The Official Blog of Benifys HR Solutions

In the business world, the term “micromanagement” has assumed massive proportions, with almost everyone of us having witnessed this phenomenon at work. Whether you have experienced it first-hand, or observed it from close quarters, or heard it discussed around the office vending tea machine, you can never claim to be oblivious to the existence of this menace.

And then again, there is a possibility that you’re a typical Type A micromanager yourself! Although most people like being managed, one can hardly say the same about micromanagement. So what is it that compels people to act like frenzied control freaks? How do you deal with ‘them’? Are you one of ‘them’? Let’s tackle the last one first. You have to know whether you’re a micromanager before you can do something about it. Here’s how you do a dipstick check.

How to tell if you are a micromanager

1. You feel compelled to keep telling people the ‘right’ way to do it, since they can obviously never do the work as well as you can.
2. You get personally offended and aggravated if you find a worker inefficient in their work.
3. Even if the work is done to satisfaction, you still want to fiddle with it before you let it pass your hands.
4. You need constant updates about the progress of work that is assigned to sub-ordinates, and here, constant can mean as little as 6 minutes.
5. You resist delegating work and immerse yourself in tasks that other people are supposed to carry out.
6. You keep nit-picking about small details and discourage people from making independent decisions.

Micromanaging is mostly associated with either Type A personalities or Theory X Leaders, but the need to micromanage could arise from good intentions as well. For example, if you ask a micromanager why they do it, they’ll tell you that they have a heightened sense of responsibility and ownership. This is true, people who micromanage are seen to have a greater sense of ownership, and fear of things going wrong, or working to the detriment of their organisation. What this means at the ground level, however is two important things – one, the fact that they will not allow their subordinates to grow because they want to do everything themselves, and have all decisions, big or small, pass through them, and two, the fact that they make life literally unbearable for the folks below who actually know their job and are good at it.

Also, most of the times, they will not let ownership build amongst their team because the team feels that whatever they do, will finally pass through their boss anyway, this leads to complacency. The fact that micromanagers often end up being bottlenecks is another negative fallout. However efficient one may be, it is physically impossible to handle every little nitty-gritty of business by oneself – there will be times where the overall efficiency is compromised because something (which might otherwise be perfectly done in the first place) is waiting for the attention of the micromanager.

So, if you are a micromanager, the chances are that sooner or later you will realize that the employees are spending an increasing amount of time thinking how to deal with their supervisor rather than actually working. If you wait long enough, most of the good self respecting people would have left and you would be left with a team of mediocre employees who just know one thing, follow orders, no questions asked. Good luck with that!

So what’s wrong with micromanagement?
Sure you’ve read articles that say “micromanage and get things done”, and in all likelihood, at some point of time you have caught yourself thinking – “what’s wrong with these guys, it’s so simple, what’s taking them so long”, or “let me do this myself, it’ll be faster that way”. Well, there are two problems with this – first, by constantly barging into people, you take away their power to make any decisions on their own, this is how you are effectively disempowering them. A disempowered employee is an ineffective one – one who requires a lot of time and energy from his supervisor.

The other thing that micromanagement has going against it is that it is subject to the law of diminishing returns. In simple terms, what this means is that the first time you micromanage is the time you get the most return from it. This is because people will usually comply with you the first time even if they find something odd about your behavior, but over a period of time they develop a learned response to it, which usually is to not pay much attention or worse, respond aggressively.

Need we remind people that micromanaging is just not a healthy attitude; it shows the supervisor’s general mistrust with his peers and sub-ordinates.

How to stop your micromanaging tendencies

1. Acknowledge – Acknowledge that there is a problem. If you find that your team no longer offers suggestions or tells you outright that you have a controlling nature, that’s as big a sign you are going to get. Not acknowledging a problem is like a man who goes drunk into an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and declares “but I don’t have a drinking problem”. Fat chance of HIM getting off alcohol!
2. Manage Expectations – Decide and mutually agree on expectations from both parties, i.e., what you expect from your sub-ordinates and also what they expect from you as their manager. It may be a revelation to you that they may want you to “give them a little freedom of work” or “control your constant need to be updated”. Talk about the task at hand as much as you want to in the first go, let them know your requirements before they actually start working and then control the urge to continuously check on them. If people know that you’re counting on them, they’ll surprise you with good results.
3. Encourage Participation – “How do you plan to approach this?” “How are you planning to get buy- in on this?” “What are you going to do to get Marketing involved?” “Do you have any ideas for solving this problem?”, are just some things you can ask to increase the level of interaction and cohesiveness in a team. Let the employees know that their thoughts and opinions are valued, don’t ever snub someone just because you don’t agree with what they have to say.
4. Don’t over criticize – You have to make sure that you are not the only one criticizing your team all the time – people will form a negative opinion about you. At least half of the criticism should come from the team itself – create a culture of self evaluation, where people talk about their improvement areas, real or perceived. Other than self critique being more accurate, it takes the heat off you so you don’t always have to be the bad guy. Remember the 70/30 rule, 70% praise and 30% criticism, and 0% criticism in front of other team members.

