When a new boss comes in, the easiest thing to do is to require that all those they manage work exactly as they do. To achieve that goal, micromanagement usually is required. They must get inside their employees’ work processes and demand conformity wherever their work processes deviate.
Is Micromanagement Acceptable?
Every person, especially those who have been in their jobs for a long time, has their own eccentricities and approaches to getting their work done. When a new manager requires conformity to their approach and uses micromanagement to reach that goal, they often create aggravated employees.
As you probably guessed, I have experienced this phenomenon of the manager who feels (knows) they have the best way of doing everything, demands their new charges do the same, and are not reluctant to get into the weeds of their employees’ work to make sure they start doing it the “right” way.
This kind of micromanagement has always rubbed me the wrong way—from day one of my career. However, it sometimes works with entry-level employees. Or rather, I should say, it works temporarily with entry-level employees. Micromanagement to get employees to conform to the manager’s way of doing the work creates employees who never figure out for themselves what works best for them. They never learn how to get the desired results by doing the work in a way that is manageable for them.
Tips to Keep in Mind
Given all these perils of the inflexible boss who uses micromanagement to make “improvements,” I started exploring what experts advise as a better management approach.
- Carefully time when you jump in to “help.” One tip from the authors is to step in to help—at the right moment, i.e., when there is reason to believe the employee is struggling or significantly challenged and would welcome the help.
“We’ve found…that the leaders who are viewed as the most helpful don’t try to preempt every problem or dive in as soon as they recognize one. Instead, they watch and listen until they believe their subordinates see the need for help and are ready to listen receptively. They understand people are more willing to welcome assistance when they’re already engaged in a task or a project and have experienced its challenges firsthand,” the authors write.
- Clarify that you’re stepping in, in fact, to help. It’s easy to see a boss who wants to comb through the weeds of your work as intrusive and micromanaging. It’s important, the authors note, for the boss to communicate that they don’t want to do any such thing—that they are solely interested in getting a second pair of eyes on the challenge to see where the difficulty the employee is experiencing may be stemming from.
“We found that leaders rated as particularly helpful took pains to persuade subordinates that they were stepping in for only one reason: to support their employees’ work,” the authors point out.
From my own experience, it helps to allow the employee to lead the meeting with the boss in which the boss plans to comb through the work. The employee feels in control and empowered that way. “I’m getting a sense from you that this project is proving a big challenge and is getting to be hard to deliver. I wanted to see if you could take me through it and point out any areas where I might be able to jump in to help, or one of the other team members might be able to lend a hand,” the manager might say.
- Realize that sometimes an employee does need their manager to partner with them. The authors didn’t put it in terms of “partnering,” but that’s how I interpreted their advice to “align the rhythm of your involvement to people’s needs.”
The authors generally explain what that means this way: “To give people useful help, leaders must take the time to fully understand employees’ problems, especially when the issues are thorny. If the work is complex, creative, and cognitively demanding, you’ll need to engage deeply.”
From my own experience, that deep engagement can be done in a way that positions the manager as a partner rather than a top-down enforcer.
“Let’s tackle this together,” the manager could say to the employee. “I have some ideas for getting past this challenge I want to run past you and get your feedback on.”
Once a solution has been arrived at, the manager can let the employee know that they personally will be working alongside them to do the necessary work or that another team member will be stepping in to help.
Few employees will object to an extra brain and an extra pair of hands helping them get work done, especially when that work is experiencing a seemingly insurmountable roadblock. On the flip side, a manager who comes in as an enforcer, combing through work to find flaws and then adding to the employee’s workload, will certainly—and rightfully—get a big shove back.
When you promote someone to a manager position or a higher level of management, how do you ensure they know how to help in a way that is empowering, rather than aggravating or demoralizing, to employees?