Senior employees have been told how to help their teams without becoming a micromanager.
Business experts at TelephoneSystems.Cloud have named five tips for all managers to help keep a healthy working environment. Reports show 79% of workers have experienced micromanagement - which makes employees feel pressured, unmotivated and uninspired at work, feelings that may also spiral into their personal life.
Being clear with expectations will avoid the need to constantly ask questions on progress - and scheduling review meetings stops negativity and unhealthy work pressures. Managers should also use their experience and knowledge to train employees in a learning environment, rather than monitoring others. Share out tasks with other line managers to allow space for discussion and shared responsibility.
Juliet Moran, director of TelephoneSystems.Cloud said:
“It can be easy to feel as though you’re falling into the trap of becoming a micromanager once you have more responsibility."
“But this creates an unhealthy working environment as colleagues will feel untrusted, pressured and demotivated by constantly being monitored and asked unnecessary questions. Managers should ensure they’re not nit-picking and criticising work with excessive supervision and instead become a valuable asset for teams by creating a learning environment with training sessions"
“Setting expectations and deadlines whilst ensuring colleagues have sufficient capacity and don’t feel pressured will also help create a healthy working relationship."
“Another tip is to schedule regular review meetings with all team members to raise any concerns or progression updates and delegate tasks across the team so not everything is coming from yourself.”
Here’s how to help your team without being a micromanager:
1. Training and mentoring sessions
Become a valuable asset within your team by using your experience to train colleagues. Rather than monitoring employees to check they’re carrying out tasks to a high standard, create a learning environment to use your knowledge to help others.
2. Be clear with expectations
Set clear goals for your employees to work towards to avoid anyone feeling constantly monitored or asked questions. Communicate company wide and individual expectations and create an open and honest environment for employees to raise concerns. It’s important to remember to manage expectations and not tasks.
3. Stay involved from afar
Schedule specific times and meetings where you can catch up with team members for updates on progress. It’s the results that matter - and how employees achieve them should only be a secondary concern. Having specific review meetings will avoid creating an untrustworthy environment.
4. Set specific dates for tasks
Rather than constantly asking employees for progress or being vague around deadlines, set specific dates for competition in place. Alongside specific review meetings, teams will be more likely to be committed to the task at hand. It’s equally important to check employees have the capacity and are comfortable with the set deadlines.
5. Delegate tasks
Avoid becoming a micro-manager in an unhealthy work environment by sharing out tasks accordingly with other line managers and employees working at all levels. Don’t let all of the tasks come from yourself and allow the space for discussion on progress and ideas.