Don't be a Police Officer! Confessions of a former Micromanager
Autonomy: The Basis for Intrinsic Motivation
Why do most of us feel better on weekends?
The answer might not surprise you: we feel better because on weekends, within certain legal, social, and familial boundaries—for example, providing that our spouse agrees—we do whatever the heck we want.
In other words, we have autonomy.
Mind you, this is not just some half-assed wisecrack; it is a scientifically established fact. Psychologists Richard M. Ryan from the University of Rochester, Jessey H. Bernstein from McGill University, and Kirk Warren Brown from Virginia Commonwealth University have found that “the higher well-being people experience on weekends was in considerable part accounted for by greater feelings of autonomy […] in weekend activities.”
Autonomy has long been posited by psychologists as a basic, universal, innate psychological need, an important protector against stress, and a key basis for intrinsic motivation.
Alas, it is also in conflict with many traditional, twentieth-century, command-and-control-based notions of management, many of which continue to live on in the minds and actions of managers today. Companies and bosses continue, in some cases exploitatively but frequently with the best intentions, to externally regulate our schedules and behaviors, down to the last detail of how we dress, speak, manage our time, prioritize our work, and approach our tasks.
I would know; I was one of these bosses.
“Autonomy has long been posited by psychologists as a basic, universal, innate psychological need, an important protector against stress, and a key basis for intrinsic motivation. Alas, it is also in conflict with many traditional, twentieth-century, command-and-control-based notions of management.”
The Detrimental Effects of Micromanagement
As a rookie manager, at the ripe age of 24, proud of my ability to execute to exacting standards and manage complicated client relationships, I established a degree of almost absolutist control over my first team, many members of which were several decades my senior. I had to be cc-ed on every email, triple-check every presentation, and approve every quote. There was no matter too small for me to provide an opinion on. Fashioning myself as the ultimate guarantor of superior quality and client satisfaction, I succeeded in building a system in which I was indispensable. I worked 14-hour days, weekends, and holidays, and worst of all, I was proud of it.
It was only years later, lying in a hospital bed after an appendectomy, that I woke up to how wrong I was. My consistent efforts to satisfy my strong need for control over the years debilitated my otherwise hard-working and highly capable team to such an extent that there was, indeed, no one by that time who could have stepped in to take over urgent projects for important clients. With fresh bandages on, the IV in, no food allowed for another two days, and some grumpy hospital roommates - including a retired colonel who didn’t appreciate my constant phone calls to colleagues and clients - I had no choice but to continue working 14-hour days in the hospital. By the end of day two, I made myself a vow to mend my ways.
“My consistent efforts to satisfy my strong need for control over the years debilitated my otherwise hard-working and highly capable team to such an extent that there was, indeed, no one by that time who could have stepped in to take over urgent projects for important clients. I had no choice but to continue working 14-hour days in the hospital.”
In all likelihood, you are nowhere near being such an extreme case as I was.
More subtle forms of micromanagement, however, appear to be pervasive in the workplace. According to various studies, somewhere between 60 to 80% of all employees have experienced micromanagement at some time in their careers, and 50 to 70% of those who experience micromanagement report lower morale and productivity and increased willingness to change their jobs because of it.
In my MBA Team Management Skills class, I ask students, many of them practicing managers, for a show of hands from those who think they might be micromanagers.
You might have guessed the result: no one ever tends to raise their hands.
Even though managers, too, often experience micromanagement from their bosses in turn, there is a disconnect in how they and their team members perceive micromanagement behaviors.
Micromanagers often have good intentions at heart and see themselves as only trying to help and stay informed to ensure their team is successful. The line between managing and meddling can be thin and easy to cross inadvertently in subtle but insidious ways.
“In my MBA Team Management Skills class, I ask students, many of them practicing managers, for a show of hands from those who think they might be micromanagers. You might have guessed the result: no one ever tends to raise their hands. There is a disconnect in how managers and their team members perceive micromanagement behaviors.”
10 Signs of Micromanagement Behaviors
If you recognize yourself in some of the ten signs below, you, too, might be at risk of exhibiting harmful micromanagement behaviors:
You find it hard to delegate important tasks or decisions, worrying that the outcome won’t be up to your standards.
You often venture your opinions and get involved in your team members’ tasks without being asked.
You often request small changes in your team members’ work, such as in the wording of presentations or emails or the color or layout of a graph, mock-up, or slide.
You find yourself cc-ed on a lot of emails.
You keep extensive to-do lists and take pride in the sheer number of tasks you are able to manage.
In meetings, you often talk first or the most.
You regularly work long hours and sometimes on weekends.
You check your emails outside office hours or on vacation and may expect team members to do the same.
You keep track of employees’ hours and whereabouts and feel they can’t be trusted to get results while working from home or at their own pace.
You delegate tasks without delegating accountability for decisions or providing sufficient control over the requisite resources such as tools and budgets.
In my experience, spanning well over 15 years, three countries, two continents, and diverse organizations from tech startups through consulting firms to the UN, almost all managers are guilty of at least some of these behaviors. At the beginning of my career, I myself was guilty of all of them. When I think back to my long and hard journey to becoming a better manager, I take some comfort in the stories that people much more successful than I am have told me about their struggles with micromanagement.
Micromanagement undermines Accountability
Gábor Bojár, the founder and chairman of Graphisoft, a software company with 60 million dollars in annual revenue, is one of these people.
He has once told me about a former assistant of his who handled his correspondence on his behalf, which he would then double-check and approve or correct if necessary. This assistant then went on to work for the head of Graphisoft’s US business. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Bojár noticed a remarkable improvement in her work. When asked about the reasons behind her progress, the assistant replied that her new boss would never double-check or make corrections in her work. The sense of accountability that came from there being no safety net in the form of checks and approvals caused her to step up and rise to the challenge. It was then, Mr. Bojár says, that he understood the limits of managerial control in helping people to get the best out of themselves.
As this story shows, the key problem with micromanagement is that it undermines accountability.
Too much managerial control can reduce both the stakes and the sense of pride employees have in the outcome of their work, with the result that their sense of ownership and performance frequently decline.
“When asked about the reasons behind her progress, the assistant replied that her new boss would never double-check or make corrections in her work. The sense of accountability that came from there being no safety net in the form of checks and approvals caused her to step up and rise to the challenge. The key problem with micromanagement is that it undermines accountability.”
In Mr. Bojár’s experience, having built a global software company with tens of thousands of users, accountability is so important that managers are often better off accepting suboptimal outcomes than intervening in their subordinates’ work. The only exception to this rule, he says, is when a manager has important information about a decision that their subordinate does not. Even then, he warns, managers should take pains to make sure their team members feel heard, and to intervene extremely rarely and in a way that does not undermine team members’ sense of accountability.
If you recognize yourself in some of the signs and examples above, don’t feel bad. The fact that you are reading this and have the self-awareness to admit you are not perfect (without needing an appendectomy to recognize that like I did) means you are already on the right path to improve. Take it upon yourself to trust your team more and more and to delight both their successes and teachable moments.
This is what will take you from being a manager to being a true leader.
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