Although the word micromanagement is not directly associated with a negative practice, this can be a bad attitude for the functioning of entrepreneurship.
Therefore, it is important that managers understand the consequences of micromanagement for a business and know strategies to avoid it.
What Is Micromanagement?
Micromanagement is a way of managing employees characterized by leaders who closely monitor the work of their subordinates, giving excessive guidance, distrusting employees' abilities, and constantly changing the final result of the product.
Those who practice micromanagement are obsessed with the smallest details and find it very difficult to delegate tasks, even the simplest ones, always with the tendency to do everything without asking for help. Another common characteristic is the lack of trust shown in your team.
Micromanagement is the result of excessive control on the part of the manager and is usually linked to the lack of freedom and creativity in the work environment.
Managers who are really concerned about their team must cultivate healthy management habits to maintain the integration of employees in search of positive results.
And micromanagement, on the contrary, can cause low productivity, lack of self-esteem, and lack of autonomy on the part of employees.
The Causes of Micromanagement
There are two aspects that can favor the emergence of a leader with an excess of control.
The first of these is the most obvious. personal: is when a manager is an insecure person, unable to trust the team he leads.
Generally, this person's profile is controller, believing that she is the most capable of producing the activity, without any opening to educate her team. This creates uncertainty and a lot of conflicts.
The second cause is organizational and can be the most problematic. It is when the company's internal policy is confused, there is a culture of controlling everything and everyone and there is a lot of instability in the leadership position. In this case, the problem is not one person, but the company as a whole.
Why Is Micromanagement Bad For Business?
Micromanagement is a management style characterized by leaders and/or managers who closely monitor the work of subordinates, often adding their own input and constantly changing the final output. Micromanagers are obsessed with the smallest details and are seemingly incapable of delegating – they always have to do everything themselves. Micromanagers also often demonstrate a lack of trust in their co-workers and subordinates, and they often work poorly with others as well. Micromanagement is about excessive control and is often associated with a lack of freedom and creativity in the workplace.
What Are the Consequences of Micromanagement?
So far, you can already draw some conclusions. The first is that micromanagement is a serious problem. And it goes even further when there is no control. And the consequences are serious. Here are some:
Low productivity
Whether working remotely or in-house, what is expected from a team is always productivity. And for that, you need to give your team a “breath”. This breath is allowing him to work without strict supervision, which arises from minute to minute.
Micromanagement leads to the unproductiveness of the team and the manager himself, who uses his routine incorrectly, spends a lot of time monitoring someone while he could train the team and because he has this excessive control, stops carrying out activities and delays the progress of the team's activities.
High Employee Turnover
One of the most visible consequences of micromanagement is employee dissatisfaction. Nobody likes to work in a place where they feel highly controlled and without space where they can have autonomy.
In this scenario, turnover is high and your company loses opportunities to create loyal employees who know the processes.
Loss of Trustworthy
Micromanagement destroys trust. Employees should feel trusted and valued by their manager and their organization, especially when it comes to doing their jobs. When micromanagers stifle an employee's decision-making, it gives the employee the impression that the manager doesn't trust them enough or doesn't believe in their abilities enough to get the job done. Micromanagers can make employees feel powerless, unable to use their own resources, knowledge, and initiative to figure things out. Without trust, employees become irritated and disloyal. Either they take their talents to another company, or they stay and become a "dead weight", awaiting instructions from their manager.
Reduced Innovation
Employee engagement drives innovation and employee empowerment helps increase engagement rates. Micromanagement empowers employees by not allowing them to achieve results that are right for them. This makes them less responsible for their results and less engaged. Micromanagers underutilize the skills, knowledge, and talents of their employees by controlling their every move. They leave no room for employees to criticize and improve their own processes in order to develop their expertise. When micromanagers treat their employees like order takers, they diminish their ability to innovate.
Lack of Example
A leader who is not an example for his employees can hardly win their sympathy and trust. In fact, when a leader practices micromanagement, he is the biggest loser, as he cannot control his team as he wishes, does not transmit confidence, and starts to be seen as authoritarian.
This distrustful relationship between leaders and employees often results in internal conflicts, which imply an even greater waste of time to be resolved.
In addition, the bad relationship has a direct impact on the organizational climate, which becomes unpleasant and unmotivating.
Stressful Work Environment
With excessive demands, rude behavior, and stressful control, the work environment becomes stressful, not very stimulating, and unpleasant. Consequently, the organizational climate is affected, harming the team's productivity.
How To Avoid Micromanagement?
Faced with so many bad consequences for your business, you must be prepared to leave micromanagement away from your business. Then, check out practical and simple tips:
Delegate Functions
Trusting your employees is critical. And it's not just about delegating a role and being on top of the person, wanting them to do things their own way!
Provide activities that the person can do independently. Expect the results and evaluate the work. If you don't agree, trust a new adjustment process. Trust her, always!
Improve Communication
Communication is the most important thing in the workplace. A good manager listens to his commands. By listening to the people on your team, you are opening up the possibility of two-way communication, in which they indicate improvements, enable alternatives and show assertiveness.
With this, self-confidence tends to improve, as everyone feels relevant and important to the business's growth.
Cover Only When Needed
Charging is part of any worker's life. But in excess, no. Therefore, manage the charges and analyze the best times to do this. And remember: your team knows you're in charge. There is no need to always charge to know who the leader is.
Distribute Responsibilities
One of the main reasons for avoiding micromanagement is that decision-making about all sectors is in the manager's hands.
Therefore, it is necessary that, based on the recognition of the skills and profiles of employees, there is a distribution of responsibilities and business activities.
Directing responsibilities to a person who is excited about the business can increase the employee's engagement with the company, bringing even better results.
But of course, it is interesting to encourage everyone to have a voice over decisions within the business, regardless of the company's sector.
Change Is A Process
It's not always simple to become an exemplary leader, but you need to go through a more arduous process to get out of micromanagement.
As you read in this post, the consequences are big and usually fatal to a professional career. And one of them is stress, which can also have several other causes.
To Sums It Up
No more micromanagement!
It is important to understand that without the problems of micromanagement, even the manager can have his work optimized. Since there will be a relief in relation to activities.
Therefore, it is clear that micromanagement must be discouraged in businesses that seek sustainable growth, with efficient and enthusiastic participation by the entire team.
Managers can exercise control with clear guidelines and advice for employees to follow. Once their employees have learned their duties and responsibilities, they should be encouraged to perform their jobs independently while asking questions as needed to complete the tasks. Through this process, employees learn to be confident and independent. Job satisfaction, creativity, and morale increase. While some attributes of micromanagement may be necessary to perform certain tasks in the workplace, they offer no benefit to productivity or employee engagement.