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?
Andy Britnell says:
Surviving the Micro Manager. Guest post today from the fabulous @Roundpeg22 http://bit.ly/g1id1X Thanks Anita-Clare.
2nd March 2011 at 12:17 pm
Andy Britnell says:
RT @alistewartandco: Surviving the Micro Manager. Guest post today from the fabulous @Roundpeg22 http://bit.ly/g1id1X Thanks Anita-Clare.
2nd March 2011 at 12:18 pm
Anita-Clare Field says:
Ever been Micro Managed? How to survive read here http://bit.ly/h6aKSX #sales #leadership
2nd March 2011 at 1:36 pm
Andy Britnell says:
RT @Roundpeg22: Ever been Micro Managed? Here's how to survive http://bit.ly/h6aKSX #sales #leadership <Leadership #fail & first aid kit
2nd March 2011 at 5:46 pm
Anita-Clare Field says:
RT @alistewartandco: RT @Roundpeg22: Ever been Micro Managed? Here's how to survive http://bit.ly/h6aKSX #sales #leadership <Leaders …
2nd March 2011 at 5:46 pm
Anita-Clare Field says:
@UbuntuLass Did you see my piece on Micro Management ? http://bit.ly/h6aKSX
2nd March 2011 at 7:58 pm
James Mortensen says:
Lucky for me, I have never really worked for micro-managers, except maybe in the Army, where everything you do is micro-managed and there is very little breathing room.
As a manager, I sometimes struggle between not managing enough and managing too much. There are some tips here on How to Avoid Micro-Managing a Software Development Team. Some of the tips include things like focusing on the results, not the process, making clear communication milestones, and setting follow-up communication tasks on your calendar.
I have found that I am less of a micro-manager if I tell my team members I am subscribing to updates rather than pinging for them. This means that once per week, or however often they agree, the team members will proactively update me. If there are problems, they should contact me sooner.
I find that if I set clear communication guidelines and trust that they will update me, I am less likely to continually ask the same questions over and over again.
2nd March 2011 at 7:44 am
Andy Britnell says:
Hi James
Thanks for your great comment and sharing your wisdom about avoiding micro management.
I like the analogy of subscribing rather than pinging. That means they hold responsibility for coming to you when they need help. Which means you can focus all your attention on what you need to do rather than being distracted by what may or may not happen to a task you have delegated.
You are obviously explicit in your communication guidelines which is why you get positive results.
I suggest that other readers have a look at James’s responses to his micro management question via the link above. Lots of helpful stuff there
2nd March 2011 at 12:11 pm