It’s been said that many employees bring joy into the workplace, and others when they leave! The latter part of the previous statement is the reputation of micromanagers within the dealership.
It’s ironic that I spent 90 minutes recently discussing this very topic with a high-performing employee who has a long-standing history with a large organization but is now working with a micromanaging CEO. The employee wanted to know how to work with this person.
The short answer to this very serious issue is — leave! Life is too short to work with a micromanaging supervisor. But that is easier said than done for a variety of reasons. So, my comments are twofold: first, a message to the micromanager, and second, what can be done to work with one.
Micromanaging
A micromanaging supervisor cherishes control as they like to tell others what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and make it clear that they are the boss. Putting it plain and simple, I’m listing several micromanager con-sequences:
- When you micromanage, you create an environment where employees don’t like working with Micromanagement not only affects the quality of work but also employee morale.
Employees are not going to do their best work. The stress of a micromanager is defeating to their abilities, making them feel incompetent and disrespected in what they do.
- You’re sabotaging your number one responsibility: developing
- You’re not going to take advantage of the best ideas for a couple of reasons:
- employees will keep those ideas to themselves, and
- employees have learned your closed-minded thoughts are always the best, creating a learned help-lessness work
- Micromanagement leads to the departure of your best employees. In today’s competitive environment, losing talent is a significant setback for any dealership.
- You tell yourself and others, “I do what I have to do to get the job ”
- Micromanagement is not just a leadership issue; it’s a financial one. You are costing the dealership money via what you’ve al-ready read in this article.
- Micromanagers are blind to the preceding adverse impacts of their leadership
- Micromanagers sabotage their own professional development, thus they will never be an elite performer.
- The last one I’m listing is you’re shooting yourself and your career in the foot.
Excuse my bluntness, but micromanaging can help the micromanager feel good about themselves, but they are engaging in “stupid” leadership practices! You will not find any leadership curriculum that teaches you to be a micromanager. Yes, in times of an emergency, all managers may need to provide direct instructions. Elite leaders quickly return to more effective leadership practices after the crises.
Working with a Micromanaging Supervisor
Those of you working with a micromanager may think I’m crazy with my next statement — the micromanager is actually pro-viding you with an excellent opportunity to further your professional development. Keep reading.
- The first suggestion is to change your mindset from “I don’t like working with this person” to “this per-son is helping me to continue my professional development.” Remember, every experience is a teacher, and you need to have an open mind to answer the question — what is the lesson to be learned?
- Be certain that you meet/exceed the expectations when you are assigned a task to Paraphrase instructions to demonstrate to your micromanager that you have listened and fully understand the expect-ed result.
- Another strategy is to “check in” with the supervisor to ensure they are aware that you are on track to exceed their expectations and ask if they have any additional ideas to improve the outcome. That plays into their inflated ego.
- Be aware of when the micromanager wants something additional added to the original agreement to meet their added-on expectations. Then engage in a discussion, for example, ‘Help me connect the dots to understand why the expectations have changed’?
- Trust is a crucial element in any relation-ship, including the one between an employee and a micromanaging Eventually, you will need to have a discussion about trust. For instance, you can ask your supervisor, ‘Do you trust that I can successfully meet expectations? What can I do to help you trust me to make your job easier for you while saving you time?’
- Use your micromanaging supervisor as a role model to ensure that you don’t adopt their micromanaging behaviors! There is a syndrome called leadership shadow, where an employee tends to adopt the behaviors of their supervisor without being aware of the adoption. You certainly don’t want to get caught in the micromanaging dead-end trap.
Another point needs to be made before ending this discussion. Up-line supervisors, you need to be acutely aware if you have a micromanaging supervisor in your down-line supervisory chain. Imagine a 10-inch linguini. You can hold one end horizontally, and it will be straight. What happens if you put a bit of water at the 5-inch mark? The linguini bends, and the remaining five inches point to the floor. That’s what happens if there is one micromanaging supervisor in your supervisory chain. You know the strength of the chain is determined by its weakest link. So, your challenge is to help those poor souls to practice empowerment!
Article Written By: Larry Cole, PH.D.
LARRY COLE, PH.D., is a lead trainer for and consultant to the North American Equipment Dealers Association’s Dealer Institute. He provides onsite training and public courses to improve business leadership effectiveness and internal and external customer service. Please send questions and / or comments to Larry at teammax100@gmail.com
