“As a manager for 15 plus years, I’ve both witnessed and made many managerial mistakes. One of the mistakes that I find to be made most often is micromanaging. This type of management usually occurs because of various reasons, but the following two seem to be the most common:
The manager was once an excellent employee and was promoted.
Being an excellent employee does not always translate to being an excellent manager. More often than not, when someone finds that they can execute something well, it’s easier and more time efficient (so that person thinks) to continue to do the job rather than train a new employee to do it.
The manager has a lack of confidence in his or her ability to manage.
This manager prefers to oversee the finest details that are executed by other employees. In essence, doing the job twice, ensuring the company’s need for them. This can, unfortunately, sometimes manifest with the manager not hiring talented people, thus, creating an environment with a need to micromanage. This action is a safeguard from other employees vying for the job; it assures the manager that they will not be replaced.
Most recently, I’ve had great success by committing to and seeing through the mantra “train and trust.” What does this mean? To put it simply, if I have to do an employee’s job, I ask myself, “Do I really need this person?” When you hire someone, train that employee to do exactly what they were hired to do, and trust that the job will get done. Beyond this, you should hope that the employee will exceed your expectations. The train and trust protocol can also be very rewarding when you give an employee an opportunity and trust that the job will get done even better than when you had to execute it yourself.
Watching people grow and become accomplished is the most rewarding part of my job— a joy that a micromanager will never experience.”
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