Micromanagement is a leadership style widely utilised in almost all organisations, not limited to the IT (Software) Industry. Micromanagement creates a toxic culture and is the No. 1 reason why workplace anxiety is present in the first place.
Melbourne, Victoria Dec 17, 2022 (Issuewire.com) - According to a survey conducted by human rights in Australia (https://humanrights.gov.au/), a total of 3.2 days per worker are lost each year through workplace anxiety and stress. In addition, stress-related worker's compensation claims have doubled in recent years.
Now those statistics are just the tip of the iceberg. Most of the time, employees wear masks, hide their anxiety and continue the job just to pay bills. However, employees cannot discount the fight or flight situation in their minds and body. All these would reduce their performance to a large extent and hence a drop in profits.
Employee performance is directly proportional to product or service delivery. Customer satisfaction is directly dependent on the services provided. Therefore, customer satisfaction and profits primarily rely on motivated employees; when employee satisfaction dips, customer retention also nose dives.
The sad part is that organisations discount this. Organisations fall into the bottom line and delivery trap and ignore the crucial bit, people. So instead of building a great team, leaders, and culture, they will mainly focus on the bottom line and delivery. So "Micromanage", "Hire", "Fire", and "Resignations" become everyday things. All these would create a sense of instability and urgency, creating unnecessary stress on employees and resulting in workplace anxiety and mental health issues. These issues don't stop at the workplace. Workplace anxiety and depression cascade to family members resulting in unspoken incidents like divorces and health issues.
Micromanagement is a typical business management style in which managers closely observe and control their employees. There are several reasons why leaders may fall into the trap of micromanagement, and it is essential to understand what they are.
· Control: - Authoritarian leadership is a style in which a leader controls subordinates and decisions. This style always creates resentment and hence all the drama.
· Fear of failure: -Often, a leader might fear failure. Failure to miss deadlines, failure to miss targets, and failure to impress their boss. Thus, track subordinates and numbers at every step. Unknowingly, micromanagement is born.
· Lack of trust: -Due to past incidents, beliefs, and values, some leaders have trust issues with people, especially with new team members. There is nothing wrong with expecting a new team member to work beyond expectations, But it's necessary to build trust between them. As a leader leading from the front, trusting first and clarifying the KPIs upfront is an excellent quality. In addition, If leaders provide a safety blanket and trust their team, their teammates will reciprocate their work.
· Habit: -Some leaders like attention to detail and track everything (either micromanage) to the core. There is nothing wrong with it, just that this personality type can cause resentment. Teammates will start to please their leader by providing details. As a result, work will be delayed in meeting perfection, thus causing stress at work and leading to workplace anxiety.
On the other hand, many argue for lack of choice because a few employees may relax and take advantage of this new transformational leadership style. So how to go about it?
Here are some options where you can increase profits without micromanaging.
1. Creating systems and processes in which employees are valued and tracked. Tracking is essential, do not discount it. However, micromanagement is not necessary. Tracking every stat of the employee journey is not essential.
2. Communication: -Implement the Pareto principle to reduce overwhelm and improve communication. Extended DISC training and team profiling would help resolve several untold conflicts and improve communication. Clarity, Communication, and Compassion are the 3C's of a dream team.
3. LAG model: - Listen, Act and Grow Model. Introduce systems like Peakon, Reform360 (www.reform360.au), and QaizenX (www.qaizenx.com). These systems help you to automate a significant part of the LAG model. Listening to employees, acting on the problems raised, and growing together are extremely important. Continuous growing is the mantra.
4. Training: - Regular employee wellness and emotional well-being training are necessary. This training build cohesion in the team. It's vital, especially in post-COVID days where working from home has become a new norm.
5. Build your dream team: - Focus on building your dream team, who go above and beyond to take care of your customers. They would also live the organisation's vision, mission, and values.
Creating people-oriented systems, processes, and tracking but not micromanaging is the motto. All this is to build a dream team who can work above and beyond. This process doesn't discount healthy dialogue with a non-effective team member. Sometimes it's not a proper fit, and that's okay.
By building excellent team culture, we reduce workplace anxiety, resulting in happy families and reduced organisation attrition. Profits will also peak because these newly empowered employees work above and beyond to achieve the desired outcome.
You can download a FREE 15-page E-Book on
"How to increase profits without micromanaging."
This e-book will provide more insights and strategies to reduce micromanagement without reducing profits.
Together we win. Let's take a pledge to reduce workplace anxiety.
If you need any help, then feel free to contact us at www.riga.com.au.
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Riga Consultancy
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Source :Riga Consultancy
This article was originally published by IssueWire. Read the original article here.
