What Is a Micromanager?

A micromanager is a term used to refer to a person in the workplace who provides an excessive level of supervision to their employees. Micromanaging refer🥀s to the act of trying to control every aspect of h♕ow a task is completed.

A micromanager might watch an employee's actions closely and provide frequent criticism of the employee’s work and processes—rather than simply telling an employee what task needs to be accomplished and by what date. Being labeled as a "micromanager" typically has negative associations for a person.

Understanding Micromanagers

Micromanaging has a negative connotation because an employee may feel that their manager is being condescending towards them; the implication is that the manager does not have trust or faith in the employee's competency. While this style of leadership may produce results in the long term, micromanagement can hurt employee and company morale over time.

Also, a manager who implement༺s this management style creates an environment where their team develops insecurity and a lack of confidence in its work. In the absence of the manager, the team may find it difficult to function.

A micromanager will usually use up most of their time supervising the work of their direct repꦍorts and exaggerating the importance of minor details to subordinates; time that could have been used to get other important things done. Although micromanagement is easily recognized by others in the firm, the micromanager may not view themselves🃏 as such.

In contrast to a micromanager, a macro manager ♏is more effective in their management approach. Macro-managing defines broad tasks for direct reports to accomplish and then leaves them alone to do their work. Macro managers have confidence that the team can completꦗe their tasks without being continually supervised and reminded of the processes.

Signs of Micromanagement

Signs of micromanagers include but are not limi🌞ted to:

• Asking to be added as a carbon copy (CC) on every email.
• Occupying themselves with the work assigned to others, thereby, taking on more work than they can handle because they believe they can do it better.
• Looking over the team’s shoulders (both literally and figuratively) to monitor what each member is working on.
• Constantly asking for updates on where things stand.
• Wanting to know what each team member is working on all the time.
• Delegating not only what needs to be done, but how it should be done, leaving no room for the team to take initiative.
• Never being satisfied with the deliverables.
• Focusing on details that are not important.

From the list provided above, it is easy to understand that a micromanager struggles with meeting deadlines since work has to be redone repeatedly—and valuable time is spent poring over inconsequential details. Team members eventually become frustrated and resentful as their work is undermined at every stage, and they have no autonomy over how to run an assigned project. Because team members' skills and development on the job are stunted, the micromanaging style of 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:leadership is ineffective.

Ways to Reform a Micromanager

A micrඣomanager (who has identified themselves as such) can take a number of steps to🧸 break this habit:

• Set a couple of metrics that define success for any given project. Ignore every other detail that is not defined.
• Delegate “what” needs to be done and leave out the “how.”
• Have an open-door policy for members of the team to use for coaching or further guidance if and when they want it.
• Set a deadline for each stage of an assigned project, after which a meeting with a reasonable time limit should be conducted to receive updates on the work.

The Bottom Line

In a workplace, managers and bosses can exhibit certain behaviors—a strong desire for control and excessive attention to detail—that can be designated as "micromanaging." Micromanaging is a management style that involves a specific set of behaviors: involvement in every aspect of an employee's work, closely monitoring tasks, providing detailed (and oftentimes critical) feedback, and creating detailed instructions, among others. It can be challenging to work for someone who is a micromanager. However, managers can take steps to avoid micromanaging, including setting clear expectations, identifying deadlines in advance, and encouraging employees to take ownership of their responsibilities.