Vacancy: Micromanager NOT Wanted

Rajiv Sharma
Humans, by nature, like to be in control, they like to be in charge. In Nepal, many organizations—be it banks or family businesses—are run by owners/managers being in charge of the whole operation, micromanaging the company in every possible way. This has led to extreme distaste on employees compelling them to hop to different companies.
However, micromanagement is not necessarily bad, as managers have to closely observe or control the work of their employees. Micromanagement should be actively used by small firms or startups to manage less skilled workers or even in big firms to manage people who perform simple duties. For example, micromanagement works when used to manage Marketing Executive, but doesn’t work to manage the Marketing Strategist.
Managers use micromanagement to pacify their self-esteem and exert power upon their subordinates. From signing checks to making final advertisement decision, managers are found to be micromanaging their subordinates in every possible way. One of the reasons is managers don’t have tolerance for mistakes. They don’t realize that unless and until their subordinates make mistakes they won’t learn. It can be advocated that to be competitive in today’s environment, companies have to make less mistakes than their competitors. However, the same advocacy can be a double-edged sword for the company, as it won’t be developing competent employees who will ultimately help to create a winning company.
It has also been found that managers tend to take all the credits of his/her employees.
“I do all the hard work and get the work done, but my immediate supervisor takes my final task to the department head without even informing me.” This is what we often hear from professionals at every level of the organization.
Managers don’t realize they should be a success factor of their employees. Instead of saying, “How could you not do this despite being an MBA graduate?” One should ask if there’s anything s/he can do to help the employee complete the task and prevent future mistakes.
Today, due to fancy performance appraisal system, managers have forgotten the people aspect of doing business. They believe that taking credit of their subordinates’ work can result in better performance appraisal for themselves. And surprisingly, it’s working for them. The tactic may work for the manager, but what it’s creating is something very dark that the organizations have to confront soon before it gets too late.
That “something very dark” is the organizational silo.
Organizational silo is a mindset when team members or departments don’t wish to share information with others in the same company. They don’t share information, as they want to be superior to their peers. This mindset is more prevalent in private organizations, and the reason is very obvious. The vicious organizational silos is making Nepali organizations less innovative, more secular and chasing qualified employees away.
Organizations are suffering from high employee turnover, especially competent workforce. Talented human resources are exhausted by micromanagement and organizational silos. They are tired of their manager bickering for weeks when something goes wrong but never appreciates when outstanding things happen. This has led workforce to hop from one organization to another in search of the manager who will act as a facilitator and groom him/her. This has also led talented workforce to exit the job market and start their own ventures or even apply for permanent residence in developed countries.
Being in the recruitment business, we often ask employers about the candidates’ performance in the organization. More often than not, they say, “They couldn’t do the job properly.” And we ask them, “Have you ever tried to understand why they couldn’t do the job properly?” They reply by saying, “Since s/he has XXX degree and XXX years of experience, we expect them to perform and not teach them!”

Solutions
Well, there may not be a hard and fast solution, but there are a few steps we can take as successful managers.
•    Never expect others to change because the only person you can change is yourself.
•    Always try to understand others, only then expect them to understand you.
•    Understand that humans are the only resources that can create competitive advantage in the marketplace.
•    If you become the success factor of your team, you’ll create a winning company.
However, simply knowing these facts isn’t enough. Practicing is equally important. The first step to reduce micromanagement is to delegate task to the employees. Although this sounds obvious, there are some practical tools to delegate tasks to the employees. One of them which can be implemented right away is called delegation tool.

Understanding the
components
of delegation tools
Who: This section will be the person who you think is able to take your task. It can be your immediate junior or your teammates who closely work with you in this particular task.
What: This is where you’ll specify the details of the work to be done.
When: This is where you’ll specify the approximate deadline for the work to be completed.
Assignment parameters: This is where you’ll specify guidelines, things to remember, steps that should be followed and other resources that need to be considered.
Purpose of the task: This section tells why you want the work to be done, and how it fits into the overall goals and objectives of the organization.
Available/required tools and resources: This section specifies what the available and required tools (such as computers) and other resources are to execute the task.
Possible challenges or obstacles to consider: This section helps you to identify possible challenges or obstacles that staff members can encounter while completing the task.

Customization of the tools, in accordance with the organization, is a must. After the tool is customized, it also needs to be practiced, discussed among the team members, and improvised accordingly.

The author is the Managing Director of Jobs Dynamics Pvt. Ltd. He can be reached at rajiv@jobsdynamics.com.