Some cliffs are worse than others...

It is not uncommon for managers to struggle with priorities; to consider what the most important thing is that they should be doing. Is the most important thing to keep a close watch on employee productivity, ensuring the company receives a good return on its payroll investment? Is the most important thing to manage to the budget, controlling expenses and improving efficiency? Is the most important thing to allocate resources, ensuring that all projects are on schedule? Is the most important thing to be a good leader, creating a workplace environment that engages employees? Yes, all of these things are important – but, in the course of a typical day or week, which one is the most important?

Perhaps the answer lies inherently in the question. What I mean is that, for managers, perhaps the process of determining the most important thing IS the most important thing they do. Someone has to guide the direction and priorities of the team (or company or department).

The most important thing is to make sure the most
important thing IS the most important thing.

Which is to say that THE most important thing for a manager to do is to make sure that the priorities chosen are the right ones. Clearly, one of the critical skills in management is to consistently choose the most important things that can/should be done at any given time.

Unfortunately, this whole idea can also cause a team to drive off a cliff (some cliffs are worse than others, of course, as the pictures demonstrate). If a manager has been led to believe that he, and he alone, is capable of determining the team’s priorities; that only he is capable of creating the best results for the team; that he must make every decision and solve every problem – then, ultimately, the most important thing in that manager’s mind is not the team’s execution of those priorities, but his execution of those priorities. Upon closer inspection, it is often clear that the team is not really a “team” after all.

The World According to Micro-Managers

According to the dictionary, a micro-manager is one who manages “with great or excessive control or attention to details.” The key word here is “excessive.” Although there are times when a significant amount of control might need to be exercised (new hires, for example), it is extraordinarily rare to find high-performance employees who want or need “excessive control.”

However, many micro-managers I have observed do not see themselves as being bad for the team – or being bad in any kind of way. In fact, many micro-managers believe that their excessive control and attention-to-detail is exactly what the team needs, and what makes them good at their jobs. They have not come to the conclusion that “the most important thing” in the workplace is to develop the full performance potential of each employee; instead, they believe “the most important thing” is the final result produced by the (so-called) team – the measurable performance result – i.e., that the ends justify the means.

These are two different philosophies of management. While both styles care about results, the first philosophy places the burden of performance on team members, while the second places the burden on the leader (after all, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself).

Are you a micro-manager? The following statements about micro-managers, excerpted from “What Is Micromanagement? And What You Can Do To Avoid It,” a Global Knowledge White Paper by Steve Lemex, may provide you with some answers:

• They believe that being a manager means that they have more knowledge and/or skill than their employees.
• They believe they can perform most of the tasks of their staff, probably better.
• They believe that they care about things (quality, deadlines, etc.) more than their staff.
• They feel it is more efficient to do the job themselves than give the job to a staff member.
• They are overly critical of their staff. When they review the work of staff members, they tend to find at least one thing wrong each time.
• They don’t allow their staff to learn from their mistakes
• They get irritated if staff make decisions without consulting them
• They spend an inordinate amount of time overseeing single projects
• They pride themselves on being “on top of” their staff’s projects.
• They are overworked, and their staff is not.
• They come into the office earlier than any staff member and leave later. If they are away from the office, they call in at least twice a day, including when they are sick or on vacation.
• They seldom praise staff members.
• Their staff appear frustrated, depressed, and/or unmotivated.
• Their staff do not take initiative – they have to check with the manager before doing anything
• They have been referred to as controlling, dictatorial, judgmental, critical, bureaucratic, suspicious, or snooping by staff

If this sounds a whole lot like you, I’ve got good news for you – you can be successful as a micro-manager! No doubt about it, micro-managers often produce good, even great, results. However, you have to realize that the “team” (such as it is) will never succeed without you.

If you insist on doing everything, that is exactly what will happen, so quit whining about your employees’ lack of initiative. The team will likely suffer high turnover; employees will tell you they got a better offer, but they really just want to work for someone that will give them a chance to grow and develop. The team will not be innovative, because the “really good” ideas always come from you. When you drive off the cliff, it will be a long way down…

On the other hand, if you want to create a high-performance team – and be able to take a vacation without being tethered to your Blackberry – “the most important thing” is to make sure that developing your employees IS the most important thing you do. Then, all of the day-to-day priorities you establish can be accomplished by the people you actually hired to do them.

Tagged as: employee issues, Micro-management, teams