In Defence of Micromanagement

This article is meant to generate a reaction, something that surprises the reader and makes them think. Hopefully I have made my case effectively but please comment and let me know if you think differently – all respectful opinions are valued!

Leadership is not just about empowering people and letting them get on with it. For those people that understand what they have to do and can be trusted to get on with it, this approach works well but it does not work in all contexts.

If we were walking across the road together and we saw a cyclist get hit by a car and knocked off their bike, you probably wouldn’t want me to turn to you and say ‘what should we do?’ Technically, I have empowered you, but it is not an appropriate approach given the context.

When you distil it down, leadership is about behaviour. It is about behaving in a way that generates the best outcome for you, the organisation and the stakeholders involved over the long-term.

But behaviour is context dependent. How you behave on a company off-site is probably (and hopefully!) different to how you behave on a stag/hen weekend or at a funeral. You are the same person, but the context has changed and so does your behaviour.

A culture where everyone is empowered is great and I believe it is a worthy aim but not everyone thrives in this environment.

If someone in your team is not performing, you need to do something about it because as a leader it is your responsibility to address it. One of the most effective ways to do this is to use a lean technique called short interval control.

Short interval control is a management technique where you increase the frequency of checks on performance. If you have a member of your team who is not performing, sit down with at the start of the day and try the following.

Set the context. Make it clear that you want to help this individual. Your job is to help them improve. I think you have to be clear that their performance is not meeting the expected level but that you’re going to work together to address the problem.

Bear in mind that you might find out some things that you didn’t know about the number of tasks or projects the person is dealing with. They could be overloaded; they could be unsure how to do things or they could just be poor at time management and easily distracted.

Arrange a time to meet and talk to the individual. It doesn’t matter when this is, it could be at the start or end of the day. The important part is to create a consistent rhythm of daily conversations that follow this framework.

Identify all the things that they are going to do today. Get them to write down the order in which they think they should be completed. Most importantly, ask them to make an assessment of how long each task should take ‘on average’.

You don’t want to create a task list that has eight hours’ worth of work because interruptions do happen and people do need to take breaks and chat informally to their colleagues. I would aim for 5-6 hours worth of work because it is hard to argue that this would be unreasonable.

The next day, catch up with them and review what they’ve done and anything they haven’t done. Take some time to understand why and then use that information to help them plan for the next day.

Repeat the process and gradually hand the responsibility over to the individual to start planning and executing their days. Once they’ve started to build a track record of delivery, you can start to relax from daily meetings to three times a week and then potentially even once a week. But the performance has to remain, they have to be able to plan and manage their workload independently. If they start to slip back, you might want to return to an increased tempo of meetings.

Empowerment is great but it only works when people are clear what is expected of them and how to do that. As a leader, you are responsible for the performance of your people so if they are not performing, you need to understand why and adjust your leadership style accordingly.