It is rare to know employees who love micromanagers. A boss that looms over you, criticizing your every move, is the worst boss ever. It is also demotivating. Soon, you will question whether or not your boss actually trusts you to do the right thing. Why did they hire you in the first place? Why did they offer the job when they clearly don’t trust your judgment and expertise? You might even start to question your own skills and knowledge. Are you really good at what you say you are good at?
A survey showed that 59% of employees have worked, at least at one point in their professional careers, with micromanagers. Of that percentage, more than 65% said it demoralized them, and around 55% said micromanaging hurt their productivity. But these are not the only problem that employers face when they are micromanaging their employees.
Soon enough, that demoralization and unproductiveness will result in employee turnover. And you know what happens when you have to replace employees, right? You spend 33% of that worker’s annual salary. That will hurt any business’ pocket.
Use the Right Platform and Software
You can still control many aspects of your business if you only know what platform and software to use. The SAP Business One platform offers end-to-end service for everything that your small- and medium-sized business needs—from procurement to risk management and compliance to supply chain operations. It can even monitor the inventory in the actual store and warehouse.
By using the right platform, you can monitor the activities in your business without being a controlling boss. You won’t annoy your employees because you don’t have to ask them about every task on their list. With all the details already accessible to you, all that needs to be done is compare their weekly or monthly reports with what you already have in your possession.
Practice Delegating Effectively
One of the reasons bosses end up micromanaging their employees is that they don’t know how to delegate tasks effectively. Even though they hire someone else to do accounting, for example, they might forget to delegate other accounting tasks such as bookkeeping. Because the tasks are not clear, the bosses will end up doing these themselves, which will look like you’re micromanaging workers.
Identify the strengths and weaknesses of each of your employees so that it is easier to know what tasks to assign to them. But when you assign the tasks, trust that they know what to do. Instead of going through the step-by-step process of what they need to do, explain what output you expect. Let them show you how they’re going to achieve the goals.
Clear Ambiguities
Be upfront about what you want. If you are clear about the objectives from the start, then there’s no reason for your employees to get lost. Some supervisors and managers micromanage their employees because they think they’re the only ones who can do the job. Why then did you hire these particular workers? One of the most important things to do is share with them the benchmark against which their output will be measured. If they understand the standard they need to meet, it becomes easier for them to do things.
Give your employees a chance to show their skills and knowledge. You hired them for their specific skills, so let them show you how they can apply these to the tasks assigned to them. If, however, they ask for your advice, then be generous enough to share it.
Learn How to Appreciate Imperfections
It is harder not to micromanage employees for perfectionists. They tend to want their way in achieving goals and outputs. However, perfection has no place in business. Things will mostly not go your original plan. You have to learn to pivot. You need to be flexible enough so that you can take on new challenges as they come.
Embracing failure may be a hard pill to swallow, but it’s the only way to achieve what you are dreaming for your business. If a project doesn’t go as planned (and it will not sometimes), consider this an opportunity to learn. Businesses grow when they learn from their mistakes.
At the end of the day, even you get stressed and tired from micromanaging your employees. Micromanagement is a lose-lose for you and your employees. No one has ever benefited from being controlled by their supervisor, while the burden of success lies solely on your feet since you tried to control every move your employees make. There is a way to be in control of your business without unnecessarily demoralizing your employees.
