Say "NO" to Micromanaging!

Since I was a young girl, I liked being in charge. I remember playing "school" with my sister and she always had to be the student and myself, the teacher. When she wanted to switch roles once, I remember telling her "No, I'm in charge and accept it." I carried this same attitude throughout my career and was promoted to a management position in my early twenties. I thought this was a good character trait and to an extent praised myself for being a leader. But of course, there's always a lesson to be learned.

At one point in my career, I was responsible for running an entire department by myself. The executives of the company trusted that I had the capability of turning things around. Though it was a challenge I had the confidence that I could take it on. Many of the employees I managed were with the company longer than I and pretty much knew what they were doing. I didn't want to fail so I spent most of my days breathing down their necks, I guess you can say. My strategy was to prevent mistakes before they occurred, so if I was in the mix of everything that was going on I would be able to resolve issues right away. Many of my employees began to complain that I wasn't treating them like adults. At the time, I didn't see the big issue. However, I did learn a few things about micromanaging and the effects it can have on a team.

If you’re managing adults, you want to treat them like adults. Many people connect micromanaging with babysitting. As a leader, you don’t want to have the reputation of being a micromanager. You can have a list of great leadership qualities, but if this is an area you struggle with the other qualities will not exist in the eyes of others. You want to allow employees to make mistakes before trying to prevent them from happening. Trust has to be parallel on both sides. If you drop the ball in this area, you could potentially lose out on good employees. People don’t quit their jobs, they quit their bosses!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jamelah Henry specializes in producing "All-Star" employees for the workplace. She is a product of a job training program from early in her career. She used the skillsets that she learned and was immediately recognized by top employers. After a few short years in the workforce, she was promoted to a management position. She spent the last 17 years of her career working as a manager, trainer, recruiter, and entrepreneur specializing in hiring, training, coaching and developing both existing and new hire employees to bring their best to the workplace. She is an SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) Certified Professional, earned a B.S. in Human Resource Management from Wilmington University and a member of the Delta Epsilon Rho Honor Society. She is also a current member of the National Resume Writers Association (NRWA) and working towards a certification as a National Resume Writer. In her spare time, she likes giving back to her community!