Thursday, August 30, 2012

Identifying a Micromanager

The way a boss manages his staff can make the difference between empowered, motivated employees and demoralized, intimidated workers.

Good Manager
Effective bosses lead with a firm but empowering hand. They give employees the necessary project details, then leave them to their own abilities with minimal supervision. At the same time, good managers are easily accessible for consultation and suggestions when staffers request it.

Micromanager
Micromanagers have difficultly delegating even the smallest projects without constantly having to oversee progress. This can result in frustrated employees who lack confidence in their abilities. Micromanagers often ignore the big picture to focus upon little or insignificant details. They may rescind an assigned project after finding one mistake, and require every aspect of the decision-making process be run past them first.

Effects On Productivity
While being detail-oriented and hands-on are two important characteristics of a good boss, these traits can quickly become detrimental to productivity when taken to an extreme. For example, supervisors who assign projects to highly competent employees and then hover over them every step of the way create unnecessary tension, stymie employee morale and interfere with project outcome.

Working With A Micromanager
When circumstances prevent you from escaping the clutches of a micromanager, "Forbes" offers suggestions for mitigating the negative impact. Identify trigger situations that cause the behavior and anticipate what's needed to lessen the controlling response. Empathize with a boss who may also be under the thumb of a micromanager. Be the ever-present and reliable role model, and encourage change by unceremoniously demonstrating how well an empowering approach works. In some cases, bosses don't realize they are micromanaging productivity into the ground, so a gentle, nonconfrontational chat may be all that's needed to move things in the right direction.

Originally written for and published by Demand Media

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