• WHY does micromanaging happen?
• WHAT are the Effects?
• HOW to combat it?

In an organisation what can happen is that a person gets good at their job, they perform it excellently so that the powers that be take notice and decide that a promotion is in order. Along with the promotion, an added responsibility is that the promoted person now has a team reporting to them.

The potential challenges that lead to micromanaging

1. The person’s reference point to getting promoted is how they did the job, “I did the job this way, it got me promoted you do it like me.”
2. They are not trained in leadership or team management.
3.  They can feel insecure, they got promoted, and don’t want the team to show them up.
4. They need to be in control.
5. They haven’t taken the time to understand the team more – resulting in no trust in the team’s capabilities.

Micromanaging is not guiding or developing the team, it is constantly looking over their shoulders, needing the final input for any decision.

The problems that micromanaging bring along with it are:

• It becomes about me, me, me, do it my way – not considering that the team is made up of unique individuals – with their own talents, strengths, and unique viewpoints.
• It stifles the team in both growth and contribution and promotes a fear of expression.
• The team becomes dependent on your every “yes,” or “no!”
• Your time – the micro-manager, spends most of the time micromanaging – taking away time from creating a vision and developing the team further.

So how do we combat micromanaging?

1. Leadership and Interpersonal Communications training.
2. Coaching
3. Take the time to identify the team members, talents, strengths, limitations, and delegate tasks accordingly.
4. Put yourself in your team’s shoes – how would you feel if you were micromanaged?
5. Communicate expectations and accountability

Micromanaging is not always the fault of the individual in charge, it can be due to a lack of understanding of how to lead.

In my Leadership and communications skills training program, “Thriving in Life,”  a large portion of it is spent dealing with micromanaging, and how to move away from it while developing holistic leadership skills.