Management Pet Peeves 1/??

I've been mulling over a series of articles for the past year or so about management pet peeves. Before I get into the meat of things, I want to give a couple disclaimers.

1. I am NOT a management expert by any means. Everything I know I learned from lived experience not a textbook. Just because I work in a BSchool doesn't mean I know anything in that discipline.
2. These are my pet peeves honed through years of experience. I've seen examples of what works and what doesn't.
3. Unless I say otherwise, I'm not talking about my current boss. Assume this is past me or things I've observed. But since my current boss is pretty awesome, know it's not that.
4. Everyone has room to grow as a manager, myself included. I am not perfect but I'd rather be caught dead that doing any of the things below.

What is my #1 hall of shame pet peeve? Micromanagement. I don't know anyone who admits to being a micromanager. Who would? There are probably a thousand articles and employee surveys that say a micromanaging boss kills morale, drives off great employees and probably hurts the bottom line in other ways. I think we have a hard time defining what a micromanager looks like and how it can appear to those outside the chain of command.

1. You require your direct reports to CC or BC you on all their emails. First, what kind of person can handle that email volume? I have a grand total of 5 emails in my inbox right now. That's it. 5 things I need to do something about. If my staff, especially when I had 10+ people copied or bc'd me on every email you'd find me buried under enough email to stack from here to the moon and back. The idea of it is exhausting to consider. More than your workload, why? If your staff is performing so poorly that they can't be trusted to send an email why are they still working for you? Use a PIP to figure out exactly where the gaps are and work to remediate OR fire them. They are second-guessing every letter they type and you are inundated with emails. Did you hire a competent adult? If so, give them the tools and authority they need to do their job and get out of the way. Do you have any idea how that looks to your colleagues? If I am copying (or bcing) my boss it's either to praise something or because I've exhausted all my tools and am calling for back up. So, I assume if you are ccing my boss on a basic request that I've always fulfilled satisfactorily before that you think I need my boss to prod me to do my job. Furthermore, it's embarrassing to your team. Grown adults, experts in their respective field should not need that kind of oversight. Trust me people are talking and wondering what your employee did that merits this kind of babysitting.
2. You require weekly or biweekly task reports. Unless you work in a field where your staff produces an actual widget that can be measured, how is this really helpful? If you are concerned about productivity then have a conversation about that. If you feel like you are in the dark about what staff are doing then have a conversation about that. Weekly bulleted emails about the 5 email blasts, 10 call campaigns, 2 offsite meetings and a project update are wasting time. Establish up front the things you need to be kept in the loop on and otherwise assume your competent adult employees are doing a good job. You aren't developing trust and rapport with this. You are developing distrust and exhaustion. You are just getting more emails not more productivity or staff development.
3. That proverbial bus? You know it's schedule and put your people in front of it on the regular. This is how good employees either leave or "Office Space" their roles. My team knows that I will never, ever throw them under the bus to make a student feel better or make myself look better. Will we have conversations afterwards about better decisions? Sure. Will I make sure that I wasn't a part of the problem by not sharing information? You betcha. I back my team to the hilt and when they make mistakes (which we all do because we are human), I work to make it a learning opportunity. When I make a mistake, I'm the first to fall on my sword. If your team is terrified to make a mistake because of how you will respond, when mistakes happen they'll get hidden and that never ends well.

One of the great things about my bosses at UBalt is that they aren't micromanagers. They know my history and strengths. They know their limits. They give me the authority to do my job. I feel trusted. I feel valued. Those things mean I worked harder to do an even better job. I've always found it so sad when I see a colleague get micromanaged, leave and then find a job where they can shine because they are trusted and their boss gets out of the way. Not sad for the colleague but sad for the employer. Look at what you are missing out on?