Brigette Hyacinth says quality employees will never tolerate a micromanager for long.
Trust is the foundation of any successful relationship, whether professionally or personally.
When it’s broken, it is extremely hard to repair.
I had a supervisor who, if I was over one minute on my lunch time, would send an email to remind me of my lunch hours.
This happened even though most of the time I never took my full lunch hour.
I couldn’t even send an email without her approving it first.
She was so inflexible that it was overbearing. I couldn’t trust her.
When employees feel they can’t trust their boss, they feel unsafe, like no one has their back, and then spend more energy on survival than performing at their job.
The corporate world is littered with such micromanagers.
Sadly many organisations prefer these managers because they seem to be in control of everything.
In the short term, they may produce results but in the long run they leave a trail of destruction.
Here are five damaging effects of micromanagement.
Decreased Productivity:
When a manager is constantly looking over their employees’ shoulders, it can lead to a lot of second-guessing and paranoia, and ultimately to dependent employees.
Additionally, such managers spends a lot of time giving input and tweaking employee workflows, which can drastically slow employee response time.
Reduced Innovation:
When employees feel like their ideas are invalid or live in constant fear of criticism, it’s eventually going to take a toll on creativity.
In cultures where risk-taking is punished, employees will not dare to take the initiative.
Why think outside the box when your manager is only going to shoot down your ideas and tell you to do it their way?
Lower Morale:
Employees want the feeling of autonomy.
If they cannot make decisions without their managers input, they will feel suffocated.
Employees that are constantly made to feel they can’t do anything right may try harder for a while, but will eventually stop trying at all.
The effects of this will be evident in falling employee engagement levels.
High Staff Turnover:
Most people don’t take well to being micromanaged.
When talented employees are micromanaged, they often do one thing: Quit.
No one likes to come to work every day and feel they are walking into a penitentiary with their every movement being monitored.
I know of no employee who ever said: “Please micromanage me”.
I have never seen a happy staff under micromanagement.
Loss of Trust:
Micromanagement will eventually lead to a massive breakdown of trust.
It demotivates and demoralises employees.
Your staff will no longer see you as a manager, but as an oppressor whose only job is to make their working experience miserable.
A manager’s job is to provide guidance and support.
It’s facilitating a healthy environment where employees can perform at their best.
Always be quick to recognise, appreciate and reward employees’ efforts.
Micromanagement breeds resentment and disloyalty.
If you hired someone, it means you believe they are capable of doing the job, then trust them to get it done.
A high level of trust between managers and employees defines the best workplaces and drives overall performance.
Micromanaging is the opposite of empowerment and it creates toxic work environments.
It chokes the growth of the employee and the organisation and fosters mediocrity.
When you empower employees, you promote interest in the organisation.
Empowered employees are more confident, more willing to go the extra mile for employers, and more willing do whatever it takes to care for clients.
The best ideas and advancements are a result of empowering your team.
Keeping great talent really can mean the difference between an organisation succeeding or failing.
In this volatile global marketplace, happy loyal employees are your biggest competitive advantage.
Select the right people, provide them with the proper training, tools and support.
Then give them room to get the job done!
*Brigette Hyacinth founded the MBA Caribbean Organisation which conducts seminars and workshops in leadership, management and education. She can be contacted at www.mbacaribbean.org.
This article first appeared on Brigette’s blogsite.
