If you as a manager are struggling, getting bad reviews, and forcing people to work 100% from the office after covid, you might be micromanaging and not at all in control…. it might quickly end your career!
Dear bad Manager, I let you in on a secret documented here https://hbr.org/2022/10/what-great-remote-managers-do-differently As employees, we want our managers to be present, hands-on, and operationally vigilant without being intrusive. In other words, we don’t want managers to micromanage us; we want our managers to micro-understand their work.
Micromanagement is restrictive, with heavy managerial meddling that undermines trust, disempowers employees, and manifests itself, among other things, in the form of exhaustive reviews, checklists, and levels of approval.
Micro-understanding is better integrating yourself into your team’s workflow and problem-solving remotely. The micro-understanding manager can identify vulnerabilities and construct a radar for potential trouble spots. Micro-understanding is about trusting but making sure there are no unanticipated bumps; delegating but being there to keep workers from stumbling and being flexible but always heeding the warning signs.
As I wrote 2 years ago in the below LinkedIn Post Remote leadership is a different discipline than “old-fashioned” leadership… It is now very visible that some leaders have not transformed. https://www.linkedin.com/embed/feed/update/urn:li:share:6733830592888152064
Thank you, @henrik Marx Larsen as my manager, for taking the approach of “Micro-understanding”
Do you also have a manager that runs on “Micro-understanding”, tag him or her below to give them an appraisal for it; it is a super important skill set.
