If you’ve worked hard to build a great business, and it’s ready for that to expand, it can be easy to have the urge to micromanage your team in response to how much more you have invested. However noble it may seem, it could be costing you more in the long term. Here are some signs you may be unknowingly micromanaging, what consequences may come from that, and how to correct it.
Your Sense Of Responsibility is Skewed
You’re clearly a dedicated and responsible individual if you’ve worked to build a business. But that sense of responsibility can easily become misdirected towards the minuscule details and can lead to very unproductive behavior. For example, you may have problems breaking up and assigning your work to your team, assuming wrongfully that you know how to do it best, and even when you do eventually assign it, you jump at the chance to fix small mistakes that are your team members responsibility to handle in the first place. This also has the side-effect of discouraging creativity, as your employees may not experiment with solutions without consultation from you.
You’re Causing Unforeseen Problems
The short term problems of micromanagement are overly stressed employees with decreased productivity. But in the long run, you will be eroding trust between you and your staff and even causing them to leave for a different job entirely. Not only has this been proven true, but it is also becoming apparent that micromanagement is a widespread problem throughout the work world. In this excerpt from the book My Way or the Highway, author Harry Chambers cites a study done by Trinity Solutions and administered by Katherine W. Wilson Ph.D., which found that a large number of people report independently that they are being micromanaged. Over 79% said they have been micromanaged at a past job, 62% considered changing jobs due to micromanagement and 32% admitting they did in fact change jobs due to being micromanaged by a boss that ended leaving a bad impression on them.
How You Can Correct Your Behavior
Just because you have exhibited some of these behaviors and may have left an impression of untrustworthiness among your employees in the past, it’s never too late to implement better work habits. A great place to start is by cultivating a culture of collaboration. Let your employees know that your door is always open for feedback on work but that you respect their talent and expertise and trust them to accomplish goals on their own, which is why you most likely hired them in the first place.
We hope that you will find this helpful and lead to a more positive productive workspace.
