Many workers agree: The worst kind of manager is a micromanager. After all, nobody likes to have their boss leaning over them all day, every day, questioning and scrutinizing their every move. It's understandable, therefore, that many leaders choose to take a hands-off approach to leadership. But can there be too much of a good thing?
Harvard Business Review contributor Victor Lipman thinks there can be. Leaders who are determined not to be micromanagers often become something just as bad, he says: under-managers.
"Micromanagement gets most of the attention, but under-management may be just as big a problem," Lipman says. "This is the term I've given to a constellation of behaviors that I've seen occurring together often during my 24 years in management: weak performance management, a tendency to avoid conflicts with employees and generally lackluster accountability. As the name suggests, there's just not quite enough management being done -- and results often suffer as a result."
If you're worried that you might be under-managing your team, there's a few things you can do to get your hands back on the steering wheel, according to Lipman. First among them: handling conflict.
"Early in my management career I was fortunate to have a mentor who took me aside and told me straight-out that if I was going to succeed in management, I needed to become more effective in my handling of conflict. I still remember his exact words. He praised my abilities (my knowledge of our business and my work ethic), but added, 'Frankly, I don't know if you want to handle conflict. I don't know if you have the stomach for it,'" Lipman says. "I realized that if I was going to be successful in management, this was a problem area and I was going to have to work on it. So I did -- diligently. I became highly conscious of conflict and not ducking it. Truth be told, I still don't like dealing with conflict (most people don't), but I recognized it was a vital part of the management role and over time I became more comfortable with it and competent at it."
Next, embrace goal setting. "If you're not delivering the results you need to, which is the risk at the heart of under-management, first make sure the goals your employees need to achieve are well-conceived and clear," Lipman continues. "Most managers don't spend nearly enough time on goal setting; too often we approach it as a nettlesome bureaucratic exercise … But thoughtful goals that are agreed to by employees can be a manager's best friend because you can manage to them: They become a roadmap to guide your work with your team all year."
You don't have to be in your employees' laps to manage them effectively. But it doesn't work to be out of earshot, either. Focusing on tasks like conflict management and goal setting ensures you're near enough to guide your employees, but far enough to avoid smothering them.
More Tips:
https://hbr.org/2018/11/under-management-is-the-flip-side-of-micromanagement-and-its-a-problem-too
Questions, Comments, Suggestions?
Contact Successful Meetings Editor in Chief Vincent Alonzo with your "How To" ideas.