Is Micromanagement Impeding Growth of Your Organization?

We all have faced micromanagement in our professional journey. This leads to feeling of frustration, incompetence, lack of autonomy, demotivation, and stress. This can be said that most of the time the micro-manager never realizes that he or she is micromanaging. Here we will go deeper into the various aspects of identifying the micromanagement activities. So, let us understand what micromanagement is.

What is Micromanagement?

Micromanagement is a management style characterised by excessive control and oversight of every detail of a subordinate’s work. A micro-manager delves into minute details of its subordinate’s work regardless of its impact on the effectiveness of the output. This behaviour demonstrates a lack of trust in the subordinate’s abilities, inhibiting independent thinking and decision-making. Even experienced employees can be treated as amateurs and receive constant advice and criticism.

Symptoms of a Micromanaged Organization

The above definition makes many of us ponder and relate to it, making us realize that we have been or are victims of micromanagement. In this section, we will be talking about the symptoms of a micro-managed organization to get deeper clarity on the actions of a micro-manager.

Micromanagement is prevalent in organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to large corporations, albeit to varying degrees. In small or medium businesses, it is mainly the owner who showcases such behaviour micromanaging everything in the bruise of guiding or mentoring even the senior professionals. But why does a person behave like this? Most of the time it is mistrust and no belief in other’s capabilities and commitments. In large corporations, similar behaviour is seen in professional bosses or managers. The likelihood of this in professionally managed progressive businesses is less, but it is there.

Let us understand this phenomenon through an example.

As a manager, you have been given the task of drafting an email to a client by your boss (General Manager). Further, you have been instructed to get it reviewed by the boss before sending it to the client. The expectation from this activity is value-addition to the content drafted with your intellect and understanding. But you receive feedback on full stops, commas, and font size.

Looking at the above example, we can see micromanagement by the General manager. It should be believed that a manager-level professional can independently handle an email to be sent to a client. So, what is the meaning of practicing such control by the general manager? It portrays, either the manager as incompetent or the General manager as a micromanager. In both cases, the responsibility lies with the boss for the selection of the wrong person as the manager, or for not allowing the manager a space of his own.

But this doesn’t mean that every such situation can be called micromanagement. If the general manager is discussing complex problems or strategies with the manager and advising him on the same, then this cannot be called micromanagement. This will be categorized as guiding, mentoring, or teaching as it is expected from your seniors in a professional environment.

Based on the understanding of micromanagement, let’s summarize the symptoms of a micromanaged organization:

• Lack of trust
• Constant monitoring
• Increased stress level
• High employee turnover
• Every task needs approval
• Less employee engagement
• Difficult delegating
• Lack of autonomy
• Manager burnout
• Asks for frequent updates
• Obsession with details

Impact of Micromanagement

Till now we have been discussing ‘what is micromanagement’ and understanding the ‘behaviour of micromanagers’. But what is the problem or the impact of micromanagement? One can say that it will improve the accuracy of the work and will offer more control over the task to the senior. It is true to a certain extent, but at what cost? The drawbacks of such behaviour are numerous.

Let us have a look at the drawbacks listed below:

• It diverts seniors’ attention from strategic objectives to trivial tasks, wasting valuable time and resources. This limits his/her productivity as a senior manager.
• It demotivates subordinates and brings down their confidence level.
• Micromanaged individuals build feelings of incompetence and hence not believing in themselves and their capabilities. This makes them dependent on others for every decision, resulting in a weak personality as a professional.
• It slows down the pace of work and decision-making.
• Impedes the growth of the organization as micromanagement is waste of time and resources. So reduced resources will produce reduced work.

Micromanagement also questions the manager’s capability as a leader to manage the team and drive the team as well as the organization to its success. The manager also is responsible for the growth of its subordinates. By micromanagement, we are not allowing our people to fail, think, make decisions out of fear, and discourage creative thinking and experimentation.

It has been scientifically proven that:

• Failure enhances learning and makes an individual stronger,
• Thinking improves one’s cognitive ability,
• Decision-making boosts an individual’s confidence level, and
• Success of decisions gives a sense of achievement which is the biggest motivator

There is a famous proverb “Nothing succeeds like success”. My personal experience says it is true to the letter and spirit.

An organization can only grow if its people are growing intellectually, spiritually, and financially. Micromanagement blocks the development of individuals on all levels. How these three attributes make an individual grow as a great professional and then a successful leader? Let’s have a look at it.

• Intellectual Growth: Cognitive or intellectual development means the growth of a person’s ability to think and reason. It’s about how they organize their minds, ideas and thoughts to make sense of the world they live in.
• Spiritual Growth: This gives mental toughness and emotional stability.
• Financial Growth: Liberates a person from day-to-day worries of personal and social life and allows one to concentrate on professional responsibilities,

One can find many more potential drawbacks of micromanagement. I am leaving it up to the reader to think beyond what has been listed above.

The Way Forward

Now we have completed our discussion on micromanagement and have realized that we all are being micromanaged one way or the other. At the end let me ask you certain questions.

Are you a professional and feeling trapped in a similar situation?  Are you feeling choked? Are you not finding room for your creativity to take shape? Is it not allowing your true potential to come out? Is it impeding your growth?

Come out of this situation for your own good. But the question is how? How to manage being micromanaged? The solution to this situation is you, yourself. Below are a few ways:

• Talk with your manager, heart to heart.
• Try to instil confidence in him about your capabilities.
• Assure him that you will discuss in case of any doubt.
• If nothing works, leave the place.

This article is based on my own experience and the discussions with my professional friends who have been on a professional journey for more than 30 Years and are now leaders in their place. I hope this article benefits many passionate budding professionals, who have fire in their bellies for nothing less than the sky.  

Happy learning and happy liberation.

Further Reading

https://hbr.org/2021/01/how-to-help-without-micromanaging

Reviewed & Edited by Sakshi Singh