Micromanagement’s Time and Place

When I was first starting as a manager, I was having trouble guiding a team of fresh grads to execute up to my standards. My boss said, “David, you need to micromanage them.” This was completely counter intuitive to what I have heard over the years as a business professional. I was not exactly sure how to do this initially, but tried to give more explicit directions and check-in more frequently. Micromanaging proved to be quite effective in that scenario because the individuals were lost and micromanaging provides the clearer guidance over other management strategies. I soon realized that there is a time and place where micromanagement is genuinely the best management option.

Today we will dive into the scenarios in which micromanagement should be utilized. After determining if micromanagement is the best path forward for a given scenario, we will discuss the how to utilize it optimally, balancing for both individual development and business result.

Definition

Micromanagement involves clearly outlining tasks, such that the team member simply needs to execute with limited to no additional thought, and may require more frequent check-ins compared to other management strategies (e.g., mentoring, empowering).

Suitable Individuals

Some companies only hire leaders that will develop and expand the level of thought, whereas other companies hire an army of executors with a few leaders to manage them. Depending on the hiring business model, your company may or may not have individuals that would benefit from micromanagement. If you are in an organization with an army of executors, at least some degree of micromanagement will be necessary to drive successful results.

If we are not sure if our team members should be micromanaged, I created the following matrix to help us decide. We should profile EACH of our team members into one category (micromanage, mentor, motivate) of this matrix.

This was the same matrix used in my Mentoring Effectively article, which you may peruse for a deeper look into the mentor quadrant and also a more detailed explanation of the axes. We will have a lighter touch in explaining the axes here.

• Ambition: Burning desire to learn more
• Ability to Learn: Ability to adapt to feedback and excel in new challenges

Note that it is possible for an individual to shift from one category to another over time.

The only attribute we need to consider for micromanagement is the ability to learn. Once we deem that individual(s) have a low propensity to learn in a given task, they become suitable for micromanagement. The alternatives to micromanagement are mentoring and empowering, but these options are better suited for individuals with a higher propensity to learn in the given area.

We can test an individual’s ability to learn by gauging how well they can adapt to feedback. For example, if a team member is building a revenue model for the first time and we give targeted feedback / logical corrections, but the same mistake(s) are made on the second attempt, then we need to take a step down and provide more specific feedback and guidance. This increase in guidance trends towards micromanagement. However this step down to micromanagement is not permanent. After the concept is grasped, we can then gauge if the individual is ready for more complex tasks with less specific direction provided.

Task Explanations

Micromanagement boils down to the explanation of the task, which needs to balance employee emotions and to remove any possibilities for misinterpretations. It contains very specific information about the methodology to solving a problem, which will allow the receiver to execute with fewer errors. Some team members may feel insecure or negative about their role and their work if they are being micromanaged. So to micromanage effectively, we need to balance these potential emotions by tying their work to the overall vision and why it is important. If team members are pushing for more independence of thought, let them know that we are being specific here to avoid any miscommunication and if this task with detailed instructions is done well, we can give them a higher degree of freedom in future tasks.

After balancing their emotions, as we are explaining the task to them, we should provide clear and detailed directions, leaving minimal space for gray area or misinterpretation. The ability to explain tasks in this manner is a skill in itself and needs to be practiced. If we are able to successfully explain and remove all possibilities for misinterpretations, our team members can execute correctly by simply following the provided directions. However, having zero gray area on the first pass is often difficult, so to help troubleshoot against potential errors during execution, we should look to have check-ins before the final output. These check-ins will allow us to readjust the task explanation such that the task becomes more and more straightforward, ultimately leading to a better final output.

One ongoing project at my previous ecommerce company was to convince sellers to give our platform cash in exchange for better exposure. Below, kindly refer to the following two explanations coming from the boss to a team of account managers, who each manage multiple sellers, to the aforementioned problem.

• Poor micromanagement: “Each account manager needs to convince at least two sellers to give the platform cash in exchange for marketing assets.”
• Strong micromanagement: “Sellers that invest cash for exposure will typically get a X.X return on investment. Look to have conversations with sellers in-person, if possible. During the meeting, we should walk through the following selling points (high ROI, higher search ranking after the campaign, dedicated push notifications). If the sellers have any concerns, please note them down and let us discuss during our check-in next week.”

Poor micromanagement, or lazy management, can lead to sub-optimal results and skews the perception to be more negative. If micromanagement is used correctly, we will produce better results while our team members build up their confidence.

Closing Remarks

It is important to note that micromanagement, mentoring, and empowering are not permanent states. They should evolve based on our continuous assessment of our team members. If we notice that they are struggling to complete a task, we may need to be more involved, provide more direction, and micromanage. On the contrary, if we notice that they are executing well, we can give them a longer leash to experiment and learn, checking-in as mentor or general guide. We should regularly gauge our team members on the ambition vs. ability to learn matrix. Then, if micromanagement if the best choice for a given moment, we can explain the significance of their work and also give detailed directions to drive strong business results and employee satisfaction.

Empowering is preferred over mentoring and mentoring is preferred over micromanagement, however, they each have a time and place depending on the current mindset of our team members and type of projects available. I previously wrote about mentoring effectively, but stay tuned for a future article on empowering.

Are there nuances that I missed? If you have any comments or questions, feel free to respond below or connect with me on LinkedIn. Follow me on medium.com/@dhuynh2979 for future articles on leadership and management.