Micromanagement !

Who is a micromanager?

A micromanager is a supervisor or a boss who assigns tasks and evaluates every stage of the process with the view to criticize or suggest their own approach to how the work is to be done. Instead of assigning tasks and offering general guidance to employees, they do the exact opposite. The typical micromanager uses their time directing employees rather than empowering them. They are fixated with process rather than results. They are role models and not goal models. They want to know every minute detail by “breathing fire” regularly down your neck. They want to know the quantum of the assigned task you’ve worked on, the process you used and when you would complete the task. They want you to work in front of their desks with the pretense of supervising your work. They demoralize you, give destructive criticisms and kill initiatives of employees who want to take up new challenging roles.
 

“The only right way, is their way.”

The right proposal writing style, is their style. The right report writing template, is the one they use. Every other template is questionable or wrong. This type of working culture snaps life out of the employee, reduces commitment and annihilate initiative. The victimized employees become withdrawn and passive contributors within teams. They hold back wonderful ideas because of fear of rebuttal of those ideas. They do not challenge any flawed ideas of micromanagers rather they only concur and execute every “command’ to the letter. This negative behavior creates distrust, fear and backwardness in a company’s ability to reach its goals.

• How they operate in Companies

This counter-productive working culture of these workplace bullies not only robs the company of valuable human capital but also leads to stagnation of growth, make companies less competitive and eventually collapse companies. Their attitudes toward assistants sever the company’s future and prevent it from grooming new deserving talents to be promoted to higher positions. High staff attrition and resignation becomes the order of the day because there is so much emphasis on degrees or universities attended, and not enough on the content or approach of leadership. Poor performance of assistants is an indication of the malfunctioning leadership and management style of bosses. The departmental outlook reflects the true picture of the flawed working strategy or directionless management style of leaders in that department. Leaders set the tone of an organization. The outer environment is a replica of the inner environment of those who establish the rules of engagement for the company. So the next time you want to blame the team members, examine the leadership you tasked to oversee the team’s performance. Therefore leadership is the cause, all other things are effects.

• How they kill talents in companies

Micromanagers either want to share in or usurp credit for tasks performed by their assistants or junior colleagues. They tweak the project or revise the proposal and call it their own. They're always delegating work and do not execute any work to the end. When they initiate projects, they don’t finish. When others finish assigned tasks, micromanagers are quick to criticize the finished work. They do not inspire confidence and they always think highly of themselves and belittle others.

People don’t leave bad companies. They leave bad managers. They don’t always leave dysfunctional company structures and unfavourably working conditions.They usually leave disorganized managers and confused leadership. Regardless of a company’s excellent value proposition, great service or unique products, the company gradually fades out and collapse when people are not made the centre of its activities. It might not happen in a day or two, but slowly and discreetly the company’s breath ceases. Micromanagers gradually drive away unique talents and hardworking employees by misleading business owners to feel that assistants and other junior employees are cultural misfits or are overwhelmed by their tasks at the workplace.

Some of these managers become insecure or feel threatened by a new emerging talent. They either frustrate, discourage or highlight weaknesses of the new talent to the director or the business owner in a subtle manner.

• How to work effectively with micromanagers

To survive working with a micromanager, be focused, think holistically, act collaboratively and execute diligently. Develop a tough skin and know that you can be asked to work on the same task over and over again. Learn to ignore the bad boss and be ready to accept their flaws. Build resilience and tolerance by showing that you are willing to revise the work to meet your bosses’ expectations anytime. Some actually enjoy the fact that you are stressed or overwhelmed over tasks assigned to you. Dance to their tune by asking for advice and feedback on approaches and processes to be used for all tasks. Employees who are being micromanaged should ask for “their right way” at every stage to avoid dissipating time, resources and energy on tasks that could be done in a relatively short period of time.

Micromanager indicator: If you have a boss who is exhibiting about 60% to 80% of these traits, he or she is likely to be a micromanager.