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Are you micromanaging your team?

Australian Institute of Management WA chief executive Emeritus Professor Gary Martin.

How often do you hear team members complain that they are being micromanaged in their workplace?

Unfortunately these complaints are heard in many modern organisations with increasing regularity. Some would even say that micromanagement has hit our workplaces in epidemic proportions!

The sad truth of the matter is that many managers who exist in our workplaces often have no awareness that they are, in fact, micromanagers.

What is Micromanagement?

Micromanagement takes place when a manager exerts excessive control over the work of a team member.

Typically, the micromanager will monitor and assess every step in a work process even after thorough training has taken place. They monitor the day to day work performance of team members too closely, regardless of whether a team member is highly capable or a poor performer.

Micromanagers are usually focused on process rather than outcomes and will often insist that a team member completes a task in a particular way rather than supporting flexibility and facilitating autonomy.

Micromanagement can occur for many reasons including increased pressure for a manager to perform, insecurity in the manager’s role and a lack of management development or training.
A micromanaged team can hurt an organisation in many ways. Micromanagement sends a very strong message to team members that they are not trusted and that that they lack capability. Typically, team members who are micromanaged become frustrated and resentful, and lose confidence in their ability to get a job done. These impacts almost certainly lead to reduced employee productivity as micromanaged employees become increasingly disengaged.

Four Signs of Micromanagement

There is a fine line between a manager who wants to work closely with team members and giving in to micromanagement.

If you demonstrate two or more of the following four characteristics, then there is a good chance that you are on your way to becoming a micromanager.

Unable to Delegate:

Micromanagers are often unable to delegate. This means that they frequently feel overworked. They often assign tasks but then take them back to complete themselves because the job is not being done in the way they would do it themselves. Micromanagers tend to adopt the attitude that if you want to get something done properly then you must do it yourself.

Over-Direction:

While all team members require direction, micromanagers over-direct. They spend considerable time showing and telling team members how they should complete a work task and leave little room for a team member to take or demonstrate initiative.

Exclusive Decision-Making:

Micromanagers feel that they must make all decisions themselves. Rarely do they consult team members and they often become irritated when team members make decisions without first consulting them.

Communication Avoidance:

Typically team members working with a micromanager tend to avoid contact with their manager. That is because they fear that if they approach their manager they may well be inundated with additional direction which they do not need.

If you are on the way to becoming a micromanager the first step to correct this behaviour is personal self-awareness. This might be followed up by seeking feedback on your management style from members of your team, which can in turn lead to development of effective strategies to eliminate micromanagement behaviours.

Gary Martin FAIM is Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Australian Institute of Management in Western Australia. He is a learning and development specialist with extensive experience in the design and delivery of programs in Western Australian and internationally. He is currently an Emeritus Professor of Murdoch University and Zhejiang University of Technology (Zhejiang Province, China), as well as an Honorary Professor at Guangdong University of Business Studies (Guangdong Province, China).