The Micromanager's Guide to Relinquishing Control.

Speaking with leadership shouldn’t be a scary process. Teams shouldn’t feel uneasy when leadership is around. Employees shouldn’t be fearful of their leader, ever. Fear in the workplace is a product of a leader’s want to control everything.??

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Leadership that utilizes fear to control their team are the reason failure, toxicity and ineffectiveness are evident in their environment. A micromanager can be defined as a person who tries to control every part of a situation, circumstance, or event in a way that is damaging or ineffective to their teams work process.

If the way you lead is diminishing, tarnishing or harmful to your team’s productivity and performance, why is that apart of your leadership style????

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Let’s assess: Are you a micromanager???

- Does your team avoid you?

- When they see you come into the office, do they cut corners to not be in your path?

-When in a Zoom meeting, does your team keep their cameras off?

-Does your team frequently make mistakes that could’ve been prevented if they were comfortable enough to ask leadership first?

-Is your team afraid to admit mistakes?

-Does your team get quiet when you come around???

* If you said yes to most of these questions, you have a fear-based workplace which has created an unsafe environment.???

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A fear-based workplace is a symptom of ineffective leadership. Although these leaders usually possess many negative character traits that prompt unsuccessful outcomes rather than goal accomplishment, micromanagement is a common occurrence in their ineffective leadership style.??

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Your leadership style and tactics are affecting your team to a debilitating degree. If employees can’t communicate or collaborate with leadership, the leader has done an ineffective job of building relationships, cultivating a safe environment, and establishing the needed work culture a team needs to succeed.??

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Leadership can be intimidating. You’re the leader. You make decisions that could make or break someone's career and future. At the start of employment, the team might possess “intimidated style” behavior and actions because they don’t know you or what you are like. Being the “boss” can create a stereotypical view of what bosses are usually like- This is normal. But if your team can’t get past this behavior and it starts to affect their relationship with leadership and their work process, you as the leader aren’t doing enough to establish strong relationships with your team. This type of behavior from employees signifies that leadership hasn’t been proactive enough in building their company culture and work environment.??

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How do you relinquish control???

Now that we established your lack of effort to create the appropriate work culture your team needs to succeed, now prompts the next subject- Your need to relinquish control. Control is a hard thing to let go of- I get it, but without this ability, you will not be successful. When you have a team of people who were hired because they excel at XYZ, you must allow them to display their expertise. If you don’t let this happen creativity, innovation, and performance will be nonexistent.??

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Competitive edge is reliant on your team’s innovativeness- Their individual abilities and skills create success. The team can’t be the innovative unit your business needs if they are controlled by leadership in a way that diminishes their creativity.??

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A fear- based workplace with micromanaging leadership creates a hostile work environment full of constant uncertainty and anxiousness. No team can be successful in these conditions. Leadership tactics need to change immediately.??

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Acknowledging your need to change is the first step of relinquishing control. You’ve acknowledged this because you’re reading this newsletter, so great job taking the first step of creating change in your workplace. The next steps are crucial to learning how to relinquish control.??

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1. Figure out what your controllable circumstances are:

You can’t control every aspect of the business. Micromanagers are perfectionists- You want things your way or it’s wrong. You can’t be a successful leader and have this mentality.???

2. Ask for feedback from the team:

You won’t know all your faults until you ask the people who’ve had to interact with your ineffectiveness. This part of the process can be a hard pill to swallow for some. No one wants to hear from a group of people that they are "bad" at something, or do something in a negative way, or fail doing XYZ, but asking for feedback will show you new perspectives and the reality of your toxic behavior and actions.???

3. Be patient with yourself and the team:??

This process isn’t easy. You will get frustrated at yourself and perhaps even your team members. Especially if they aren’t receptive at first to the change. If you displayed toxic behavior and want your team to have a good transition with you, you must give them time to experience the new you. This will take time. Patience is a trait you must have to succeed in your control relinquishment process.??

4. Focus on the future but don’t forget the past:??

Acknowledge the wrong and ineffective leadership style and tactics you utilized before you started this process and what you plan on doing now and in the future to change. Transparency is vital to your team’s acceptance of you and your new approach to leading.??

5. Follow up with your team after establishing new tactics to lead:??

Who better to tell you that you’ve grown than the people who prompted you to grow. This step allows you to document changes in your leadership style and have access to what works for you and your team while establishing what you still need to work on. From here you can better establish a strategic plan to help you excel and create or sustain a successful workplace.??

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There can be a great business transformation when a leader is willing to make the proper changes, not just for the office and team, but for themselves. When you actually want to change, grow, elevate, and not just be better but do better, you have an easier time succeeding. As a leader you have to realize that fear and control don’t lead to success; Commitment, effort, consistency, and care does.??

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If success is what’s important to you than allow your team to do what they were hired to do. It's vital to see the numbers you want to see, the profit you want to gain, and the performative team you want to have. Let your team be independent and show their creative ability- I bet they would surprise you if they were given opportunities to show their expertise and skillsets. When given the space to be innovative, a team can transform competitive edge and accomplish goals. This happens when leadership allows their team creative control and a supportive environment.??

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Business success is reliant on what leadership provides to their team- Leaders, provide them with the opportunity to show you what they can do. Trusting in your team’s abilities is vital to your success.??

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When leadership can relinquish control, retaining great talent and exceeding business goals comes easy.??