Leaders who want to control everything are like a ship trying to move through water while dragging the anchor.
That micromanaging behavior has the following impact on those charged with producing the outcomes:
- Frustration – constant over-the-shoulder critique and nitpicking generates frustration and passive resistance. Not good.
- Distraction – when constantly being pulled from “the work” for less consequential products, attention to pursuit of the big picture outcomes becomes diverted. Not good.
- Oversimplification – when badgered relentlessly over details and minutiae, effort is directed toward trending tangential data upward at the expense of the big picture. Not good.
- Contraction – relentless micromanaging almost always results in systemic self-protection and minimization of effort and innovation. Not good.
Lessening the grip while tightening the vision message is a very nice recipe for more productive troops and better organizational performance.
Leaders who clearly paint and persistently reinforce a noble and worthy vision – the big picture outcome desired – and allow great latitude in the processes of achieving it have the most productive, most energized, and most loyal teams.
Go ahead. Let go!
*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to www.nelsonwcoulter.com
Nelson Coulter
Nelson Coulter has held a lot of titles: rancher, educator, author, musician, entrepreneur, coach, mentor, consultant, and professor. He has coached, taught, and been published in many settings. He has served in public schools of all shapes, sizes, and contexts. He currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Professional Practice at Louisiana State University - Shreveport. His most cherished titles, however, are the ones not attached to career identity: son, husband, dad, and granddad.
