According to Wikipedia, Micromanagement is defined as a business style whereby a manager closely observes or controls the work of subordinates or employees.  The definition goes on to state that being a micromanaging boss
generally has negative connotations.  This is probably because employees will get demoralised by having a micromanaging boss looking over their shoulder all the time.  It is believed that this approach usually does not lead to positive results.  However, is it right to say that this approach does not work all of the time?  I beg to differ, below are my reasons why sometimes you need to be micromanaging boss.   Take note that I am not saying that the manager should not be nice, rather he should ‘monitor the employees a little more’ in some situations to ensure that strategic objectives are obtained.

A poor Human Resources Department:  If you have a poor Human Resources department you are going to have some incompetent subordinates in your firm.  The reasons why the HR department can be labelled as poor range from their failure to recruit the right people to a high level of nepotism which results in you working with your boss’s relatives, for example.  The results will range from you having a workforce full of people without a passion for what they do to people without the knowledge to do what is required.  If you do not become a micromanaging boss
it will show in the results and you will be blamed for the failure of your section.  You will have to observe such employees closely to ensure that they operate at the required level.

Loopholes in systems:  Most firms think that the performance management systems that they install will ensure that employees are productive.  This is true to a larger extent but most of the times this systems come with loopholes.  The main issue with these systems is that they do not report (usually) on the qualitative aspects of the job.  An example is a call center performance management system.  It may ensure that employees reach their targets in terms of the number of calls but it cannot pick whether or not some queries are actually being solved.  If you do not observe your agents closely you will find yourself in a situation where your key performance indicators look good but the customers are still complaining.

Complex products/services:  It is easy to let employees ‘do their thing’ when you are dealing with simple products and services.  However, some products and services are complex in nature.  They might be dynamic like customer service or technical like mining equipment.  With such products even if you have the best Human Resources department you might face challenges with employees failing to cope with the products even if they have the passion, energy or the required baseline knowledge.  This is simply because such services require an employee to conduct research on a consistent basis or change their approach to their work countless times in line with current trends.  Not everyone will be able to do this on their own.  In such a scenario a leader is required to monitor the employees closely and guide them.

High value transactions: When your employees’ job results in the production of cheap products like burgers in a restaurant you can leave them to their own devices (even though an argument can be raised to the contrary).  In a situation where a transaction represents a significant proportion of a firm’s income the manager has to monitor employees closely.  An example is in the clothing industry where big customers require custom made outfits to be created.  The reputation of the firm might lie on the sentiments of one customer, such as a celebrity.  It is up to you to either ensure that everything is done in the right way so that one customer can improve a million potential customers’ perception of your firm or you may want to leave the fate of your firm and its future in the hands of Mandy, your tailor.

As you can see micromanagement does have situations in which it is required.  Do you agree or you think that it should never be practiced?  In a world where competition is now very tough you might want to consider some unorthodox ways of differentiating yourself.  Just make sure that you are very careful about the way that you implement some of these strategies.  Also remember that these tactics are not to be implemented in isolation.  You should consider other factors such as the type of people you would need to hire in order to successfully implement such a strategy.  More on this and other issues in future blog posts.

Have a great weekend

RM