…..The difference between being an effective leader and being a micromanager can be hard to recognize in yourself, but your employees can see and feel it immediately whenever it happens. According to this study, nearly 70% of employees have been bossed around by a micromanager at some point in their careers – yet less than 10% of managers realize that their high turnover ratio can be attributed to micromanagement behaviors. Are you guilty of micromanaging your personnel? If any of the following three habits sound like you, then you most likely are:
- Stifling Creativity – If you didn’t come up with the idea yourself, then your first instinct is to shoot it down and power through with your own ideas instead. Rather than support a true discussion with your team, you prefer to dominate the discussion and shut down valuable feedback if it doesn’t go with your flow. In other words, you disregard any possibility that someone else may know more than you on any given topic. The result is a workforce that stops suggesting or contributing any of their own ideas due to their fear of being rejected – effectively rendering your personnel’s creative abilities useless.
- Intrusive Tendencies – You need to know every little detail of what your people are doing at all times – and may even dive into trying to control aspects of their personal and professional lives. You ask inappropriate questions about their religion, their spouses, their children, and other topics that are of a more private nature. Being intrusive can really make things uncomfortable for your team members, since nobody likes the idea of having their right to privacy violated and/or being constantly badgered about every single thing they do. Intrusive leaders often find that they can’t keep team members interested in working with them for extended periods of time – and may soon discover that they no longer have anyone left to lead.
- Condescending Over-explanation – You talk condescendingly to your people, as if they know nothing or are incapable of comprehending the task at hand. You can’t help but tell them what to do and how to do it – even when talking to veteran team members. You seem to be hell-bent on putting your own personal touch on every single report, memo, letter, etc. Condescending over-explainers soon discover that their team members may become unable to start doing anything without explicit instructions, since they know that changes will be made anyway, necessary or not.
…..If you believe you are micromanaging your people, stop and consider how you are negatively affecting your team – showing them how little trust or respect you have for them. You’re not being a “hands on manager” when you hover around chiming in about every little thing in the process. It’s overbearing, it belittles the capabilities of the people around you, and is a monumental waste of everybody’s time and effort.
Never fear, Tukko Labs is here – ready to share your burdensome loads and decrease the pain in your rear! Contact us today!