Do you micromanage your staff? Have you been accused of micromanagement? Learn ways to give your staff the room they need to grow professionally.
Micromanagers have a tough time giving up control and delegating work. It can lead to poor staff morale, high stress and doubling up on efforts. Take a hard look at how you are delegating work and supervising its completion to determine if micromanagement is your style of leadership.
One of the guiding principles of good management is to allow your staff to make mistakes. Mistakes can be tremendous learning experiences and made with all the right intentions, they can be harmless. All too often it is a leader’s need for perfection that gets in the way of staff feeling free enough to experiment and with experimentation comes innovation. Innovation is what will keep your business competitive in this global, ever-changing marketplace.
Step back, give your staff room to breathe and appreciate the fact that they are taking calculated risks. Let them know the end result you are looking for and if necessary, point out the things you don’t want to see as part of the process but allow them to determine the best path to get to the end result you want. There are many ways to Rome and it is just that concept that you want to encourage as discovering new ways may save the company time, money and effort.
Another tip is to ask them for a plan B if plan A doesn’t work. That way you are giving them the freedom to try plan A but also have a back up if plan A turns out to be a mistake.
Try not to let your preconceived ideas color the process. New people bring new perspectives and isn’t that why you hired them in the first place? I doubt your paying them to be a machine.
If you have comments or suggestions on this blog entry, please start a discussion
If you liked this blog entry, try:
Copyright © 2006, Joni Rose and Suite 101. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use will constitute an infringement of copyright.
