Why Employees Hate Micromanagers (and How to Avoid Being One)
Are you a perfectionist? It’s not uncommon for detail-oriented,hypercritical, perfectionists to do very well in the corporate industry. Their diligence and hard work often pay off so it's very likely to find these types of people in a leadership position. However, applying the same perfectionism to subordinates leads to micromanaging, which often has catastrophic outcomes for the organisation, the employees, and yourself.
Why Micromanaging isn't the Best Leadership Style?
Some people would argue that micromanaging is a great way to make sure every team member does their job properly, thus, improving productivity, what’s so bad about being a micromanager? Studies suggest the contrary. Micromanaging is not beneficial for you as the leader, the employees, and the organisation. Here’s why:
1. When you closely supervise everything your employees do, you communicate to them that you do not trust their judgment, competence, and ability to fulfil their tasks. As a result, employees feel underappreciated, they lose motivation and morale, and they feel disengaged from the team and the organisation.
2. Micromanaging causes decreased productivity as a result of unmotivated employees and; decreased retention rate, as most employees under a micromanager would tend to look for a better working environment. Furthermore, you are hindering the employees from expressing their creativity and innovation, thus you are also holding back the organisation from reaching its full potential.
3. You are exhausting yourself to the brink of burnout. By supervising every single step that your employees make, you're giving yourself more work and putting more pressure on yourself.
How to Avoid Micromanaging?
Now that you know that micromanaging is not the most effective leadership style, how do you stop yourself from being a micromanager so you can be a productive, healthy, and efficient team?
1. Practice effective delegation. Effective delegation involves assigning tasks to employees based on their strengths and ability to learn and grow. Delegating important tasks communicates that you trust your employees which boosts their morale while freeing up more of your time.
2. Avoid giving step-by-step instructions. When delegating tasks, focus on setting clear expectations like timeline and goals, instead of giving overly detailed instructions.
3. Embrace innovation and experimentation. Accept that things will not always be done your way, and sometimes that’s a good thing. Your employees may have more effective ways to achieve a goal, and you may even learn from them.
4. Form the right team. If you have a competent and trustworthy team around you, you won't need to micromanage because you know they can deliver what is expected.
5. Encourage communication. Once tasks are delegated and all expectations are clearly defined, limit checking in on them until 60% of the timeline has passed, but encourage them to ask questions and seek advice whenever they get stuck on something.
Overall, avoiding a micromanaging leadership style will help your employees become more productive, motivated, and happier. It also helps free up your time so you can spend it on more productive processes. If you want to automate your HR management for an even more convenient way to manage teams and collate HR data in one secure database, start your free HR Pulse free trial now.
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