Are you being micromanaged? Oh dear!
Okay, let’s move on to a situation where you are the one being micromanaged. We know how painful it can be to have someone breathing down your neck all the time. I remember a time when one of my pathologically micromanaging manager asked about the status of something before he sent out a mail telling me what has to be done in the first place! Needless to say, he wasn’t my manager for long. It is not only nagging, it comes in the way of your professional growth and development. The fact that you don’t feel like coming to work every single day because you know that it’s going to be the same story all over again is stating the obvious, but there are deeper ramifications of this phenomenon. You’re constantly under stress, you are unconsciously wishing that your manager is on leave that (every) day, you want to break free, you want to move jobs, you may end up making wrong career choices under duress – worse, you want to physically assault the manager to make him see sense. He won’t, of course, but there are certain things that you CAN try. Here’s what to do to tackle the problem.

1. Simplest things – Arrive 10 minutes early before your boss and leave 10 minutes late, take a shorter lunch break if possible. Produce quality work. Check with him and update him about work before he has a chance to check on you, preferably once in the morning, afternoon and once before you leave. You might ask why do you have to do all this when the problem is with the supervisor’s attitude, but hey… who’s feeling the heat? Escalating the problem might also seem a simple step if you really think the pressure is to much to take, but think of all the possible repercussions first, do you have sufficient facts to back your case?
2. Dissociate – This is probably the most effective thing if you can do it, understand that micromanagers are generally type A people with high expectation, more often than not they don’t do it because they like to trouble you, but rather because they are compelled to. They have problems with delegating out tasks without retaining control, because they feel like their job will be axed for any failure. They may fear losing their job or worse taking the Company down if they are an owner. All you have to really do is to avoid taking it personally. Don’t act indifferent, just unperturbed, curt and professional. Think that you’re trying to help someone who needs help.
3. Stay aware and informed – Ask them all the details required to perform a particular job or task upfront before starting on it. Predict things that make them micromanage you and counter them before they get a chance. In order to do this you need to maintain a weekly journal highlighting the reason they tend to bother you with the most, and based on that information, build their confidence by giving them a dose of the updates they are usually looking for themselves. This way they will see in you an employee who know exactly what he is doing and he will begin to then, leave you to your work.
4. Help your boss – It’s a habit, don’t retaliate too hard and too fast. Help your boss change one micromanagement habit at a time. If you wish to communicate your unease, do not do so without highlighting your own strengths and accomplishments, it is very easy for a micromanager to jump from one task to another without realizing how much efforts you have put in, therefore make sure you both agree that you have done well. Anticipate potential problems and find solutions before they become a problem for him. Ask your boss what is missing or what would they like to see happen on the work front.
5. Break the task down into smaller tasks – a combined activity that the micromanager and the micromanaged can do is to device a communication plan for themselves wherein the task is divided into smaller sub tasks and the timelines for each sub-task are decided and shared on their calendars so the micromanager would think twice before barging in onto the employee and also, the employee can set his own pace at the beginning of the task.

Like with everything else in life, there are some incurable micromanagers stalking the corporate corridors, and nothing will make them come out of this compulsion. Let us know your stories, and the times you have had to struggle with a micromanager, how did or would you manage the micromanager? And above all, for people at both ends of the micromanagement stick – GOOD LUCK!

It is said that every person is unique in their own way, but the term ‘unique’ is sometimes misleading. The truth is that everyone of us has come across unpleasant people of various types and degrees in our personal and profession lives, and I bet you won’t like to call them unique (jerks, perhaps?!).

The worst is when you happen to be unlucky enough to deal with these people in a professional setting, because unlike your personal life, you cannot hope to just ignore them and get on with it. In fact, chances are you are working with them in a team or worse still, working under them. Our attempt is to present to you five types of the most troubling, and unfortunately, also the kinds that you are very likely to encounter.

We know there are many more than just these five kinds – people who can become a reason for a severe case of headache; but we’re presenting the kinds that’ll make you exclaim – “hey, I know a guy who’s just like that”.

So write to us and let us know if you know someone like this, share names if you dare – we promise not to publish your feedback if you don’t want us to…

The Intimidator

This person does not want to listen to what you have to say, ever. All he is interested in is getting the work done, his way, and it definitely does not bother him if he has to push some people around or act in an abrasive manner in the process of doing so. Some of them do this because they (genuinely) really want to get work done as they see it as the first priority, but then there are different types here. One of them is also a person who gets his sense of identity by belittling others on a regular basis, which is an unhealthy mindset to say the least. People who come in contact with pushovers more often than not end up losing motivation and consequently their zeal for work.

