Team members in a high performing production environment want to be challenged, trusted, and treated with dignity and respect. It all boils down to building the right culture where our leaders and technicians are empowered to do what they do best without being micro-managed.
Appointed or hired Leaders should be aware of the urge to micro-manage. There is a significant difference between leading and micromanaging. That difference is often reflected in a team's morale and productivity.
Empowerment is critical to the growth and longevity of a business. Effective delegation serves the benefit of not only increasing immediate productivity, but also enabling leaders to develop personnel so they can be ready to advance into higher roles.
This sort of empowerment is vital to companies seeking rapid growth since it is often easier to promote somebody who already understands the vision and goals of the company.
Appointed or hired leaders who micromanage are inherently insecure and lack self-confidence to lead others. They do not believe that their organization can survive without them, and due to over-involvement could ultimately become the case. A leader should neither need nor want to be critical in this manner.
Leaders should seek to empower teams with the resources needed to do the job and in doing so step back and take on more of a mentors role. The easiest way to to determine whether you are a micromanager is to leave things alone for a day or two and see what happens. This gives a leader an opportunity to evaluate the team and coach the team on ways to improve. If stepping away and leaving things alone for a period of time is difficult, then it is time to examine trust and empowerment in an organization.
