In the example above, the outcome you’re looking for is “D resolution.” So, start there. Do a detailed problem analysis, and then say to your team members, “I’m looking to achieve this outcome. How would you approach it?” Let them share. Even if you don’t agree with their proposal, you’ve showed them that you trust them, that you’re interested in their ideas, and that you value their contributions.

Set expectations around feedback.

If you’ve read to the end of the first section, you may be thinking, “But what if my team’s plan won’t get me the outcome I’m looking for?”

To protect yourself from this problem, discuss when and how you’ll be giving your team members constructive feedback at the start of each new project. Basically, set boundaries, but also give people space to breathe, experiment, and make mistakes within those boundaries. Creativity, after all, thrives under constraints.

When you’re setting expectations around how you’ll give feedback, you should discuss the type of feedback you’ll be sharing. Will you want to line-edit their proposal, or just give directional feedback on the content? In these moments, try to stay objective, and check yourself for any micromanaging tendencies.

For example, if you’re eager to line-edit, ask yourself why. Who is the audience you’re trying to impress? If the proposal is for an internal team meeting, do you really need to fix every slightly long sentence? Probably not. If the proposal is going out to the press or senior stakeholders — fine, open the flood gates.

Your feedback should match the consequences, and when the stakes are low and the feedback is overly detailed, it can make someone feel like they’re being picked on. And when someone feels picked on, they’re not in a headspace to learn.

Want to know more? Head on over to the full article here for more ideas and perspectives. Afterwards, why not drop me an email to share your thoughts at [email protected]; or call me on 0467 749 378.

Thanks,

Robert