Here at the-  Coaching Chronicle -run by Gerard O’Donovan, our aim is to constantly bring value to those seeking to improve their lives. Therefore we have a policy of publishing articles and materials by guest authors whom we value and appreciate. Today’s guest author is Martin Haworth.

The traditional view of micro-management is where a manager is so neurotic about the delivery of results that he or she cannot leave individuals to their own devices.

Micro-managers sabotage success simply because they are so close to what their people do that they stifle performance, thereby making the achievements of the desired results even more unlikely.

By failing to give responsibility to each individual to deliver what’s required, micro-managers very nearly do their job for them. This can be very demanding for the manager, who has to keep many more plates spinning than their role allows for, leading to not only exhaustion, but also to actual underperformance as they spread themselves too thinly to ensure quality outputs.

Employees find this sort of micro-management behavior incredibly frustrating. They feel watched, which diminishes their confidence. They feel that they are not trusted, so they tend to play safe and take few risks. They also find that they get nervous too, when they expect their boss to pop up at any moment to interfere and give them the guidance they clearly don’t need.

So micro-management is regarded by employees as a bad thing.

Smart managers micro-manage differently.

By seeking to interact with their people much less directly, they can understand the different motivators that every individual needs specially personalised to them. Getting to know their people, these particularly effective managers not only get to know what’s going on, they build strong, supportive and focused relationships that deliver.

Micro-managing relationships in this way, means that instead of getting close to the activities their people as tasked to deliver, they simply get close to the people themselves.

And it’s a set of skills that are easy to learn. Instead of being clever and knowing what’s best in the approach to tasks, savvy managers ask their people easy question, let them talk – and then listen, a lot. They let their people feel they are the success, because when employees talk, these exceptional managers recognise that what works is simply listening to them with focused attention and then asking them some more.

Micro-managing relationships is so much more valuable than micro-managing tasks. The accountability for team success clearly lies with a manager. Responsibility for delivering the component tasks that make up the big-picture result lies with individuals. Then each is doing what their individual roles requires.

Creating the sort of relationships that enable this dynamic and productive interaction is what defines the very best of management behaviors; management behaviors and attitudes.

Employees feel valued, heard, capable and confident and go on to contribute more; be pro-active; show their creativity; take on more. Managers make time for their people and, with clear expectations of each and every one of their people defined, step back from getting in the way.

Micromanaging relationships works very effectively indeed. A long way from micro-managing tasks, for which it’s much better to leave to the valuable resource of the employees they lead.

Credit Source: http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/158/Special-Secrets-to-MicroManaging-Employee-Performance.html

(c) 2010 Martin Haworth is a business and management coach and trainer. He is the author of Super Successful Manager!, an easy to use, step-by-step weekly development program for managers of EVERY skill level and a leadership and management trainer and coach at Coach Train Learn!

Click here to visit Martin’s website

Well, I came into the office early this morning, looking forward to a really good productive morning session.  Arrived at 7:30 a.m. only to find there had been a water leak in our building overnight  and my own personal office had its own mini waterfall coming through the ceiling (Lucky me !) Lights blown, carpet soaked, ceiling damaged badly. ( We had the office completely redecorated in January    ) the first couple of hours have been spent in damage control, mopping up water, and organising an insurance claim.

I think I’ll go for a coffee now, on Weymouth seafront, and watch the people walking by and the boats in the harbour.  Work can wait until this afternoon.

Had a quick panic earlier.Our Goldmine CRM crashed, no one could get into it.  This is the main database and customer relationship management software that we use for everyone in the company.  During the one-hour when we were all unable to access our databases, calendar, to do list etc

I took myself off and had a cappuccino on Weymouth seafront.Seemed like the obvious thing to do.!!

All fixed now. Thanks to Oliver, our IT coordinator. scary how we rely so much on technology