Microtraining (v): micromanaging for great leaders
Following on from my piece on why micromanaging is born from fear, I now want to explore why microtraining is so effective, and how you can adopt this new style of management.
If you have yet to read my article on micromanaging, I recommend you start there; it gives a great context to this article and offers some helpful insights on what good management is and isn’t.
Micromanagement causes great employees to feel that they aren’t trusted and quickly breeds disillusionment with their employer. At its core, fear is what drives managers to act rashly and interfere with the unfinished work of one of the team. While this is true in most cases, there are exceptions to the rule. There are, in fact, some instances where interference by the manager can be good.
No two people are the same. Your team will be unequal in their equality. The same diet may not work, the same training plan and the same management method won’t always get you the optimal results across one group of people, no matter how similar they appear to be.
You’ve done everything you can to be the macromanaging-lean-agile-God that you believe will get the best results from your team, yet someone isn’t getting it. One member of the team seems disillusioned, lacks confidence. They’re showing the symptoms that you were hoping to avoid by not micromanaging. How can this be?
No two people are equal. Nature made the world this way. No two personal situations are equal either. Sometimes the proverbial arm around the shoulder is enough to reassure that person that their workplace is the place they can be a star even if they don’t feel like a star at home, in their team, or in general.
Macromanaging this person at this stage will only cause them to wander aimlessly through their work, doubting themselves and underdelivering on expectations. Much like taking an inexperienced person to the gym and saying “ok, work out and stuff, I’ll be back for you in an hour”. They will dawdle about and use the odd machine, approaching each new contraption tentatively, perhaps with the familiarity of its purpose or effect, but no clear understanding or aims when using it. They may lift the occasional weight without a coherent plan, or have a quick go on the rowing machine. As they increase their treadmill speed from a brisk walk to a half-hearted jog, they gaze around at all the other gym members. Everyone is doing something different, but they all look like they’re doing it well. How do these gym-goers look like they know exactly what they’re doing? Pondering this question and feeling increasingly like they do not belong, cannot compete, contribute, or continue with their efforts, they abandon their efforts and leave feeling worse as a result of the experience.
Microtraining: the Great Management Solution
Imagine an alternative scenario. You are that person. The uncomfortable gym-goer. And every week, mandated team gym workouts are your greatest source of anxiety. You arrive at the gym, with the rest of your team. They’re ready to get to work, yet you visibly look uncomfortable and are preparing to flail and flop about, pretending to work out. But this time, your boss has realised you need more support. Up steps the personal trainer.
The world-class micromanager, the personal trainer is encouraging, praising, and constructively critical. They work with you on every rep, help you define your goals, work on a plan to hit them, and keep you on target on a daily and weekly basis. They curb your freedom to be creative and make further decisions; allowing you to focus on the heavy lifting. When you finish that task and can’t decide what to do next, your microtrainer steps in and removes the doubt and deliberation by confidently moving you forwards. You complete your next task, knowing that if you get stuck, your personal trainer will be ready to guide you. Now you’re finishing each day feeling satisfied with a job well done.
This translates to the office pretty closely. People know the outcome they want but sometimes they don’t know how to get started. Often it’s just a creative or anxiety block, rather than a sign of incompetence. In the roles that I have held, with my direct reports I have found there’s commonly a moment in time where microtraining is needed. It’s often only for a short period of time, and the main aim is to help build confidence and get that employee back on track. Employees need you to become their personal trainer, their microtrainer. When you can do this effectively you will build great bonds with your team and grow loyal, dedicated employees. Most importantly, you will create and strengthen bonds of reciprocal trust.
Microtraining takes the best part of micromanaging and removes the self-doubt of the micromanager. It then replaces that with an attitude of self-respect and also respect and trust towards the employee. A good personal trainer doesn’t call you a lazy idiot and then do the heavy lifting for you. In the same way, a good manager doesn’t call you incompetent and finish the work themselves.
Use Microtraining Wisely
Microtraining is not a long term solution as it eventually becomes a burden on you, the manager, and dedicates time to one employee. This can often be seen as unfair, as that employee starts to receive lots of additional much-valued support, over those who are doing a great job elsewhere and deserve their managers’ attention just as much, if not more so.
Providing whatever support you can is your job, no, your responsibility, as a manager and leader. As discussed in my previous article, working for your team as its “servant leader” is your priority above all else. As much as you want your team to work for you, you must work for your team. Do so effectively, with selective microtraining, and stamp out micromanaging habits before they cause further damage.
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This article first appeared on Medium as Learn how to Microtrain, not Micromanage
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