How NOT to be a Micro-manager
Mobilize your people with clear guardrails
No one wants to be a Micro-manager: constantly requiring check-ins from your people, asking detailed questions, or making lots of suggestions. And yet, because your team’s work eventually becomes your responsibility, it can be so tempting to let your inner micro-manager off the leash.
The Google Oxygen project listed the ability to “Empower Your Team/Not Micromanage” as one of the 10 leading characteristics of a capable manager. Great. Sounds good. How do you do it?
One excellent way to empower your people is to define their levels of initiative, or said another way, their permission levels. As they go about their work – making decisions or taking actions – when and in what way are they supposed to involve you?
Answering that sounds easy enough. Yet in my experience coaching executives, it is not as easy as it first appears. Executives resist defining levels of initiative for several reasons.
It requires looking into the future for the kinds of actions/decisions your people will be taking.
It requires a subjective judgment based on your level of comfort with their capabilities.
It puts you on record and prevents any later blame-shifting, such as asking why they didn’t come to you sooner.
Nonetheless, it’s worth overcoming these hurdles and empowering your people. Your people will grow and feel more ownership, while you will be more able to focus on your highest-value work.
In most circumstances, empowering people boils down to defining these three levels of initiative:
Ask Me. What do they need your permission for before taking action?
Tell Me. What can they act upon, with the understanding that they will report back? And finally,
Don’t Bother Me. What can they act upon and need not bother you with the details at all?
Invest a little time in mapping their duties, making your decisions as to levels of initiative, and actually communicating them. By removing your own uncertainty and theirs about these levels, you will provide clarity and feel relieved, you will be a better boss, and your people will know that you are truly invested in their growth.
Feel free to let me know what worked for you or to get in touch.