Understanding Micromanagement and its Effects.

Micromanagement occurs when a leader exerts excessive control over every aspect of a situation, project, or task, including unnecessary attention to minute details. This behavior often stifles the ability of team members to take responsibility and grow, leading to a lack of autonomy.

What Causes Micromanagement?

Micromanaging typically stems from a leader's lack of trust in their employees. There are three main reasons for this:

1. Lack of Integrity: The leader perceives the employee as unreliable.
2. Lack of Competency: The employee has not yet acquired the necessary skills to perform at the required level.
3. Ego-Driven Leadership: The leader believes only they can complete the task to the desired standard, thus over-involving themselves.

In this article, we will focus on these scenarios and explore solutions to these challenges.

Solutions for Lack of Integrity.

To address a lack of integrity, employees must be made aware of how their actions have impacted trust and how their behavior affects their work.

• Coaching and Counseling: This approach helps to rebuild trust. During coaching sessions, employees should commit to the objectives outlined and sign a written agreement. They should also commit to upholding integrity going forward, fully understanding that rebuilding trust is a difficult, long-term process.
• Micromanagement for Accountability: In this case, micromanagement should be used temporarily to assess whether the employee is improving in terms of integrity. If integrity does not improve, micromanagement will not be effective for either party.

Solutions for Lack of Competency.

When an employee lacks the required skills or knowledge, micromanagement may occur as a result of the leader's desire to ensure the task is done properly. This can be remedied with the following strategies:

1. Structured Competency Development: Leaders should create a clear structure for raising an employee's competency. This includes setting defined timelines and milestones for skill development.
2. Objective Tracking: Leaders and employees should work together to create a competency checklist, enabling both parties to assess progress objectively.
3. Praise and Redirect: Alongside providing structured feedback, the leader should regularly praise the employee for their successes, and when necessary, gently redirect them when they veer off course.

This approach, when coupled with clear structures, allows for micromanagement that helps the employee grow. Without these structures, micromanagement becomes counterproductive, akin to teaching someone to ride a bicycle without ever letting go of the bike. They never learn, and both the leader's and employee's time and energy are wasted.

Solutions for Ego-Driven Leadership.

Ego-driven leaders micromanage because they believe only they can complete tasks to the required standard. To overcome this, leaders should:

1. Codify Processes: Document and standardize key tasks by recording the steps involved. Leaders can record themselves performing tasks and create detailed procedure documents and checklists for employees.
2. The 80/20 Rule: Leaders should initially codify 80% of their work, allowing their team to handle the remaining 20%. As trust builds, they can codify the remaining portion of the work, ultimately enabling their employees to work independently.

The Dangers of Micromanagement

Micromanagement can lead to learned helplessness, where employees become so dependent on constant guidance that they struggle to function without it.

It also leads to a lack of trust in their own decisions. These employees fail to recognize key moments where their judgment could influence outcomes, making them ineffective as leaders and decision-makers.

This lack of autonomy, decision-making, and self-trust undermines the development of capable leaders, ultimately creating a workforce that is incapable of self-direction.

Call to Action.

Leaders should assess their leadership style to determine if they are micromanaging their team. If micromanagement is present, the root cause is usually a lack of trust.

Leaders must address this trust gap to avoid creating employees who are helpless, lack self-awareness, and fail to make sound decisions.

To cultivate resourcefulness and initiative in their people, leaders should stop micromanaging. These are executive functions that distinguish leaders from followers.

A leader who micromanages will stifle these qualities, preventing employees from developing the skills needed to lead themselves or others.

A successful leader is one who empowers others to grow and take initiative, not a "genius with a thousand helpers." This approach fosters a thriving, independent workforce that can achieve far more than a micromanaged team.