Leadership is a privilege but it can be abused. Micromanagement is one dysfunction of leadership that can lead to so many damaging consequences in terms of psychological wellbeing, team morale, productivity, performance and staff retention, little wonder it is a topic that often comes up in discussions about culture and organisational development.
It can be confusing for leaders to understand what is meant by micromanagement.
It can be confused with having an eye for detail. However, depending on the level of leadership responsibility a focus on strategic issues is usually the requirement for effectiveness not a focus on detailed operations. This means trusting direct reports with operational detail and having good reporting systems which allow for general oversight without micromanaging.
The problem is leadership style can be about personality of the leader, power driven or anxious leaders can micromanage because it’s comfortable for them.
6 Sign of micromanagement
1.Tendency not to trust staff
Withholds information or tends to treat information like a scarce resource. This means information is all held centrally and creativity and proactivity may be curtailed.
Undermines staff by needing to be involved in all communications, rather than being updated on outcomes. This shows up as not letting staff shine and lead on projects or interfering in communications . Such managers will insist on being copied in to every email, or being present in every meeting. Of course, there are times when this is necessary the issue is some leaders cannot tell the difference.
2.More focused on operational detail than the big picture
Effective leaders are always looking ahead and are recognised for taking teams to next level thinking. Micro managers tend to get bogged down in operational detail with less attention to the broader strategy.
3.Poor delegation
Effective delegation is a hall mark of good leadership. Micromanagers tend to want to do everything or ‘dump tasks’ rather then effectively delegate through work stream planning.
4. Rigid authorisation process
Good managers require autonomy and scope to make decisions. A micromanager tends to want to authorise almost all key decisions. This tends to create road blocks as without sign off, decisions can’t be made to take actions forward.
5. Martyrdom
Micro managers may act as if they’re carrying a disproportionate amount of the work load. Being busy and cultivating an air of indispensability they tend to get overwhelmed through the consequences of their management style which means they get lost in detail. They’re often too busy to complete tasks and don’t trust anyone to delegate.
Do you recognise any of these traits in yourself as a leader or are you experiencing a micro -managing manager?
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