Loosen the Reins—Stop Micromanaging!

Employees who are micromanaged end up feeling frustrated, demoralized, and demotivated. It can slow productivity, cause high turnover, and in the end, cost your company money. While some managers are aware of their style of management, most micromanagers don’t even know they’re doing it. PrideStaff Financial offers some clear indicators that you might be a micromanager and why you should stop managing your employees this way.

Ask yourself these questions:

·         Do you feel you are never satisfied with deliverables of your employees or team?

·         Do you become frustrated because you would have done a task or objective differently?

·         Are you focused so much on the details that you enjoy making corrections of others work?

·         Do you schedule meetings either daily or weekly for constant updates?

·         Do you demand to be cc’d on every email communication?

·         Are you not allowing your team to creatively come up with solutions, as you see yourself as the problem solver?

If you answered yes to any of the above, you are a micromanager.

Micromanaging may get you short-term results or solutions, but in time, it negatively impacts your team, the company, and yourself. It can dilute your own productivity and cause you to run out of capacity to get managerial tasks done because you are so focused on doing everyone else’s job. It ends up becoming an issue of trust, and will eventually be noticed by those you manage. You may hinder your team’s development and demoralize them, thereby creating an organizational vulnerability when your team isn’t used to functioning without your presence and heavy involvement. It also creates a domino effect by which employees you manage leave the company for greener, more trusting pastures.

Make a change, and start small.

All it takes is being able to recognize that this is your style of managing or leading others. Once you’ve done that, then you can take steps to make subtle changes to your style. Start by letting go of the minutia. While tough to do, the key is to do it a little at a time. Start by looking at your list and determine what low hanging fruit you can completely pass on to a team member. Engage in discussions with your team about what level of detail you will engage in and where they will need to pull you in. Also highlight the priorities for you, and make sure that is where you are spending most of your energy. You can also take steps to allow others to come to results their way. There’s a difference between communicating an expectation and dictating how to get to that result. Your job as a manager is to clearly set the conditions of satisfaction for any task you assign. Articulate what you envision the final outcome to look like, but don’t give a play-by-play of instructions on how to get there. Allow your team to see that you trust them to get the job done, no matter how it gets done.

Micromanaging is not always a bad trait to have, especially with short-term and tight deadlines, but as a long-term leader and manager, you need to be comfortable wearing different hats, and give your team the ability to grow on their own. You’d be surprised at how much productivity increases when a team feels they have the trust and support of their bosses. You once had a boss that gave you some creative freedoms, allowed you to grow, and explore paths of getting results your own way; look how well it worked out!

PrideStaff Financial is one of the nation’s leading recruiting firms. Our trusted and experienced consultants can give you the support you need as your company grows and expands. Contact our financial consultants today and find out how we can help you.