A micromanager essentially needs to over supervisor a project or situation. Basically, they need to stay in control of a situation. A frequent cause to micromanage is the person’s perception or fear that they lack the competence and creativity capability for their position in the overall structure of the company. But why? Is it their personality? Is it something in their past that’s causing that? Only they can answer that question. But that just raises another question. Do they actually know they’re micromanaging?
Micromanaging Effects on the Team
There are many more negative effects than positive effects of micromanaging. The positive effects are more related to the project and schedule. More than
likely the project is completed as required and potentially on-time. The manager has proven their competence to his superiors. He/she feels good about the accomplishment. But there is a cost associated with that.
Unfortunately, the staff feels the negative effects with TRUST topping the list. Many of them feel their manager doesn’t trust them to make the right decision. For example, a manager has a supervisor responsible for an area that consists of part-time employees. Yet, the supervisor isn’t allowed to schedule her team. The manager still makes the schedule. And to make matters worse, the supervisor doesn’t make the hiring decision. She isn’t even in the interviewing process. To further complicate the situation, she is talked to by her manager if one of her team members screws up. So, how is this person truly a supervisor?
It’s a known fact that other people in managerial roles that report to this person, minimize what they tell him when problems come up. They prefer to deal with the problem themselves than escalate it. Too many times when they told their manager, he would jump in and either not truly fix the problem or make a lot of the people uncomfortable. Essentially, he just made matters worse and left the supervisor/manager to either remedy the situation or calm down the staff.
It becomes very uncomfortable for people when there isn’t any trust. Additionally, many of the staff are afraid of him. They do everything he asks them to do. However, many of the people will avoid him.
Do You Think They Know?
One has to wonder if a person that is micromanaging knows that he/she is doing that? I’m sure many of our readers would think they would have to know that. Well, I’m on the fence with that. I believe many of these micromanagers actually aren’t totally aware of it. Why? Because I use to micromanage and wasn’t really aware of it. I was so focused on quality, quantity, and controlling costs. Yes, I communicated well with the staff but when a problem arose, I took charge. I’m not sure if I was afraid that I would fail or if I didn’t trust the team. However, looking back, I believe it was the fear of failure that controlled me.
Over time, I did change but it wasn’t easy. Plus it took time to make that shift from managing to leading. Here is a good blog that opened my eyes to trust my team and watch them succeed once I began to trust them. Trust is so powerful.
So, I don’t think every micromanager truly knows what they are doing. But how do you approach them? How can you open their eyes without upsetting them especially when they think they are doing a great job? I’m not sure how receptive I would have been if someone just outright approached me. I don’t think you can just outright tell the individual. You need to spoon-feed them.
I will address that topic in another blog. Drop me a line on the contact page, if you want to know more.
