Turtles all the way down

Too many people look at micromanaging as a binary thing, most falling on the side of “zero” or “bad”. The stereotypical example of a micromanager is a control freak who can’t let anyone on his or her staff exhibit any freewill whatsoever.

But that’s just silly. I’m going to try to convince you that micromanagement has a place and is just another tool in the box.

Consider two employees, Alice and Bob. Both are talented, but Alice is a motivated self-starter who figures things out for herself and generally does wonderful work with little guidance. Bob can get things done but has peaks and valleys of productivity. At peak, his productivity might be greater than Alice’s, but he is also easily distracted and loses track of priorities.

As their manager, you obviously want to manage them differently. Check in once or twice a week with Alice to stay on top of her progress and to give her a forum to raise issues. Otherwise, stay out of her way. If she needs resources, you will probably approve her request with little questioning. Same if she wants to change how she’s solving problems in her current assignment.

With Bob, you might want to sit down with him, at least briefly, once a day. Keep a detailed workplan of his tasks with priorities assigned to each. Check his progress against each. From time to time take the temperature others in the organization, including his reports and laterals, on how Bob is progressing. Be ready to step in and redirect him as necessary. The point is to keep him focused on the task at hand. A long-term goal with Bob is to train him how to manage himself better. As he learns to do this, you’ll have to micromanage him less.

Alice and Bob might be individual contributors straight out of school or seasoned executives. I’ve seen the same sort of behavior up and down organizations with all different levels of experience.

Micromanaging is also a good way of ramping up new hires. Sit down with them once a day for their first two weeks on board. This gives you the opportunity to answer their questions (a lot of questions is usually a good sign in this scenario), keep them on track, and evaluate their strengths, weaknesses and needs.

Managing is about getting the best out of your staff. If you micromanage everyone you’re in trouble. You either need a new staff or to take a step back and look closely at your own behavior. If you micromanage no one, you’ve either got a great staff or you’re not engaged with them.

Micromanaging is not binary. It’s a continuum and each individual or group you work with should have a setting somewhere between zero and one.