Micromanagement

Have you ever had a boss (or a parent) who was a micro-manager? Don't you hate that?

Do you ever wonder if you micromanage? An article by Steve Marr gives some good pointers on when and when not to get involved:

When not to interfere

When the issue is mainly one of preference, we should not become involved. Don was always insisting on font changes, often inconsistently based on his preference on a given day. In reality, any one of several readable fonts would have been fine.

Also, when the issue is not material, we should not get caught up in making changes. One office manager would insist documents be placed in a certain position when being inputted into the computer system. Rather than focusing on the quality and quantity of the work, the focus was on the position of documents. In reality, some worked better using the suggested positioning, while others did not. The insistence on using only one positioning actually reduced productivity rather than improving it.

When to interfere

At times, we do need to become involved in managing staff and changing how work is accomplished. Any time a company policy is violated, we need to step in. Insurance quotations required approval for special rate structures and Don could correctly insist that the required approvals be obtained in advance.

Poor customer service is another instance when we need to step in. The insurance company wanted to produce quotations within 3 business days of receiving all the information required. Again, Don would be correct to step in whenever quotations became delayed. Unfortunately, when Don unnecessarily became involved, he caused many more proposals to fall behind, thus creating a larger problem than the one he thought he was fixing.

Any time ethics are violated we need to take action. When we do step in, we need to explain what was done, what needs to be done differently, and what we expect in the future. Then our colleagues will understand why we need to be involved.When we are clear with staff what we expect and then delegate that work, we can then confidently monitor that work and be drawn in when absolutely necessary.

To read the rest, go here.