Author: Nelson W. Coulter
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