Author Miles Anthony Smith aptly observed, "micromanagement is the destroyer of momentum."

Micromanagers (I call them “snoopervisors”) possess the incredible ability to deflate any high energy, productive team member and render them immobile. (May I never fall victim to becoming a snoopervisor).

Legendary business leader Frances Hesselbein rightly declared, “dispirited, unmotivated, unappreciated workers cannot compete in a highly competitive world.”  

Snoopervisors can unconsciously create all of Hesselbein's undesirable indicators with a single micromanaging swoop. 

Your People Are Not ‘Losers’

Trust-building leaders have the sense to surround themselves with outstanding people and the self-restraint not to meddle with how they do their jobs.

Micromanagers have their fingers in everything and subtly (or not so subtly) communicate a non-trusting attitude. They are snoopervisors, continually snooping, hovering, and waiting for a mistake to be made. Snoopervisors have a relatively small parameter of “the right way” of doing things. . . their way.

It just doesn’t make sense to me to hire incredibly talented and smart people and then invest my energies telling them what they need to do and how they need to do it. I would assert that micromanagement indicates you’ve hired a team of losers, incapable of making decisions, achieving goals, or mastering their jobs without supervisor intervention. Back off quickly or else good people will exit this suffocating style of leadership. 

Besides, what does that tell you about your hiring ability?

Take Ross Perot’s Advice

Remember Russ Perot, chairman of Electronic Data Systems and two-time presidential candidate? Here’s his take on leadership’s responsibility:

“First you have to have an environment of mutual trust and respect. You need to have an environment that taps everyone’s creative potential. It’s terribly important that you not turn bright, able people into robots by giving them procedure books and checklists.”

This advice is difficult for micromanagers to swallow but it is imperative they find a way to digest it. If you want to lose high performers, become a control-a-holic then continually look over people’s shoulders and nudge or push them along. If you want your best people engaged, learn to let go. Establish the expectations and give people the freedom to do what they do best.

I may think I have control. In reality, I have less control than those I supervise. They determine the quality and quantity of their work. Each person decides what to do and what they would rather not do. People individually decide how motivated or engaged they will be. All I can do is encourage, inspire, influence, mentor, and correct to get people to do what I need them to do.

Desired results are driven by high trust and low snoopervision, not the reverse. Author and CEO Max DePree believes, “we must trust one another to be accountable for our own assignments, when that kind of trust is present, it is a beautifully liberating thing!”  

Amen!

Questions to Ponder:

Am I looking over anyone's shoulder?  Explain to yourself why you are doing that. . . 

What will it take for me to give people the freedom to do what they do, without my snoopervision?

Think about it. What can you do to let go and let people shine?