Boundaries are Liberating – Micromanagement is Not
By Michelle Malay Carter on August 27, 2008
In my last post, we discussed the requisite components of an effective task assignment.? Anyone who has lived under the opression of micromanagment might look at the?level of detail in?the task assignment format I shared and conclude that it would squelch creativity rather than facilitate it.
Waste not Want Not
When ambiguous assignments are given, one of two things happens.? Either the employee has no idea what to do or where to start, so s/he does nothing.? Or, the employee does something that is not in line with the manager’s (unspoken/unwritten)?thinking,?resulting in wasted time?and deflated morale.
Define the WHAT but Delegate the HOW
Effective task assignments do a thorough job of defining the WHAT to include boundaries.? The boundaries liberate the employee to move freely and confidently about the space as defined without second guessing, or fear, or excessive “check backs”.
However, the work, i,e, the creative part which all humans savor, is for the employee to decide the HOW.?
Micromanagement versus Engagement
When a manager meddles in the HOW part, you’ve got micromanagement.? This steals?the psychological “kick” we all get from being?creative.? Micromanagers steal the joy part of work from their employees.? (Unwittingly, I believe, but that’s another post.)?
When a manager explicitly defines the reason for the task, its quality specifications, resources and boundaries, you’ve got engagement.? And never the twain shall meet.
See the difference?? Employees appreciate and need explicit task assignments, but they resent having their joy stolen.? Have you every had a boss steal your joy?
I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.
Filed Under Employee Engagement, Managerial Leadership, Requisite Organization, Talent Management
Comments
6 Responses to “Boundaries are Liberating – Micromanagement is Not”
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Michelle,
Yes this is critical stuff and well done for keeping on the case.
My experience is that this stuff, and the applicaton of tasking changes along with the Luc Hoebeke domains. So, if I am write in my thinking, 1-3 is not the same as 4-5 which is not the same as 6 upwards. Importantly, the majority of folk in employment are engaged in 1-3 work. So the clear model that you suggest is very helpful. Further up?????
Often bosses want a problem explored but are not sure precisely what they want. Over the years, I have had an abundance of tasks in which bosses have said stuff like ‘I will know it when I see it’. So you produce your ideas and, hopefully, one of them gets close to or hits the target and triggers them to greater certainty in their own judgements. For me, this was satisfying. I felt that I had contributed to the debate, even if not accountable for the final decision. Essentially I was being consulted.
Of course, the negative aspect of this is when bosses neglect their duty to prescribe the task for which they are going to hold their subordinate accountable.
Gillian Stamp has developed a penetrating set of understandings of these challenges. In her model of The Tripod of Work, Gillian contrasts the behaviour of building a trusting environment through Tasking, Trusting and Tending with the situation when different approaches are adopted.
I recommend that anyone interested in applying the Levels of Complexity principles looks at this section of her Blog:
http://www.gillianstamp.com/?page_id=26
Jack
NO, I did not mean WRITE in my thinking. I meant right. Right?
Jack
Hi Jack,
Thanks for the comment. I remember reading Gillian’s piece a while back. Maybe I should check it out again.
In your example of bosses not knowing what they want, it sounded like what they wanted was the production of ideas and options, which, to me, could still be an explicit assignment.
But I don’t know that everything I write is right. (Glenn always says if you can’t think of at least three ways to spell any word, you aren’t very creative.) My son spells the same word three different ways within one writing assignment.
Good to hear from you. Hope all is right with your world!
Regards,
Michelle
Great post Michelle – you make a very important distinction between setting boundaries and micromanagement that all managers need to recognize.
I am sharing your post with my readers as one of my top five blog picks for the past week as can be found here: http://www.maximizepossibility.com/employee_retention/2008/09/the-rainmaker-f.html
Be well!
Thanks for the plug Chris!
[…] a follow up to my Boundaries are Liberating train of thought, I’d like to do some more stumping for the necessity for more thoughtful, […]