Everyone understands what 'micro managing' means. Everyone understands it, but no one wants to bear the brunt of it. Everyone wants a manager that can delegate work and then give the flexibility and freedom to complete the work. This rarely happens though. In this post, we delve into the 3 most common reasons that turn managers into micro-managers.
What turns managers into micro managers
Lack of training and support
Not setting clear expectations
Lack of visibility of progress of work
Let's dive into each of these to understand how this impacts a manager, their direct report and what can be done to get over this challenge.
Lack of training and support
One the foremost reasons for the failure of managers is a lack of training and support. When an individual contributor takes on a new role as a manager, she/he requires a new set of skills to take on the new job requirements. All the experience and knowledge gained as an individual contributor will help the new manager, but there is a whole set of new skills that will help them manage people, situations, conflict, team output and much more. These are called power skills (or transferable skills or soft skills).
At Unlock More, we constantly talk to CXOs about the need for a structured and well thought out manager development program for their organisation. The manager development program, while having common foundational elements will need to be overlayed with the organisation context elements. This combination comes together to create the best manager development program that an organisation can have.
Apart from the clear need for training, there is also a need to provide support to the new manager. This individual will face new situations and challenges every day and would benefit with more support in the early weeks and months. At Unlock More, we run a training program on Situational Leadership that helps organisations determine the level and type of support to provide an individual depending on the task that they are doing.
Not setting clear expectations
Expectations run up and down the organisation all the time. Everyone in the organisation is either setting expectations or is being set expectations. However, this too does not really happen. Even when expectations are set, they are not done with clarity. When was the last time that you set (or were set) clear and measurable expectations?
An example of unclear expectations: Have the research on identity management solutions completed soon.
An example of clear and measurable expectations: Complete the research and create a 2 page summary report on identity management solutions, by Tuesday next week. In case of any challenges or roadblocks, please ask.
There is a world of difference between the 2 examples. How many times have you veered towards the former when setting expectations?
At Unlock More, we hear from CXOs that tell us about their inability to get work from their workforce on time. We run a training program that helps managers set clear and measurable expectations that stem from dialog and agreement with the person doing the work.
Lack of visibility of progress of work
Every manager struggles with not knowing the progress of work. It is a universal challenge faced across the world. Not knowing whether the work has progressed, is stuck or has been forgotten keeps managers up at night. When the manager then does ask their direct report for a progress update, it is labeled as 'micro management'.
As part of expectation setting, the manager rarely agrees with their direct report on the frequency and format of progress updates. This important step ensures that the person doing the work takes ownership of not only the task to be done, but also the reporting of progress of the task.
Another important pitfall to keep in mind is that people, in general, are not comfortable sharing bad news. The bad news at work could be no progress to report or could be a roadblock that has come up which the individual contributor does not know how to resolve. Hence, as part of the expectation setting, it is important to transparently discuss what to do when there is no progress, or there is slow progress, or there are roadblocks that need to be removed.
At Unlock More, we help organisations make their work and it's progress transparent, so that no one ever needs to ask 'What is the progress on that piece of work?'
These three primary reasons are turning managers into micro managers everyday. Some simple steps and discipline can help reverse this trend and make the workplaces a more positive space where everyone brings their best version.
Bonus tip - remember, as a manager you are training the next generation of managers so put in the effort and do it well.
Which of these 3 reasons do you feel turns managers into micro managers?
0%Lack of training and support
0%Not setting clear expectations
0%Lack of visibility of progress of work
You can vote for more than one answer.
