Who, me a micromanager? Ha, ha, ha…that’s a laugh. I just take a hands-on approach to overseeing my team. That’s all. Right down to the type of font they use on their monthly reports. Helvetica, 12-point. Looks great with a 1-inch boarder all around the page. And no hyphens. Hate the hyphens…

No, seriously. My employees love getting a little unsolicited extra help from me. All the time. On everything. No need for them to problem solve or create. Or think too much about stuff on their own. Seriously. No worries…

I’m all about the team. My team. Doing things my way, because we all like it. It gives us predictable results. We love it. Really, we do…

We’d like to interrupt these managerial daydreams with a reality check: Micromanaging can hurt your workforce in more ways than you think. If control issues are hampering productivity and employee satisfaction, it may be time to rethink your management style.

According to a great blog post over at Harvard Business Review called “You’re Probably a Micromanager”, by Ron Ashkenas, managers can sometimes be driven to exercising too much control over a project or people because of anxiety and insecurity, perhaps due to a lack of knowledge about the subject matter, inadequate training, or insufficient experience. Oftentimes, these well-meaning bosses are not even aware of how controlling they’ve become. Managers may also fail to realize that some people work better with less managerial attention than others do. Some employees also have different expectations about what they want from a manager than what their supervisor may think they do. What one person might feel is helpful support can be perceived as controlling micromanagement to another. It can be a real downer for employees who take the extra attention from their boss as a lack of faith in their abilities or respect for their talents.

This is more than just about morale, though. “Micromanaging can stifle competency in a manager when the employees become too dependent on his or her involvement to be productive in their regular activities,” says Tina Hamilton, PHR, president and CEO of hireVision Group. “Micromanaging can also keep a company from growing because it prevents streamlining, reduces calculated risk taking and discourages innovation.”

Want to create a work environment and culture that promotes productivity and growth at you company? hireVision’s HR Partnering Services provide the assistance and support your company needs to achieve these goals. Contact us today for an honest discussion about your HR needs.

Tags: Employee Relations, Harvard Business Review, HR Partnering Services, ineffective leadership, manager-employee relations, managers, micromanagement, micromanaging, Ron Ashkenas, Tina Hamilton

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 21st, 2011 at 6:02 pm and is filed under Blog, Employee Relations, Human Resources, Talent Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.