Message of the Day - Managing - Leading & Micro-Managing

Good Morning,

 

A friend reached out to me asking for a good definition of Managing, Micro-Managing and Leading to share with his team during a time of change within his company. Change can cause a lot of stress and confusion which impacts even the best leaders, managers and can inadvertently create micro-managers out of the best of us.

 

Leading is creating a vision and getting others to both see, accept and desire to achieve that vision as their own or team's goal. A leader does not have to a manager, but it helps when a manager is a leader.

 

Managing is ensuring that resources (people, money, etc.) are best utilized to achieve the goals (like the one's above). The focus is resource utilization.

 

Micro-Managing is overseeing much if not all of the individual actions of your team members. So much so, it may be considered that two people are doing the same work. The person assigned to the task, the manager who either does the task as well, or sits right over their team member's shoulder all the way through the process.

 

Micro-Managing has its place for new hires or with changes to processes, structures, goals, etc. The challenge with micro-managing is knowing when to step back and allow the function to be performed wholly by person assigned to do it.

 

Unless that manager pulls back, the micro-managing will start hurting morale, productivity and reduce overall performance by having two people doing the same function. Staff do not feel trusted, they feel squashed, etc.  

 

If the person who is assigned the task is having issues, then short periods of micro-management are recommended. Although, constantly having to jump back in to help out when there are issues is a sign the staff assigned to the task needs training, coaching, or ultimately replacement. If there are no real issues and the manager is jumping back in anyway, the issue may be with the manager not being able to let go, or some other trust issue.

 

There is a place for Leading, Managing and Micro-Managing. Knowing when to apply each is key.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
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