An Accountemps survey of more than 450 workers in the US revealed that 59% of workers have been micromanaged, with 68% of those saying it decreased their morale. So how can you avoid becoming the dreaded micromanaging boss, and what can you do if you already are?

If you’re worried about becoming a micromanager (or scared you already are one) here are some ways to keep your employees enjoying working for you, and how to remind yourself that you hired them for a reason – so you should let them get on with it!

Reflect

Think about how you treat employees. Do you have to be cc’d into every email they send to a client so you can check their wording? Or do you find that you’re rarely happy with the work staff present to you?

If so, it could be that you’re the one with the problem, rather than them. Reflect on how you behave around staff and how they behave around you to avoid stifling your employees’ creativity.

Make sure they’re comfortable, happy and communicating issues. Otherwise you risk becoming a micromanager by not considering their needs, and not giving them the space they require to do their job.

Trust

Trust that your employees are capable of the job you hired them for – otherwise that really is a wage slip gone down the drain.

Being able to trust an employee to be productive and work to the best of their ability should be a trait that comes naturally to every employer. If it doesn’t come naturally – you should force it! If you don’t, you risk scaring staff away with your micromanaging tendencies.

Avoid becoming the dreaded boss by giving employees enough space to work with and trusting that they’ll be able to do a good job – without feeling the need to make a thousand connections.

Delegate

If you are a micromanager, trusting employees is much easier said than done.

Bosses who aren’t able to delegate work aren’t going to become leaders. Giving your employees responsibility is a huge part of becoming a boss who can trust them. And if employees don’t think you trust them? You can bet they won’t find a reason to stay loyal to your company.

Being able to delegate work to employees is the next step to trusting them with the work they already have. If you’re really worried about how well an employee may be able to complete a piece of work, you should check that they’re the best person on the team for the job, and if not delegate it to someone else.

Communicate with staff

The surest way to avoid becoming a micromanager is to communicate with staff regularly, and to encourage them to do the same.

If you give them a general review every month, rather than checking on each piece of work they do, you’ll be able to explain what aspects are important to you, and what you want the end result to look like.

If you let your employees find their own way there, they’ll have the space to come up with creative solutions that you might not have considered.

Team training

If the end result still isn’t what you’re looking for, try training days. This should only be resorted to after you’ve discussed with your staff how you want things to be done and they still aren’t delivering what you want – you don’t want to patronise staff and assume they don’t know how to do it if you haven’t yet given them the chance to try.

If things aren’t being done the way you want, conduct a team training session. This will save you repeating yourself and encourage employees to ask questions so they understand why you things done a certain way.

Are you worried you’re becoming a micromanaging boss? Or are you an employee whose ideas are drowned out by their boss? Leave your comments in the section below!

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About The Author

Karl Bilby

We work very closely with our expert accountants to bring you the latest factually correct tax and accounting news. We also enjoy writing about small business news that we hope you find useful!

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