If you notice your leaders doing micromanagement in your company, book a classroom rental and discuss how micromanaging can undesirably influence the working environment. Here’s all you need to know to help your employees unleash their full potential freely.
What is Micromanagement?
Micromanagement connotes a negative management style that focuses on closely observing the work of the team members. Although monitoring the progress of the task may sound good, getting yourself, as a manager, involved every step of the way until the entire project is completed is not healthy.
What Does It Look Like?
Let’s put it in a scenario. The manager asks a secretary to organize training. This worker has to handle everything – training room rental, create a PowerPoint presentation, arrange schedules, etc.
This manager keeps on requesting countless revisions and constant updates of every little thing the employee does instead of just assigning the job, clarifying for anything else needed and informing the deadline, and then simply leaving the employee to get the job done.
If you are this kind of manager who frequently walks around the office, demands something more often than necessary, and looks at even the slightest mistake, then you are micromanaging. In most cases, you tend to designate the task to others when the first assignee seems incapable for you but ends up taking over.
This management style can be detrimental.
What are the Root Causes of Micromanagement?
The need for a team lead to micromanaging can surface for a number of reasons:
- Can’t delegate the task especially when he previously handled the process before he gets promoted
- Can’t provide clear instruction due to confusion about the task that he needs to control the situation
- Failure to establish trust and support with the team member
- Lack of skilled employees on his team
- A feeling of anxiety and low self-esteem
What are the Negative Effects of Micromanagement?
- Increased Stress and Fatigue due to work.
- Occurrence of health problems such as high blood, heart attack, depression, eating disorder, and sleep interruptions.
- Draining the confidence. Feeling the loss of autonomy is emotionally straining. When everything that the workers do is controlled, they will begin doubting themselves thus affecting their morale. Instead of taking responsibility, they will become dependent.
- Stifles creativity and innovation. Micromanaging is hampering your employees’ unique insights, skills, and talents. Instead of letting them explore new ideas and bring something new to the table, they will be limited on what they are asked to do.
- Decreased productivity. Constant surveillance on every input will make the employee slow down the process to ensure the instructions are properly absorbed. This will delay other tasks.
- Not scalable. Micromanaging will drive away from the big picture. Instead of making sure that every project is accomplished for the overall strategy, the micromanager’s time is already consumed with team members’ responsibilities. Eventually, this is not scalable and practical for the company.
- Loss of Trust. Trust is valuable to any company. When employees are micromanaged, they will lose the sense of trust and loyalty to the organization.
- Increased staff turnover rate. Micromanagement demotivates employees which makes them not show up every day and inevitably leave the company for somewhere they will feel valued. This increases turnover wherein the cost of recruitment and training is on the line.
Now you understand how micromanaging can bring a toxic culture in the workspace. Train your leaders to lead without suffocating their team members.
If you like this article, you might want to read this article about Get Rid of 8 Habits That Cause Low Productivity At Work.