Five signs you are a micro-manager

Micro-management: a practice whereby a manager stands permanently behind a worker's back, checking their every step. Micro-management is understandable (and necessary) when training a new employee or onboarding a new hire, but if it involves experienced workers who do not need it, it can have negative impact on the trust, productivity and confidence of the given employee. Here are five signs that may indicate you have a problem with excessive micro-management of subordinate employees.

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You give advice even if no one wants it

According to the People Management website, a classic sign of micro-management is giving advice even when it was not requested by the worker and is not even necessary. Even if the advice is well-meant, consider whether it is really essential in the given situation or whether it might be better just to leave the employee to work on their own.

You interfere in an agenda that is not yours

You may think your remarks and offers of help to colleagues whose agenda officially has nothing to do with you are welcomed by them. But the fact is that every worker has a defined scope of work and if you disagree with how someone is doing their job and the methods they are using, you must deal with it in a systemic way and talk to the head of the given department.

You try to solve every problem right at the outset

A typical micro-manager wants to have everything under control, so they detect any problem right away and start solving it immediately, even if it is no big deal. A good manager must be willing to leave space for employees to deal with smaller problems on their own.

You want subordinate employees to be like you

Do you think you always do the best job of anyone? Do you feel anxious if you have to delegate work and the result is (quite logically) different from what exactly you had expected? This is often the core of the problem in micro-management. You as a leader must learn to respect the fact that everyone works in a different way and in the end everyone will produce slightly different results.

Your team members cease to share details of their work with you

One result and also sign of micro-management might be that employees stop telling you what they are working on. When describing their work and the status of current projects, they do not go into detail because they know there is a risk you will start interfering with what they are doing and be dealing with every trifle.

 

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Article source People Management - UK's leading human resources magazine
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