The 8 Barriers to Delegation

3 comments

Posted on 23rd March 2011 by Andy Britnell in Delegation

, , , ,

Barriers to DelegationIt’s surprising that many managers and leaders often find the delegation step in Leading and Developing High Performance difficult and uncomfortable. They are often reluctant to make the mindset change required to enable their team to perform brilliantly and beyond expectations.

In order to understand this you only need to hear how they express and rationalise their unwillingness to delegate wholeheartedly:

The 8 barriers to delegation are:

1. I can do it better myself

2. My people are just not capable enough

3. It takes too much time to explain what I want done

4. If it goes wrong I’ll still be accountable

5. Delegation reduces my own authority

6. I’ll be shown up if they do too good a job

7. My people prefer that I make the decisions

8. Team members want to avoid responsibility (at least at work)

As you go through this list what do you notice?

They are all limiting beliefs about the team or the manager’s ability, which will prevent them from delegating effectively! No doubt the team members will pick up any incongruence within the manager or leader when they do attempt to delegate and maybe seen to slip into micro management.

You might want to ask yourself which one of these, if any, apply to you?

‘The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.’ Theodore Roosevelt

Surviving the Micro Manager

8 comments

Posted on 2nd March 2011 by Andy Britnell in Leadership Style |Micro Management

, , , , , , ,

I am delighted that we have a guest post today from Anita-Clare Field director of Round Peg Learning & Development. In this post she describes how an inflexible, micro management style can derail performance and provides a strategy to manage upwards if we are on the receiving end.

What does the term Micro Manager mean to you?

It fills me with absolute dread. What on earth is to be gained by making people feel inadequate and mistrusted? Why do these people exist in management roles? It seems senseless that this breed of archaic dinosaurs still exist and it is high time they were put out to pasture and replaced with vibrant and innovative leaders of people.

If you have ever worked for a micro manager then you know all the signs, but if not, here are a few:

  • Constantly asks you what you are doing all day
  • Interrupts you every hour to ask you the same questions
  • Picks holes in everything you do
  • Takes back delegated work to finish it themselves, if they find mistakes
  • Refuses to allow you to make decisions without consulting them

These are just a selection, most are familiar to me. I had a manager once that would hover around my desk incessantly and ask me ‘What I was doing’ . If you are highly competent in your work, as I was, this sort of behaviour can be highly demotivating and lead to high amounts of stress.

I have known highly skilled individuals, with years of experience, walk from their jobs because it became too much.

So how do we try and work with such behaviour?

It is a difficult task as one of the main traits of a micro manager is their refusal to listen. Their ‘my way or the highway’ attitude may never be 100% fixed, but it is possible to alleviate the situation:

    1. When meeting with a micro manager remember to keep calm at all times. There is nothing to be gained by demonstrating your frustration. It is what they want as it feeds their overwhelming sense of self importance. Do not react, even if you feel like screaming – simply document meetings.

    2. Ask for information – a micro manager is always on the look out for mistakes to gain control of the situation. If a project has been delegated to you then ask open-ended questions in order to get the full picture. Document this and then get sign off on it. This will ensure that both parties are in agreement.

    3. Ensure that you keep the micro manager updated to avoid unnecessary questions and to stem any opportunity for them to interrupt your flow.

    4. Always deliver everything on time and in the right order. When you deliver it, either by email or in person, back it up with facts and refer to the notes from previous meetings.

    5. Ensure that you feed the micro manager’s need for information at all times. Have facts, figures and anything else you feel that they will need at your fingertips at all times.

Micro managing is a serious issue in the workplace, if you like me you decided not to abandon ship and work with your manager, resolve to manage upwards. Now there is another blog!

What have been your experiences of micro management and how have you dealt with it?