Tag: Manager

Micromanaging: Who’s at fault?

Have you ever had a manager who literally looked over your shoulder while you were typing a memo or telling you how to do work at which you already are proficient, or second guesses every decision you make? Many experts have described this action as micromanaging, which can lead to several negative occurrences in your office or organization. It can lead to a lack of creativity, codependence on the manager, and a lack of development and learning opportunities for the employee. Micromanaging impedes the progress of workflow, so everything becomes a bottleneck. The ultimate result is the downgrade of morale among employees and team members.

This management style was around well before the word “micromanager” became part of our lexicon. In 1946, Peter Drucker referred to as the “ultimate of management gurus,” called for a “democracy of management” whereby organizations should decentralize and delegate greater decision-making authority to employees.

Employees that are micromanaged begin to develop distrust between the employee and their managers. The employee is inhibited from taking the initiative in making decisions for fear the work will be second-guessed. But what if the manager has cause to meddle or look over an employee’s shoulder? Who should be at fault for this behavior?

Now, I am not naïve to know that there are valid reasons why managers micromanage employees. For example, poor work ethics, training purposes, or new policies and regulations are implemented. Perhaps the manager is not efficient themselves. If the manager is insecure, self-doubting, and getting constant pressure from above, such behavior is normal, even if not warranted.

Before we place all the blame on the manager, employees need to look critically at themselves to see if there is a reason for the manager’s actions. Employees must put forth their best effort in every part of the job so the manager will notice it. Perhaps the manager then will have no reason to second-guess the work.

If this is not the case, the manager will not effectively lead those subordinates to you. Therefore, trust must be re-established to be an effective Manager, Team Lead, or Supervisor.  

The effective manager knows how to strike a balance between hands-on supervision and instruction without excessively monitoring employees’ every moment. No matter who is at fault, the manager must take the lead in resolving the issues. Manager must use their leadership skill and core competencies to bring resolution to a distrusted environment.  

So, how to stop the micromanagement of leadership style? An article in The HR Specialist in 2011 gave four solutions to help micromanagers stop the behavior and find balance. They are still relevant today:

1.      Clearly communicate the goal and objectives of the project, plus deadlines. Managers who don’t communicate exactly the requirements to an employee will have to micromanage because the employee doesn’t clearly understand expectations.

2.     The manager should determine where micromanaging is needed, what particular project requires a close eye on, and when it is appropriate to micromanage. For example, will the manager focus on all of the projects or a specific few? Will the manager focus on all employees or certain ones, and just when should micromanaging be done?

3.      Understand the art of delegating at a steady rate. Know when to back off on micromanaging top performers and those who show the ability to be productive without ongoing supervision. Start by delegating tasks that are less risky and require few to no decisions by the employee. Then gradually increase task and decision making as the employee improves and you feel they are more capable.

4.      The manager should ask employees for suggestions for every new task or project.

If you are the guilty micromanager described in this blog, you need to take a critical look at yourself and understand that you are keeping your employees from being creative and innovative, reducing productivity and profits for the organization.

Good managers should focus on the big and strategic picture instead of the small details of the operation. Good managers should empower, encourage, develop, and inspire their employees and not become overbearing and controlling.

Thanks for reading my thoughts.

Dr. D

(The Carolyle Destiny Group)

 

 

Lead by example: to lead change, leaders must change from within

We’ve all heard the phrase: “Lead by example.” In battle, the troops must see the Army Officer in front of them, leading them boldly towards their objective. The leader exemplifies courage, selfless service, and inspires trust in his followers.

Example-setting is the only way a leader will get his followers to buy into his plan. Albert Schweitzer said: “Example isn’t the main thing in leadership – it is the only thing.”

Most people are visual learners, not verbal learners. Good communication makes the vision clear, and good modeling makes it come alive.

A leader must want his followers to model the desired behavior. How do you do that? How, as a leader, do you get your followers to exhibit the you want to see? The answer is simple: be a leader, not a naysayer. Leaders must lead themselves first.

To do this a leader, a manager, supervisor, team leader – whoever aspires to lead – must have self-awareness. They must know their weaknesses and their capabilities before barking out orders. But building awareness about one’s habits of thought, emotions, hopes, and behavior is a task. Leaders must know what makes them tick, their beliefs, their priorities, their aspirations, values and fears (Boaz and Fox, 2014)

Most leaders want status, but not the responsibility. Are they at that level to get more pay and more status, or to get themselves and others to buy into the organization’s mission, vision and goals?

We have a biblical example of this in Kings II Chapters 22 through 23. King Josiah ruled Judea for 31 years. When he was 18 years old, he was in the midst of a restoration project of the temple of God, where a scroll of the book of the law was found by the high priest and was given to the royal secretary to be read to King Josiah. When the king heard the words of the law, he immediately tore his robe. In the Old Testament, this was a sign of repentance, remorse, and despair. Josiah was known as a very righteous king, yet through the word of God, he repented and became aware of his own sins towards God. Here you see how the king Josiah (leader) made a change within himself (self-awareness). His internal reform brought about the internal reform of his people, which led to the restoration of God‘s covenant throughout Judea.

How inner awareness affects the leader’s outer change

People do as they see, so the leaders’ actions speak louder than words. As mentioned previously, the example isn’t the main thing – it is the only thing. Organizations that want to implement new strategies create new policies and procedures. But the new processes will fall short if the leader does not exemplify the desired change. In their research, Boaz and Fox indicate that new strategies often fall short because of a failure to inspire the “underlying mindsets and capabilities of the people who will execute [them].”

Research indicates that if the leader doesn’t role model change and maintains the status quo, the people on the ground will maintain that same motivation. (Boaz and Fox, 2014). In my Biblical example, the people saw their King change from within. All of his actions illuminated his internal change, and this motivated the people to also change and move toward transformation.

Learning to lead means cultivating awareness of self. You must be aware of your inner thoughts, character and the values that you hold firm to, regardless of the situation. Self-awareness requires you to know what makes you tick – your inner desires, your strengths and weaknesses, the interests you had as a child, and what motivates and inspires you as an adult. But in this day and age, having inner awareness of one’s self is not easy. Many voices out there harbor confusion, deception, fear, but a few voices have vision and purpose. Nevertheless, to lead others, one must lead one’s own self.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” ―Aristotle

If you model the behavior you want everyone in your organization to exhibit, then change will happen without resistance. In a research study, seasoned executives with 15 or more years of experience were asked to name the critical leadership competency for successful change efforts. The answers were communication, collaboration, and commitment.


In the area of communication, the leaders explained that followers must know the “what” and the “why” of the change and understand how these align with the organization’s values. In the area of collaboration, successful leaders encourage people to work together across boundaries with other teams or departments to achieve a common goal. In the area of commitment, leaders aligned their own beliefs and behaviors to support change.

The successful leaders also had to step out of their comfort zone and not appear to be resistant or inflexible. The successful leaders embraced change by devoting time and effort to it. Those who were resistant to and negative about change were unsuccessful in implementing change in their organizations (Center for Creative Leadership, 2020).
The bottom line is that people model the behavior of their leaders. Followers (employees, team) will do what they see their leader do. General Colin Powell said it best: “You can issue all the memos and give all the motivational speeches you want, but if the rest of the people in your organization don’t see you putting forth your very best effort every single day, they won’t either.” Be an example of the change you want to see.


Derrick Darden, Ph.D. (Entrepreneur Apex)

Partner Entrepreneur Coach

Blogsites: dcdardentalks.com & tripledfoundation.com