Are you a leader or a micromanager? The difference is whether your team’s speed is theirs or yours…because micromanagement comes with a speed limit.
Micromanage your team, and you will never get your people to use their potential, and your team will never be as successful as it could be. So, if micromanaging is so wrong (with your team losing speed and not using their potential), why do so many executives still micromanage their teams?
Leaders enable their teams, and micromanagers control
Very often, executives micromanage not because their people and teams are not capable but for their own need to feel in control. If you need to know everything and direct your people on everything to feel in control…even if you know it is not right, you will continue to micromanage because you need to FEEL in control. Think of it this way: As you climb higher, your way gets more and more out of date. So, telling your people what to do all the time might not add any real value.
How to ensure your nose is in and your fingers are out
Leaders can’t delegate the work and play golf. A leader’s job is to set a clear direction and pace and keep that direction and speed clear in their people’s minds. Also, you can’t grow and coach your people without involvement, which requires you to keep your nose in. The best way the put your nose in is by asking questions and listening to your people. Also, when
you listen to your people, they feel more valued. You have to keep your fingers out, and you do that by stopping giving your people the answers. With your questions, you will help your people uncover the answers independently, taking more ownership of their solutions than yours.
How to engage different personalities in your team in other ways
You must be consistently different to keep your nose in and make your communications as effective as possible. Successful leaders adapt their communications to the other personalities in their team. By adjusting to their people, they get their key messages and information to land faster with their people. To engage your people and for them to feel empowered, adapt to your people before asking them to adapt to you. You gain more influence by adjusting first.