Do you evern wonder how to kill a team’s performance? Hire a micromanager!!!!!
Have you ever managed someone? Have you ever been managed by someone? I am sure you have. How was the experience?
Nobody wakes up and decides to be a micromanager. I wish they were never born. I met the first one, several years ago. It was quite fascinating and frightening at the same time. It started like this: “The buck stops with me thus I need to ensure all things are ok”. At first, I thought fair enough. Later on, it carried on. It kept increasing and clarity was missing. Honestly, it felt like I was suffocating. I did not know where my role starts and ends. Fear and worry became regular feelings. I did not trust to talk to others in the team. I could sense there was a similar feeling in my other teammates but no one dared to share more.
How did this come to happen? Was it my fault? I kept blaming myself. My self-talk daily went like this: “Elvira, because you are not good enough, your boss does not trust you to do a good job”. I saw that I could not perform well even the things, which I knew how to do well. I got convinced that I was a poor performer.
Micromanagement is the opposite of trust.
Harvard Business Review conducted a study to see the correlation between staff engagement and micromanagement. “Absenteeism caused by disengagement costs a typical 10,000-person company $600,000 a year in salary for days where no work was performed, and that “disengagement-driven turnover costs most sizable businesses millions every year.” It is obvious. The cost is high.
- Team performance goes down
- Fear increases in individuals and slowly creeps in the whole organizational culture
- Leadership trust is missing thus team lacks trust in leadership
- People growth is stagnating
- Control is the main factor impacting the workplace
We could go on and on with several other traits of the micromanager.
Is there an escape for this?
How to deal with a micromanager?
- Define Micromanaging
- Find out what your boss wants to loosen his/her grip
- Examine your performance objectively
- Be honest & Face the challenge
- Communicate your needs and understand your boss’s needs
- Prove you don’t need micromanaging
- This is the stepping stone of your career progression
Being a Trusted manager can save a lot of trouble, money and it is far better than micromanaging. “Over time, I have come to this simple definition of leadership: Leadership is getting results in a way that inspires trust.” ~ Stephen M. R. Covey, The Speed of Trust
