How to – Stop the Micromanaging If you have ever had a boss who micromanages, you know first hand that their actions communicate a lack of trust in the professional abilities of their employees. Rather than feel encouraged and independent, the employee feels limited independence at work. Micromanaging interferes with the ability to actually get the job done. Constant monitoring on the part of the boss deprives the employee of learning how to be self sufficient and developing good judgment and ingenuity to get projects and assignments completed.

There are a myriad of reasons that a manager will micromanage: bad history, trust issues, hyper- responsibility, over-the-top need for control. It actually doesn’t matter why because you are not a psychologist and work is not a therapy session. The goal is to create an environment where work goals and objectives can be successfully accomplished and employees can develop and handle increasing levels of responsibility.

If you want the behavior to stop, try negotiating some of the following strategies:

• Send daily email updates of critical work assignments.

• Hold a weekly call/meeting that can serve as a progress report.

• Identify critical milestones that are not negotiable, and dates for review.

• Determine deadlines and soft-deadlines (when an item is due for review, prior to the actual deadline).

• Establish how a need for support and guidance will be communicated.

• Agree on clear and attainable standards for success so that work can meet those standards.

Closely scrutinizing employees is not the best use of a manager’s time. If you think the boss can and should back off a bit, negotiate a process that works for both of you. The outcome can lead to a better work relationship and a better work product.  12:23 PM •  0 Comments •

How to – Get Beyond Corporate Inertia A new year! Psychologically, it can signify a new beginning. Many of us are eager to break out of the bureaucratic way of doing business that weighs us down and holds us back from being as responsive and intrapreneurial as we’d like to be. With so many aspects that make up an organizational culture (how things get done), it can be frustrating to determine effective ways to help people break free of stifling corporate traditions and the inertia that can result from pessimistic predictions about the economy. But take heart - evidence exists that there IS something that can be done to get and keep employees engaged and motivated to innovate.

Studies show that when a person’s personal sense of purpose, values, work, organization and community are aligned around a mission, they feel engaged. When people are engaged, they take pride in their work. When they see the link between objectives at work and their personal mission and vision, it makes sense to them to change themselves and innovate in order to achieve those corporate goals.

While aligning your work with your firm’s mission and vision isn’t a new concept, it’s difficult to do - difficult, but possible. In a perfect world, it should start at the top, and requires observable leadership behaviors, such as:

• Testing assumptions and history (“We’ve always done it this way.”)

• Encouraging creativity

• Supporting experimentation

• Not punishing people for failure

• Helping people with their work

Even if a company’s leadership isn’t visionary, there is always something the individual can do. You could build consensus, sow the seeds of change, test an idea, and find people who are like-minded to create a solid foundation for innovation. Change doesn’t always come from the top.  12:10 PM •  0 Comments •