Bursts of Color - Is Micro-Managing Bad?
I heard from three of you last week whose current leadership challenge sounded very similar, along the lines of this:
As we’ve hired experienced people into the company, I am struggling to figure out how involved to be with their work. When I get into the details, some employees get frustrated and say I am micromanaging. But when I pull back, inevitably they spend a lot of time producing work that I think is sub-par.
Striking a magical balance — of getting the results you want from a team while having them feel delightfully autonomous — is very difficult for even the most gifted leaders. For the rest of us, my default advice is: on the over-simplified scale between “micromanagement” and “hands off,” it’s better to over-shoot towards the former.
Brian Chesky on “Being in the Details”
Jessica from Huckleberry pointed me to a recent Brian Chesky interview, in which he talks about his approach on this topic:
Way too many founders apologize for how they want to run the company. They find some midpoint between how they want to run a company and how the people they lead want to run the company. That's a good way to make everyone miserable. Because what everyone really wants is clarity.
I basically got involved in every single detail and I basically told leaders that leaders are in the details.
There's this negative term called micromanagement. I think there's a difference between micromanagement, which is like telling people exactly what to do, and being in the details.
People think that a great leader's job is to hire people and just empower them to do a good job. Well, how do you know they're doing a good job if you're not in the details?
Amen, Brian.
I also suggest listening to the whole interview or skimming the transcript, as it’s full of other leadership nuggets.
Keeping the Team Motivated (Despite You Being in the Details)
So you’re going to stay in the details…. but don’t want to be a jerk about it. Good! Here are a handful of things that may help with this balancing act:
Set expectations. When you tell everyone you’re going to check in daily and want to be involved in selecting the font color, nobody should be surprised when you do. You know: “Happiness = Reality - Expectations”
Frequency is good. If you closely follow a project and provide daily guidance, you might worry that it’s micro-managing… but this tends to feel much better to the team than when you parachute in and tell them they wasted three weeks going in the wrong direction.
Tone matters. It is possible to provide coaching and critical feedback while showing the other person we care about them and appreciate their work. I know, this is Captain Obvious stuff, but somehow it often gets missed in retellings.
If you change your mind, own it. Direction changes happen in startup life. Just remember that it sucks to be on the receiving end of whiplash… so try to do it less, and say “my bad” when it happens.
Gather input, with appropriate expectations. It’s a standing joke that every team member has opinions about the product and marketing. Sometimes these are even new ideas :). You may find that an occasional lunchtime “bring your product suggestions” session goes a long way to helping people feel heard. Do clarify that that you welcome all these ideas… but that it’s still not a democracy.