Micromanaging. Auwe!
The word gives us that same feeling we get when someone purposely rakes their fingernails across a chalkboard.
I doubt anyone micromanages intentionally. No one likes to think they are being accused of doing it, and no one wants to be on the receiving end of a micro-manager’s reach. No one does it on purpose unless they are truly evil (and you cannot believe that if you believe in Aloha at all) or just don’t care if they do (and none of those people bother to read Say “Alaka‘i” in the first place, so that possibility is irrelevant to this discussion).
Yet micromanagement continues to happen; why?
If you are a manager, how can you keep yourself from falling into this bad habit? We have learned that the best way to eliminate a bad habit is to replace it with a better one, so let’s do that.
What is micromanagement, and why does it happen?
mi⋅cro⋅man⋅age
–verb (used with object), -aged, -ag⋅ing.
to manage or control with excessive attention to minor details.
—from dictionary.com
‘Minor’ is a highly relative word. So is ‘excessive.’ People assign them as relevant to a situation from different perspectives. Minor to one person is major to another; excessive can get to be obsessive really quickly.
From what I observe in many different workplaces, micromanagement is a result of impatience, and the desire for more expediency.
Catch someone micromanaging you and bring it to their attention, and you will likely hear a response like this: “I am sorry you feel that way, however we both know the work had to be done and I just couldn’t wait anymore for it was affecting the customer directly.”
It’s a response which might be true, but it doesn’t make us feel any better. We don’t hear this message: “The customer is happy now, so let’s celebrate! And it really was no problem for me; I didn’t mind doing it.” Instead, we hear blame and subtle yet sharply stinging accusations.
We hear, “You were too slow, and I got tired of waiting for you to do it” or “You weren’t doing it right, and it was faster and easier for me to do it myself” or “You weren’t paying enough attention to the needs of our customer, so hey, thank goodness I stepped in and saved your neck when I did.” We may feel all of those things! Chances are, we don’t believe the micromanager is sorry at all, and we feel scolded.
We also feel embarrassed, perhaps even violated. Other people know when someone else is in our business.
Yuck. So now what?
When I see this play out in the workplace and have the benefit of watching it as an emotionally detached observer, the first question which pops into my head is, “Whose perception is reality?” However I let that natural thought get out and be done with, as a short-term question for which the answer doesn’t matter that much anymore —not for that particular happenstance.
The long-term, healthier workplace question is, “How can these two people get to a much better reality the next time?” and, “What has to improve so this never happens again?”
Let’s assume they are both right:
- The work had to be done, and done better. The micromanager is right.
- Next time (and there will be a next time) it needs to be done without micromanaging entering the picture. They may not have said so, but the one who was micromanaged is right about that too.
When it happens, it can’t be left unsolved
The problem is that even when a micromanager is caught in the act and confronted about it, the other person feels victimized, and they feel that the micromanager still has the upper hand. Whatever the variation of it, usually the conversation described above will end with those bad feelings left unsaid, and best case scenario, both people walk away wanting to forget about it as quickly as possible, putting it past them.
Thing is, they don’t forget, and the problem does not go away, for it hasn’t been solved. It’s not the best case scenario at all. The root cause is still at play: Impatience, and the desire for expediency, this time with an uncomfortable situation resulting for both people involved.
Feelings have immense validity. Alaka‘i managers bring the discomforts in any workplace back into a circle of comfort so that the workplace will feel healthy again. Discomfort stifles growth, and discomfort drains energy, and as we’ve spoken of before, the lack of energy and cessation of growth leads to complacency, then boredom, and then that biggest sin of mediocrity.
Both people can take better control of the situation. First of all, they can’t let it be over. If that first conversation is really way too uncomfortable, or the timing sucks, bring it up later, choosing a better time, but follow-up and be brave: Do bring it up again and deal with it. If you are the one being micromanaged, you must learn to use your manager better.
Ultimately, the buck stops with the manager. You’ve got to agree that you have a lot of other things you should be doing.
Bottom line is this: If you are micromanaging, you are doing someone else’s work and not your own. This is your work:
2. Place: Managers create great workplaces where people thrive.
Managers focus on creating an environment where rewarding work happens. They continually work to remove obstacles (such as negativity), barriers, and excuses, while adding the needed support, tools and resources. Great managers are the stewards of healthy organizational cultures.
—From our SA Archives on The Role of a Manager: How Managers Matter in a Healthy Culture
Your micromanagement is a big obstacle.
More on “How to Stop” will be in Part Two
If you are learning to be an Alaka‘i manager, I am sure you already know much of what you have to do to end any bad habits you have with micromanaging. It IS a bad habit which MUST be replaced with a better one.
So I want you to start your own course of self-correction now.
Today. The moment you stop reading this.
Choose a person you know you have a tendency to micromanage (come on, you know you do), and commit to improving your working relationship with them, for that is the true goodness here.
When you eliminate all micromanagement from your management style, you WILL
- Improve the quality of another person’s work, renewing their energies for the task at hand. You better enable their effectiveness, enlarging their circle of influence in your organization.
- Improve the quality of your own work, for you now have room in your workday for more creative work versus maintenance work.
- Greatly improve your effectiveness by doing more leadership (creating energy) and less management (channeling energy). Management matters and will always be necessary to a certain degree, but the constant goal of the Alaka‘i manager is to lead more and not less.
- Greatly improve your working relationship with someone else, because you have also effectively shifted the degree within which someone feels managed versus feeling they are led toward a new vision.
- Have been the designer of a healthier workplace in which both internal and external customers get consistently good results long term versus interrupted and uncomfortably corrected results short term.
About Part Two:
I won’t be publishing part two until next week Thursday, July 16th. You have a full week to tackle this, getting to the details based on what you already have learned here about managing with more Aloha, and as an Alaka‘i manager who matters in your workplace culture (big hint and redirect there folks… review the links!) Think too about our more recent discussions with GEMO and progressive work, and about how you become an energy creator in your company. 7 days from now, you can then use my Part Two article as a checklist to evaluate how you did on your own.
For after all, if I just gave you all the answers now, that would be telling and not coaching. In fact, you could even accuse me of micromanaging you, and we both don’t want that, right?
If you truly want to improve, and eliminate any micromanaging from your work quickly, you will enroll that person you chose in your goal: Tell them what you are trying to learn. Show them my article, and ask them to read it. Tell them you have caught yourself micromanaging them, you know it sucks for both of you, and you are determined to correct course. Ask them to help you.
I cannot imagine anyone would say no to you. Why go it alone when you don’t have to, and when getting a second opinion and some peer-to-peer coaching will be a win for both of you? Partnering up with the person you are trying to improve your working relationship with is a fantastic way to make a great goal highly achievable.
And we can talk story here meanwhile.
Any thoughts to share?
Photo credit: Three Feet, One Tail by Rosa Say.
For those who prefer them, here are the Talking Story copies of the links embedded in this posting:
- Aloha Training? Make it all personal
- You Are Your Habits, so Make ‘em Good!
- 3 Ways Managers Create Energetic Workplaces
- The Biggest Sin in Business Today
- How do you Use your Manager?
- How Managers Matter in a Healthy Culture
- GEMO: When is ‘Good’ good enough?
- Alaka‘i Managers Coach, and they Facilitate
- While the Big Cat was Away
- Who gives you your Second Opinion?
- What the heck do you mean by ‘Achievable?
July 2009 ~
How to Stop Micromanaging: Part One
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How to Stop Micromanaging: Part Two
Preface: This is the second of a two-part article. If you have not yet read it, start your reading today with: How to Stop Micromanaging, Part One. Part One defines micromanagement and its root cause, and it outlines the benefits…