If you want to grow your business, it’s time to let your employees do what you hired them to do. Learn how to stop micromanaging your employees from experts at Boldheart!
As a small business owner, there comes a time when you need to start building your team. You simply can’t do all the work yourself. After searching for the right people, you get them on board. Now, you need to manage your employees to create a supportive environment that gets the most out of your investment.
As a new boss, you might be tempted to hover closely and micromanage your people. It’s understandable how this happens, but you’ll soon discover this causes employees to feel you don’t trust them, lose motivation, and not do their best work.
What is Micromanaging?
The definition of micromanaging is when a business owner works very closely with employees through every step of the process. Rather than allowing your people to get the job done, you carefully monitor them to ensure everything is done to your exact specifications.
While this might seem like the easiest way to produce the quality work you need, there is a huge downside to micromanaging. Overseeing this level of detail means you won’t have time to do your own work. The big picture strategy and decisions only you can make will likely be neglected, since there are only so many hours in a day.
Signs of Micromanagement
There are three main signs of micromanagement and when these are present, both you and your employees feel the effects. As a leader, knowing these signs is the most important first step to stop micromanaging. With this awareness, you can shift your management style to be more productive and bring out the best in your people.
1. Employees Don’t Know Their Tasks and Feel Overwhelmed
When team members are unsure of their tasks because you often redo the work or take a project back to get it done right, this can be highly demotivating. It leaves people feeling that you don’t trust them or feel they are capable of doing the tasks.
When employees are uncertain of what is expected of them, the quality of their work can be greatly impacted. They may feel overwhelmed by second guessing themselves at every turn and under-appreciated.
2. Everyday Tasks Require Your Approval
If each task along the way requires your approval, this can create a bottleneck and dramatically slow the workflow. People will be waiting for you to review what they’ve accomplished and gain permission to continue.
Stopping and starting in this way affects how much can be completed and can easily cause missed deadlines and lower productivity.
3. Little Room for Flexibility and Growth
There is often more than one way to get a project done. However, when you are micromanaging, you leave little room for flexibility. In addition, this infringes on how much your employees can learn and grow.
You’ll never bring out the best in someone who works for you if you don’t allow them to do their own thinking and creative problem solving.
Remember that even if the project isn’t handled exactly as you like, a completed project is better for your company than redoing it for your own sense of control.
How to Prevent Micromanaging
When you are ready to shift your behavior and stop micromanaging your team, try these three proven methods to turn things around.
1. Work on Building Trust (You Hired Right, Now Begin to Build Trust)
If you took the time to hire the right people, take the time to build trust in them. As you demonstrate your trust in employees by allowing them to complete a project uninterrupted, you help them build confidence in themselves and create trust in you as well.
2. Set Up Clear Expectations (Avoid Drive-By Delegation)
Employees who have a real understanding of what is expected, can execute the work with greater confidence. They won’t be slowed down by wondering what they need to do. Instead, they simply focus on the tasks at hand and complete them.
Planning workflow is a proven method to increase productivity and works better than assigning projects as they come to mind or when you walk past someone’s desk. Communicating clear expectations eliminates guesswork and saves time.
3. Practice Letting Go of Perfection
If you tend to be a perfectionist, this can seriously limit your team’s productivity. Thankfully, perfection is usually not required to finish projects or produce good results.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to lower your standards. Instead, recognize that your standards may not be the only way to get things done. Your employees have their own good ideas on how to complete a project which can sometimes be even better than what you anticipated.
Allow people this freedom and creativity to build trust and get the best work from them.
Grow Your Business with Boldheart and Stop Micromanaging.
Are you ready to build a powerful team, become a strong manager, and grow your business now? Could you benefit from proven strategies that will get you on track for consistent growth and income?
At Boldheart, we offer an exploratory session where we listen deeply to your situation to understand what is not working and what you want to achieve.
If that sounds supportive to you, let’s grab 30 minutes to connect. Schedule your complimentary call today. We can’t wait to learn about you and your business and discover how we can help.