If you come across people of this kind, catch them in a weak moment (yes, they have them too), or just when you’ve wowed them with a task done ahead of time (push yourself, you can finish a task ahead of time, even with their deadlines), and tell them that you’re losing it (they love it when they hear that they’ve driven someone around the bend, especially the second kinds – it makes them feel closer to being God, which is what they want to be, in their subconscious mind), and that they’re the only ones who can save you from a breakdown. They love to help. With the first kinds, talk to them about how you also value time, and will stop at nothing to get the task accomplished, and that you’re all tense yourself while the task is WIP. If they know that you share the urgency, they’ll lay off slowly. Needless to say, you need to build credibility by achieving tasks within deadlines first.

The Chit Chatter

The ‘chit chatter’ just loves to talk. The amount of damage they can inflict on your company depends entirely on the kind of ‘chit chat’ they indulge in. For some it could just be an innocent one hour discourse on ‘how bad the traffic was today’ or maybe ‘how awesome was a party they went to’, the only problem is that while they satisfy in their compulsive need to talk, they never realize their it’s on the company’s expense; add a few listeners into the picture and you imagine what it does to the business. But still these people do not cause half the damage as the type that indulge in spreading baseless disparaging rumours or malicious content about the company or about someone in particular. There you have a real problem!

While everyone must have their moments of relaxation, if you are beginning to feel that the chit-chat is coming in the way of productivity, or if it is otherwise damaging, put a stop to it immediately. The first step is to discourage being a part of their mindless chatter group – act as if you’ve suddenly remembered something that needs your urgent attention and rush off, leaving the chatterbox in the middle of the sentence. Play and beat them at their own game – act conspiratorial with your colleagues and tell them that you overheard someone in the senior management saying the productivity of this section was falling and/or not what it should be; wonder out loud if the gossiping has anything to do with it. For subordinates, tell them on their face that they need to concentrate more on work; for seniors, tell their seniors that the constant chatting is a distraction that is not allowing you to concentrate and therefore, coming in the way of productivity.

The Disinterested Lazy Bum

They do not care at all about anything that they are paid to have interest in, and their motto is ‘work in progress’. If somehow they do manage to get some work done, they will sit around growing old instead of asking for more work themselves. These people are perhaps the most difficult to manage because you can never expect any kind of feedback or level of interest from them, something very similar to asking a wall – “can this be done?” or worse instructing it to “work on an idea for the pitch”. There could be any number of reasons for such kind of behaviour like just being a plain lazy slob by nature, in which case there is not much hope. Lack of working knowledge about their role could be a factor for their behaving in this manner, this can be rectified by appropriate training. Be aware that something may be bothering them at work or at home that has made them lose interest in work altogether.

This one is a tough one to crack. The best approach is to talk to them and figure out where is the source of this laziness. If it is something that can be rectified, or will rectify itself with time, let them be – everyone has good and bad phases in life. But if you’re convinced it’s an attitude problem, call a team meeting and let them know that some people have to work extra hard so that they can make up for a team member with a lazy attitude – let them figure it out and let them find an answer. If the lazy guy is a team mate, let him know that it’s unfair for others to have to shoulder additional work, or that he’s acting more like a bottleneck than an enabler. When you’ve tried everything, and nothing works, maybe it’s time for that guy to move on.

The Timid Kitten

Instructing someone what to do is not always enough, like you would like to believe. Sometimes you have to also explain how to do it with excruciating detail, the timid kitten is a gentle unassuming person who only has one real problem, which is that he needs to be supervised on an hourly basis (minute basis in worst cases). In most cases this condition of the person stems from their apprehension of getting it wrong. Even if you know they won’t, you literally have to hold their hands and guide them through work. These are the sort of people whom you sometimes have to teach a task over and over again. Although good in their intentions, this method of working can really get on the nerves of the supervisor, and the fact that he has a busy schedule does not help.

The only way to handle this guy is to refuse to help – point blank – even if it seems rude. If someone has to be micromanaged, the overhead that he brings to the business is probably not worth anyone’s while. Train and coach people, build their confidence, never spoonfeed. Constantly required attention is not only bad for the supervisor’s calendar, it is also a roadblock on the learning curve of the timid kitten. Since these guys are well meaning from within, don’t take any drastic decisions about their tenure in the organisation, all that they need is space, confidence and the ability to accomplish a task. Coach them, and they’ll surprise you over a period of time. They are also the most loyal folks, if you help them gain confidence in themselves. No-one can forget the fact that you helped them rise in their own esteem, and they’ll go to any length to stand by you in tough times.

The Thoroughly Incompetent

You have no idea how they got here, or what they are doing, or even why they are the way they are. They have no idea why they are here or what they have to do; it’s a pretty hopeless scenario to be looking at. You know there has been wrong somewhere because they are incapable of performing the simplest of tasks related to their domain, an analogy could be a professional photographer asking where the click button is. You really can’t do much in this situation except hope for a miracle and invest in some training… but will they be receptive to that, which, given the situation seems highly unlikely. Wait, do they know what training means?

Gently, ask them to make a move – they’ll probably find their true calling, and will thank you for it later.