If you hire the right people and put them in the right places, all you need to do is measure the results. Why do so many managers insist on micromanaging their talented staff? They must not understand the true cost of micromanagement.
Micromanagement kills productivity, destroys employee morale and creates high staff turnover.
The manager should spend their time on high-level important projects, steering the ship and guiding the company in the right direction. What opportunities are lost when the manager diverts their resources from higher-level jobs to manage lower-level jobs?
Letβs consider the hypothetical case of a brilliant marketing executive named Mary. Mary the Marketer accepted an exciting job offer. She hit the ground running with a very strategic and effective marketing campaign. After six months Mary is starting to see the fruits of her labor. The company reports sales numbers they have not seen in years.
Then Max, the micromanager asks Mary to fill in at the office for staff who are out sick or on vacation. After several weeks of being cooped up in the office, Mary sees all the momentum she created come to rest.
The falling numbers alarm Micromanager Max, and he starts questioning Maryβs entire marketing strategy. Max asks Mary to go back in time and find out exactly where every new client came from. He wants to know whatβs working and whatβs not.
Mary becomes disenchanted. She is not allowed to do what she was hired to do. She is not allowed to do what she is best at. She stops taking the initiative, and does not share her creative ideas anymore. Mary begins to question her job security and gives strong consideration to other job opportunities as they come up.
The moral of this story is to hire good people, and let them do what you hired them to do. Measure the results and manage according to those results.
