The Negative Impacts of Micromanagement

Micromanaging breaking chain

Do you ever hear your employees state, “If I could only do my job without someone constantly talking about examples of micromanagement at work?” I did some research on micromanagement, or “helicopter bosses,” because this experience is very recent to me with a previous position I held. Micromanagement stifles creativity and growth.

How micromanagement stifles creativity and growth

I worked for an organization where I had the opportunity to become a director of account managers. The company was restructuring workloads and were in dire need of expanding their director team. I was working from home and loved what I was currently doing, so I turned down the opportunity. I also have been in management for most of my career, and I didn’t want to take on the additional time it took to manage a team and the drama that comes with it. I am older and felt that my experience was already excellent, and working from home was something that made me love my workday. 

Well, maybe I should have taken that director role. I was now being managed by someone who was a micromanager and felt that “I was old” and didn’t have it in me any longer to do a good job. This person loved to redline, EVERYTHING! Given my experience, I initially went with the flow, but after time, I started to lose credibility with the organization due to this person saying my work was unfit for my clients. It was interesting though, how my work was being used by this person and they were quick to steal ideas. Very sad!!!

Let’s backtrack a bit. Before the role was offered to me, I had been managing these same clients alone without direction for years. I had multiple clients regularly write to our executive team how my work was exceptional and they didn’t want to work with anyone else. How can I go from that, to now this? I started having physical and mental disabilities coming from my job. I would get so upset at the end of the day and would hardly sleep because my nerves of “messing up” were shot. I hated Sunday nights and could hardly get out of bed in the morning.

Well, it turns out my new director had a big ego and felt it was their way or the highway. They knew my work from the past, but now felt that since they were in charge, everything needed to change. I could not write an email to my clients without having this person review them first. I was deflated in everything I did, including my personal life. If I was this bad at work, or so told, was I also this bad at home? 

I read an article in the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) that started to make sense with me. The article states that micromanagers, or helicopter bosses, “are a bit more unsure of themselves, have a streak of perfectionism or may be in a precarious position because their bosses are putting them under a lot of pressure to deliver,” said Brenda Ellington Booth, clinical professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Whether you call it micromanagement or helicopter bosses, one thing is indisputable — the outcome is never positive. It decreases psychological safety, which is critical to building trust, and it stunts a worker’s professional growth, according to Booth. Bosses who manage this way create a dependency — their teams cannot move forward on anything without consulting them first.

“Psychological safety is one of the key components of innovation and productivity,” Booth added. “Helicopter bosses create toxic work environments where employees don’t experience the freedom to grow and ultimately thrive, and [they] rob people of their autonomy, which we know drives performance.”

The article goes on to say that helicopter bosses often don’t realize the extent of their damage because they are mainly concerned about their performance and self-image. Helping these individuals understand their impact on workers and exactly what their job entails can help shift their mindset.

Giving employees greater space and flexibility, especially when a manager is used to hovering, takes effort. However, it’s a habit that can be learned and become second nature. Because micromanagers are often mirroring the technique their boss had, they need to be shown a better way, according to Booth.

Part of that includes better understanding what their job entails. For example, is their purpose only to ensure direct reports get things done, or do they have the authority to encourage professional growth, delegate responsibilities and develop their employees? When managers have a genuine interest in developing others, it pays dividends.

Do you have this happening in your organization with managers? At Extraordinary Workforce, we take our previous experience like the above situation and bring solutions to organizations that seem to have high turnover or low employee engagement due to this one little issue, micromanagement. We work directly with your employees to find out what is causing them to be disheartened in their productivity and provide a sustainable solution that works with your management team to share examples of how giving them empowerment in a positive approach builds trust and engages their team.

We provide exceptional training to your managers to provide solutions that builds a working relationship between employee and manager. We have found that our solution increases employee engagement and increases productivity. Let’s meet to discuss these solutions that bring your organization success way into the future. I guarantee that your managers will spend more time with positive productivity with their team instead of them tearing it down. 

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