Monitoring without micromanaging

Monitoring the progress of the responsibilities that you delegate is a necessary part of management, but there are definitely some ways of managing that are better than others.Unfortunately, micromanagement is an all too common component of delegation.When a manager micromanages, he or she acts as if the employee who was delegated to is incapable of doing the job.They do this by giving close instruction and checking everything the person does. A micromanaging manager seldom praises the work of others and instead continually criticizes everything.Nothing that the employee can do is going to be enough for the micromanager.

Micromanagement is not only frustrating for the employee, but it is also incredibly destructive for the manager.The employee feels like they are incapable of doing a job right and then begins perceiving that no one thinks that they are capable of doing a good job without constant supervision.When a manager constantly micromanages and breaks down the confidence of the employee that employee will usually become dependent meaning that they will subconsciously learn that they need to ask their manager before they make any kind of decision.Ultimately, this employee will usually end up leaving the company and having a difficult time even at their next place of employment because of the sever effects that micromanagement has on self esteem.

The manager suffers because he cannot successfully delegate.Because he micromanages, he cannot experience the benefits of re-distributing work responsibility.The manager becomes over burdened by tasks that he should be handing off.The manager experiences a great deal of stress, longer hours at work, more critical reviews, and a failure to be able to progress in the company because they never have time to excel.

One of the biggest problems that lead to micromanagement is failure to trust your employees.A micromanager always believes deep down that they can do a better job accomplishing a task than anyone else that the responsibility could be delegated to. Another popular reason why managers micromanage is that they perceive the job that could be micromanaged as so important that it merits the complete attention of the manager.Many times a manager who cannot delegate without micromanaging feels like they still have something to prove.Some managers love the feeling of power that being in charge of everything may bring.Sometimes this feeling of power makes the differences between ability and authority hard to decipher.Obviously, the manager has the authority, but it is likely that different members of his team exceed him in certain abilities.This is the advantage of delegation; you get to benefit from the strengths of all the members of the team.

Monitoring without micromanagement starts with realizing that everyone may begin with a few micromanagement tendencies.Once you are able to see what types of things a micromanager does, you can better choose to avoid doing those things.If you need to start small.Let go of a little at a time until you feel more comfortable with the delegation process.Work on trusting others.Realize that just because another person may not do the job the same way that you would, does not mean that they did a bad job or that their methods were somehow wrong.

If you are the one being micromanaged, the first thing that you need to realize is that the actions of the micromanaging manager do not necessarily reflect your abilities.The last thing that you want is to let the manager destroy your confidence.Work on self improvement and developing the trust between you and your manager.Some managers need some coaxing to be able to delegate without micromanaging, do what you can to be sensitive to the insecurities of the manager without micromanaging the micromanager.