I don’t know how many times I have sinned in this particular issue. It is annoying to have someone tell you in Fine Detail how to precisely, accurately, and perfectly do what you already know how to do. Parents and spouses are among the most sinful about this.

When someone does that to you, you feel offended, it even creates a sense of resentment and lack of trust in your intelligence and capabilities even if you have demonstrated them in your actions.

Well, let me tell you people don’t mean to do that. According to very prestigious communicators and psychologists, it is the “protective mother” inside each of us that makes us do just that.

We are in some cases protecting ourselves, since the results of something others will do can affect us, or in some cases we are really just trying to protect others.

Definition

Micromanaging is described as “The action of exercising excessive and unnecessary control over the minimal detail on other people’s activities” and is definitely a very bad thing to do when you are trying to create a Leadership Environment.

Micromanaging is insulting and offensive at best. You do not need to micromanage to get the best results. All the opposite: By doing this you not only are not empowering your team members; rather you are disempowering them. People end up losing self-esteem when they interact with you.

Micromanagement is the Enemy

That is what makes micromanagement one of the worst enemies in the process of developing a successful team. Analyzed in an unbiased perspective, what happens is that we have a natural instinct that is constantly telling us “we know better.”

In a business or professional environment this bad habit can create so much discomfort that even if we are the top experts at something, people feel uncomfortable working with us.

Since trust is one of the most valuable things you can give to your team, it is important to keep this in mind: Other people can do things just as well or in some cases better than we do. How dare they?

Benefits for you:

When you are a leader you want to be an effective one. One key element to achieve this is to have your team respect and admire you. This will only happen if you are skilled at providing them with admiration and respect. 

Your role as a leader is to bring the team members to a higher effectiveness, whatever the goal might be. A team is just as effective as the weakest of its members. By Micromanaging you make your team members weak, because they do not have the right Self-Confidence which diminishes their Self-Esteem.

What does effectiveness take?

1.     Awareness

2.     Preparation

3.     Coordination

4.     Execution

5.     Standardization

Awareness- every individual in the team must know what is the focus of the goal and what he or she is expected to contribute. The leader and rest of the team must know each team member’s capabilities and skills; also when needed, they will share knowledge and information for the participants to be equipped when they need it.

Preparation- goes in two flavors: Information-Education that the Team Member may already have and the Hands On training that we should provide for the person to be ready to perform.

Coordination- is essential so that other members can contribute and help avoiding interference or duplication of efforts. You would be surprised to see how many time this happens.

Execution- brings along the Authority to perform the task that a person has been empowered to do.

Standardization- is about all members being in agreement that the operation is performed in the best way possible. There should be consensus and discipline about it, so when a member needs to be absent the task is still performed thoroughly.