Micro Managing

Micro Manager. One of the worlds most hated terms. Especially if you have a (micro)manager who subscribes to the theory that as long as he is pulling all the strings and can tell people what to do every 5 minutes then he is justifying his position.

If anything, it portrays what a bad manager he is. For the below reasons:

1) Scenario - The (micro)manager answering questions for staff before that are allowed to answer.
How is this good? Not only do you make your staff feel incompetent, the manager is also displaying to the question-ee the fact that the staff member is not competent to answer the question on their own. People learn by working things out for themselves. No matter how many times you tell a teenager drinking alcohol is bad, they will still do it - and from that they will learn that you cant drink a whole bottle of scotch in one sitting. By answering peoples questions, you do not in fact teach people, you take away the oppurtunity for them to learn.

2) Scenario - The (micro)manager bullying other teams for the staff member.
This is unproductive for a number of reason, but the one reason that stands out is that by "standing up" to other teams for the staff member, you make that staff member seem weak, and the other team members lose respect for that person. It portrays that the member either went and tattled to their boss, or that they do not have the guts to stand up to that team, and so will forever more be a push over to that team.

3) Scenario - micro(manager) telling everyone to do work.
And no - that is not a type with the brackets. By telling staff about the work that they know they are meant to be doing (ie theres a lot of newspapers to be read today, you better get to it) is not productive. If anything, it will just infruiate that staff member. The majority of adults can organise their own work day, and know what they are meant to do. Having a manager over their shoulders will not increase production, but only frustration and anger.

I could go on and on about how bad mirco managers are. In the end, they are either unsecure in their role, or do not trust the employees that work for them... and the only person that can change that is them. The problem is that people avoice micro managers like the plague, and they are always the ones who stay the longest, and work their way up the monkey tree.