Maybe it's you: Overcoming Micromanagement for Effective Operations

I once physically put my body between a supervisor and their employee to stop behavior on the part of the supervisor that was rapidly spinning out of control. As a customer of a very expensive service, I (along with several other customers) made a choice that was out of the normal course of business for this service and removed some control from the supervisor. 

As a result, the supervisor felt the need to blame her junior employees for “letting” several of us change how a particular service engagement would happen. The supervisor loudly and publicly pushed back on her employees in front of probably 30 other customers. Let me be clear– the choice I and others made was not a big deal. It was not a game changer. It required no additional work for the organization–in fact– it reduced their work and meant less time on overhead. It was just unusual and meant the supervisor was no longer in complete control of the service. 

As the situation escalated, I calmly got up from my seat, put a hand on the table that separated the seated employee from the standing supervisor, and leaned in until the supervisor could see only my face– blocking the employee from view. 

“If you have a problem with the choice I made, I’d appreciate it if you’d talk to me about it. The staff offered everything as you required. I made a different decision. Others followed suit. If you have an issue, we can discuss it directly.”

The supervisor immediately backed down and turned their attention elsewhere. The staff quietly thanked me for intervening in what had become an uncomfortable situation for them. I have supervised a lot of people. I have managed managers. I have managed large teams doing really high stakes work that mattered to the safety and security of the public, and I have seen a lot of supervisors struggle with control. 

When supervisors insist on controlling all of the circumstances, from the brainstorming of ideas to the drafting of emails, to the final messaging to the boss, they take away opportunities from their staff. Opportunities to grow and to learn how to manage complex and hard situations themselves. You will continue to be disappointed as a supervisor if you are unable to relinquish control, because your team will never do it perfectly “your” way every time. 

Maybe it's you.

The employees who did not push back on my choice didn’t fail at anything; they read the room, pivoted to an unusual situation, and had a happy customer.

Unfortunately, throughout my experience with this particular organization, the supervisor continued to exhibit similar behaviors of micromanagement, demonstrating a need for control over the benefit of their team and their customers. I won’t be going back. I won’t recommend the service to others, and I know several other customers feel the same after having spoken with them about their experiences. 

It is not your job as a supervisor to ensure perfection. It is your job to ensure your staff has the capabilities, motivation, and tools they need to serve their customers or do their jobs in the best possible way. It is almost certainly not the case that your way is the only way or even the best way to accomplish a task or provide a service–the variability of knowledge work is what makes it complex and lucrative– so if you are a manager who constantly struggles with your team not meeting your expectations or not doing things the “right” way, take a step back and consider whether you are the common denominator in the problem. Reflect on whether your insistence on doing things your way is for the benefit of your customers or organization, or for some perceived benefit to you.

If this is an area of growth for you as a supervisor, or if you manage a supervisor like this, here are recommendations to begin addressing the situation:

1. Let the small things go: When you are reviewing documents, draft emails, and products, ask yourself whether the change you are making is actually changing the end result. Will it fundamentally change the underlying message within the product? Or is it just that you would have written it a little differently?

2. Ask more questions: If something isn’t working for you, ask your team–in a non-confrontational way– why they made the substantive or stylistic choice they did. “Talk to me about this bullet and why you thought it was important to include.” There is a good chance your team thought of something you did not, which means your team is doing their job. 

3. Give meaningful feedback: Use comments in documents to explain why you changed something your team wrote. Bring in the principal drafter and walk through your approach, and why it mattered to make the changes. If your team is constantly just guessing why you want something written or produced “your” way, then they will not learn how to get better.