How to Handle a Micromanager
How to Handle a Micromanager
So, how to handle a micromanager, and what causes people to become one and how do we solve the issue
I think there is a fine line that exists for managers and leadership teams between being a supportive team leader and a demoralising micro manager. These days it’s frowned upon by some and embraced by others.
I’ve been managed by a micro manager and it’s awful – why did they take me on in the first place. I have a brain and I am a quick learner. Tell me what you need from me and it will be done. By all means check on my work at organised intervals but not every day!
I was having a chat with an HR manager who is a potential client. They wanted some 90-minute leadership sessions and when it came to communicating as a leader, to the team, I suggested that the team have a get together on a Monday to set the weeks goals and sum up on a Friday to celebrate the results (beer fridge Friday). The rest of the time let the team get on with their work. It was if I was talking a foreign language and they wouldn’t accept this as a viable management policy to adopt. Instead, the HR manager said that one of the ideas was for the whole team to work live on Zoom all day – unbelievable!
Here's one question to test and identify if you have a micromanager:
Is the team primarily customer-centric or manager-centric?
Of course, all teams exist for the
customer, but which one is thought about primarily during the day-to-day
activities? The manager or the customer
A manager-centric team is easy to identify. The only thing that matters is what the boss thinks. Not the vision, voice, and value of the team member and not the customer.
There’s an understanding that every decision must go via the manager, bottlenecking progresses and the project at every twist and turn in the journey.
A common theme that runs through these teams is fear. Everyone secretly knows they are delivering an inferior product or service. Nobody feels like they are doing their best work, and everyone feels that they are being constantly monitored.
View our Team Building Activities
How to Handle a Micromanager
There’s a great section in the book ‘Rebel Ideas’ by Matthew Syed that discusses the importance of team diversity and how a lack of it can cause collective blindness. As you read on, the book explores both geographical diversity and cognitive diversity - it's a fascinating topic.
If you are working in a boss-centric environment where fear prevails everyone goes with the manager’s idea because they are afraid of what will happen if they challenge the idea. In these teams nobody wants to take responsibility and you end up with an over-dependant team and a stressed-out manager saying they don’t have time for what we cover in a training course.
One manager who did implement what we teach saved herself 2 hours per day:
What could you do with an extra 2 hours?
How to Handle a Micromanager Within Teams and Organisations:
- Boss-obsessed rather than customer-obsessed
- Production and acceptance of lower productivity and work results
- Over stressed manager getting involved in everything
- There is little effective delegation
- There is no real coaching, managers just tell people what to do because it’s easier and quicker that way
- Feedback falls on deaf ears and projects drag on forever
- Every conversation with the boss feels like a performance review
- Every decision must be approved by the manager which hinders quick decision making
- Constant progress and project bottlenecks due to excessive meetings
- Team members are afraid to share their opinions
- There is a lack of new leaders coming up through the ranks
- An excessive amount of demotivated team members leading to excessive staff turnover
- Stifled creativity, innovation, and agility
The Root Causes of micromanagement?
How to Handle a Micromanager
Micromanaging occurs when there is no trust and
support between a manager and team members. Managers don't trust employees
because, frankly, they don't know them. They haven’t a clue about what makes
them tick. One of my previous managers took great pride in offering me a
pension, health insurance and a day off for my birthday and thought that would
motivate me (actually I did appreciate the day off for my birthday), but the
rest was not of interest so didn’t achieve the intended purpose – they did know
what made me tick.
If they actually took the time out to get to know me, they would have discovered the way to motivate me is to allow me to work in the office from 06:00 – 15:00 so I can get home at a reasonable hour to miss the traffic, get my bike out for an hour or two and spend the evening with my family.
Unfortunately, most managers become managers because they are good at their job, they are managers by default, there’s no one else. Once they are promoted, they receive little or no management and leadership training at all. This is why I have written the 12-month action focused leadership program. To develop aspiring managers, in all industries, to do their job more effectively.
Alternatively, a well-meaning manager can take "manage to outcomes" too far. They make employees feel like they're being constantly evaluated but with little support to achieve success. Conventional management advice says, "Don't tell people how to do it. Point them at the goal and let them figure it out". The point is well-taken, autonomy matters, but managers also need to provide support and celebrate progress. If managers spend all their time pointing at the scoreboard, they are hardly leading at all.
How to Fix Micromanaging in Your Working Environment
How to handle a micromanager - the micromanager style festers in workplace environments where people don't know what success looks like, don't know each other, don't communicate, don't ask questions, and don't promote change.
Organisations can eliminate micromanaging by creating a work culture where everyone owns the success of the organisation, they know the steps to take to reach the annual statement of intent and the longer-term vision.
Here are a few ways to address the signs of a micromanager and micromanaging in your workplace and create a high performance and high performing culture:
1. Create a culture of trust and shared accountability.
How do we build relationships? How do we work together? How to handle a micromanager? When shared ownership and great teamwork exist, micromanagement only slows things down and deteriorates outcomes.
Define "how we get work done" for your organisation and stick to it.
When leaders, managers and teams are expected to take ownership of the work and build trust, people behave differently. They want to do work that matters and be good teammates - free them.
2. Focus on strengths.
Who should do what? Performance potential starts with assigning the right person to the right task and the right team.
Sir Richard Branson's famous tips for delegating work start with:
1) Know your strengths and weaknesses.
2) Know your teams' strengths and weaknesses.
When people are assigned to the right work and partners magic happens and micromanagers only get in the way.
How to Handle a Micromanager
How to Handle a Micromanager
3. Shift from old-school performance management to modernised "ongoing conversations."
What should expectations and success look like? How do we get there? Old-school performance management focused on annual goal setting and reviews, evaluation and pay. None of those things work when they're only discussed once a year. Set clear goals in collaboration with employees and adjust them as work and priorities change. I recommend monthly one to ones and if any manager says they have no time they aren’t managing.
Be a great coach: Communicate, communicate, communicate and on that note teach your team to communicate too. Make employees share accountability for the goals they help set for team building, performance and for customer impact.
4. Prioritise development.
How do we get better at spotting the signs of a micromanager? Organisations only improve when their people improve. Continual improvement, agility, creativity, and innovation all require development. Employees also require development, if you want to engage them and build a bright future for them at your company. That means employees want new responsibilities and to be stretched in their work. Professional development happens through opportunity and delegation of the right work, not through micromanagement.
5. Be mindful of what you recognise and reward.
What do we celebrate? Leaders may hate the stagnant micromanager culture they've created and yet continue to feed that culture formally and informally through their individual praise, what and how they communication, internal awards and performance management systems. If organisations want to de-emphasise micromanager tendencies, they need to shift their awards, rewards and recognition toward team collaboration, cross-team partnerships and outstanding individual contributions.
Organisations start to die when they begin to focus more on pleasing themselves than pleasing their customers. When leaders and managers create a "boss-centric" culture, it may feel like the organisation is strong but it's actually decaying from the inside out.
Healthy, vibrant organisations are constantly improving and innovating in response to the market. They do not expect to be doing business the same way next year. They recognise that in order to survive, they need ever-improving individuals and teams who take ownership of their work and future. That requires great coaches, not micromanagers.
If you need help with how to handle a micromanager contact us to discuss your training goals
As well as lots of smaller businesses and organisations, below are examples of some larger organisations who have received training from our director of learning at Ultimate Leadership Training:
Please contact us to discuss any training requirements you have, we either deliver for you or sell you the course for your trainers to deliver to your team
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How to Handle a Micromanager