"Engineering Management Thought of the Week" Jeff Glass

We generally talk about micromanagement as a bad thing but I want to challenge that premise. I think great managers need to be great micromanagers too. There are simply too many situations where micromanagement is the best approach and if you are inept at it, you damage your credibility and achievements as a manager. The critical issue is “when” to micromanage. A great manager needs to manage each situation and each person differently to bring the best out of their people. There is no “one size fits all” in management. Unfortunately, if you are micromanaging a part of your team, then you are spending time away from other productive activities and thus you are not optimizing your own efficiency. As always, management involves balancing competing effects and trade-offs. The trade-offs related to micromanagement include:

i) getting the job done quickly if you micromanage vs. providing your people with the opportunities to learn and develop new skills

ii) short term benefit if you micromanage vs. long term value if you develop your people

iii) minimizing risk if you micromanage vs. letting your people learn from some mistakes

I have heard managers say; I like managing as long as my direct reports are self-motivated and have good judgment. No kidding! That is clearly the fun time to manage – maybe you would just call it coaching then because the employees are actually managing themselves, as you would hope. This happens in the best teams too and is one reason why self-directed teams are so valuable and why the number of middle management layers have been decreased in recent years. But as a manager, you need to hold your people accountable and manage people out of the organization who can not or will not perform the jobs needed. Micromanagement is generally part of that process. So when is micromanagement a reasonable, even the best, approach to managing:

•  The early stage employee: If someone is new to your team and you need to train them in various issues, both content and process related, the chances are that you need to spend more hands on time with them. You probably need to “look over their shoulder” to insure their tasks are getting done effectively and on time. In most organizations, we no longer have the luxury of letting someone flounder as they learn the ropes. Rather we need them to hit the ground running as quickly as possible and that means a bit of micromanagement.

•  The problem employee: Even if you start out with a hands-off approach, holding employees accountable but letting them choose how to do their jobs, there will be some who cannot meet your expectations. Rather than just continuing to tell them WHAT to do and the goals they need to reach, you may need to roll up your sleeves and actually help them with HOW to reach these goals. That is, tell them more specifically the actions they need to take; i.e., micromanage them. And if they continue to miss the targets, the level of detail you provide is likely to increase to the point where you are micromanaging them until they either get it or get out.

• During a crisis: If you are in a leadership position, the chances are you got there because of a skill set that involves judgment and decision making in addition to some content area. If there is a crisis, you do not want any delay between you and the actions that need to be taken or decisions that need to be made. Your style probably needs to be more directive and you tend to micromanage to achieve the best result.

• The high risk endeavor: Even if you are not in a crisis, some activities are simply so sensitive and can lead to such a loss if done incorrectly that you need to insert yourself into the situation more than you or your employees would ideally like. An activity or decision where the stakes are high naturally lead to more involvement of higher levels of the organization. Sometimes that involvement may need to be micromanagement when the potential loss is high and you, as the manager, have expertise or experience that can provide value to the activity.

In summary, as an effective manager, you need to change your style depending on the situation. Be thoughtful as you go into every situation and as you manage each person on your team. Think about how much time you need to spend with them and how much guidance you need to provide. Some employees you may just check in with once a month and see if they need anything. Others you may need to meet with several times a week and provide detailed guidance to them. The chances are you can significantly improve overall performance of your organization if you do this and sprinkle in a bit of micromanagement at appropriate times and in the right situations.