Lessons in Management

A common thread which strings it way through every industry with little regard to size, and scope is a harmful process which guarantees the loss of insensitive, creativity, moral, production and key people within the organization.

Perpetrator or victim, intentional or unintentional, if you have been in the workforce for any length of time, you have undoubtedly had an experience with it.It’s called Micro-Management.

While more visible at the mid-level management tier, it’s especially harmful when it starts at the very top of an organization, such a Board of Directors, CEO’s, Presidents, Division Mangers, Regional Mangers of any corporation or company.

In today’s job market, it would be easy to assume that if someone has a good job, they will make every effort to hang on to it. Surprisingly, that is not the case.According to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics calls the category "Quits" more than 2 million workers in the US are voluntarily leaving their jobs every month.

In a recent study by Forbes titled "The Top 8 Reasons Your Best People Are About To Quit" lists the number two reasons employees leave as micro-management.

Micro-management deprives co-workers at all levels within an organization of the lessons learned from first-hand experience. It chokes creativity, favors inactivity over pro-activity, fosters dependence, and creates workers who are deprived of the thrill of a challenge that succeeded or failed.

After 35 years in management, I will be retiring in a few months.I have worked in several industries and held positions ranging from department manager to President and just about every conceivable level of management in between.Over the course of those years, I have fallen victim to both sides. I have been the one doing the micro-managing and been the one receiving micro-management.Lessions on both levels learned the hard way that in the long run, micro-management simply does not work.

Mostly, and especially for young mangers or first-timemanagers, it’s not always intentional.Managers often have a preconceived notion of what and how something should be done.Additionally, time restraints place more pressure on the project which often leads to the "if I want it done right I’ll have to do it myself" philosophy, which also fails in the end. Another point is that the manager will ultimately be held accountable, so there is moreover a level of paranoia that must be overcome.

Overcoming being a micro-manager is not always an easy task.It requires a paradigm shift in the model, or template of how things need to be done and moving into a position how to best achieve these goals.

Managers must learn to first take the role of a leader and being an expert second.As a leader, the manager can become the coach and grow and hone the employees’ skills and growth.As the employees’ grow they become more apt at problem solving because they have hands-on experience, gain self-worth and become a grater asset to the company.Never allow employees at any level to become a commodity, they are assets.In short, managers need to become experts at leading.

Center your attention on what and not how.I stopped my micro-managing by default.I took an executive position with a company of which I had very little knowledge of their industry and absolutely no technical expertise.I was hired to manage the managers.A large and very technical project was handed to our company, and the CEO called me into his office to present me with the project.The time frame was short, and the conventional wisdom was that it would require copious amounts of overtime, and cost overruns.My brief instructions where "make it happen"

It was crunch time.I just could not get my head around all the components of the project.After wandering through the plant for a while I went back to my office and called all the mangers and line supervisors in for a meeting.I explained the project and the time frame.Then I asked for their help.Taking the next two days I instructed them to come up with a plan of action, and ideas for improvements on production time.

Given an open slate to work with the team came back not only presenting me with an action plan, but they had figured out a way to save both time and costs.While it was hard to do, I delegated the project over to the production team managers and project was, in fact, completed in less time and cost than it had been quoted.

That lession learned stopped me from micro-managing and allowing employees who generally have the expertise and experience to become involved.

Be clear about your expectations.Give your teams all the information, they need to complete projects.You may think you are being clear but often mangers leave out vital information.

Set up reporting procedures and datelines.Delegation is about letting go and again, that may not be so easy to do, but it’s imperative.Establish how feedback should be presented as to the progress of the task or project to ensure that schedules are on track.

Lastly give feed back to the employees, and if you are in an executive position, give the feed back to the managers.Everyone likes to feel that what they do is bigger than themselves. Once they fully understand the scope and direction of the company, they will make better decisions.

Don't lose your best employees and managers to micro-management

Randy Doell, CPC