Why You Should Learn To Micromanage
Somehow, somewhere, the term “micromanage” got a bad name.If you have a team or confident experts, yeah, sure, micromanagement is a poor strategy, but what about the opposite?
How can micromanagement make sense?
If your new hire is low in skill and also low in confidence, you may need to use micromanagement to get them to proficiency.They need job knowledge first, which can require hand holding and frequent check-ins. A high level of accountability and transparency will also help make expectations clear and failures/successes visible.Gaining job knowledge will lead to successful completions of tasks and projects which will lead to opportunities for praise which will lead to increased confidence.To be clear: I’m NOT saying micromanagement is the answer to all management issues, it’s just a tool in the tool-belt of a competent manager.
2 Minute Action
Who is someone on your team or in your life who needs support, coaching, or feedback?Categorize them, here. Are they high or low in confidence? Are they high or low in skill/job knowledge?If they are high in both, consider using a hands-off approach.If they are low in both, consider using a micromanagement approach.
One Simple Trick To A Productive Team
Most will agree: employees don’t leave bad jobs.They leave bad managers.The employee of the month program isn’t working.There are only so many “atta boy’s” that can land effectively.Without recognizing the hard work and sacrifices of your team, you alienate them and build resentment.Resentment is not a great emotion for productivity.The weird thing is that it really only takes a minute to make someone on your team feel like what they do matters.And when people feel good about the work they’re doing, they tend to do more of it and they tend to do it better.Go figure.
2 Minute Action:
Look someone in the eye and tell them why what they did was great.Be specific. Tell them exactly what was so great and the difference it makes to your project.
Make This Mistake And Be Stuck forever
As soon as you wake up, you’re thinking about everything you’ve got to do.But even when you put your to-do list together, you get blindsided by firey hot crises.Phone calls come in, old tasks resurface, and you feel like you’re being pulled in a million directions at once.At the end of the day, you feel like you did a TON of work, but you can’t really point to any “checked” boxes.This is called “Fire of the Day” management style and it’s a great way to ensure burnout, anxiety, and unhappiness.If you’re struggling to keep up with tasks, remember that reacting is not going to help.Its how you choose to respond (not just react) that will keep you focused.Reacting to every phone call and every email will ensure that you stay a slave to urgency—but you’re smarter than that.Tasks can be important and urgent, that’s called a crisis.But tasks can also be urgent and not important, in which case you’d be better off delegating them to someone else on your team or not doing them at all.Conflatig urgency and importance is one of the most common mistakes I see when diagnosing “Fire of the Day” management style.Recognize the difference and you’ll be able to focus on what’s important without being a slave to every burning hot urgency that comes flying at you.If you want a useful tool for helping you with this, check out the Eisenhower Decisions matrix. I share this tool with everyone I work with and point to it all the time.
2 Minute Action:
Create a quick to-do list (spend 1 minute on this).Spend the next minute assigning a number to each task.Once you have your numbers you’ve got a prioritized list of things to do.Go get ‘em.