From micro-management to leadership

Who else gets a pit in their stomach when you hear from a manager or client…

“Can you talk?”

Maybe it’s the environments I was in, but that phrase always put me in a tailspin.

“Did I make a mistake?”

“Did I do something wrong?”

“Did my sharp tongue p*ss someone off?” (I am more overly direct than is optimal in a corporate, people politics-heavy environment.)

But most of the time, the manager/client wanted a status update on something.

Yet - instead of making their implicit expectations of communication explicit… we both operated in a space of ambiguity. They were wondering why they hadn’t heard from me, and I was left with the sense of dread about having been caught in a mistake.

This is when management turns into micro-management.

Micro-management isn’t about wanting updates regularly - it’s about how you intervene in the work, because intervening too often or too extensively can lead to a strained working relationship and stifling team members’ autonomy.

But, especially for employees who are newer and/or not co-located (hello post-COVID, online business world), managers shouldn’t swing too far in the other direction. We don’t have the luxury of sitting together in an office to answer those questions that come up or to mentor newer or junior teammates live.

And as much as we want to give autonomy to do things in a new way or a creative way or on a flexible timeline… sometimes you really do care about the how the work gets done. You have an expectation of the tools and processes you’d use. You have an expectation of what the output will look like. You have a set of internalized “checks” and items you look for before the task is considered complete.

You’ve had to do all this work yourself and figure out how to run the processes in your business. And, perhaps, your business often feels like your baby - a baby with a long list of internalized habits and “watch outs” and rhythms and nuances, that unfortunately maybe only you know.

You’re allowed to care about the “how” - especially when you’re first building trust with someone on your team.

The missing foundation? Making the implicit explicit.

Take the invisible expectations and assumptions that you have in your head and articulate them.

Make what you know known. Increase the “pool of shared meaning”, where the group’s collective knowledge is increased.

Explain how you like to be communicated with in advance… not being subtly annoyed when that communication doesn’t happen (because they didn’t know!).

Take the time to set context and outline success criteria - and do this in multiple formats that someone can reference later.

Making Your Expectations Explicit

I hear this a lot - “I don’t want to bog them down with having to keep me updated.” Yet, you then spend your time wondering about where people are in the process of getting things done and often end up having to jump in at the last moment or after a task is late.

Because for small business owners working remotely, there’s often less flex in the organization to deliver the work - and that flex often lands on your shoulders. It’s natural to want more frequent communication about tasks than might otherwise be needed in a live, in-person, office setting where you can see each other and catch up live.

So make your implicit communications expectations explicit.

Ask for a comment in your task manager when a task is assigned.

Ask for a comment or a status change when they start working on a task, so you know when they’ve started (and don’t have to ask).

And most importantly, get clear on priorities.

I get that no one wants to make their team members do more email or you have to read more email.

But asking your team member to take 30 minutes to write out this email each week:

• What I’ve done (and where I got stuck)

• What I’m doing next week (and where I need help)

Is a fantastic forcing mechanism for you both.

• Your team member has to look ahead at the week to come and mentally prepare.

• You see what’s not prioritized that should be - based on the context only YOU have.

• You can see patterns if tasks are always behind and can fix what’s causing friction.

Making Your Thinking Explicit

If you’re anything like most business owners who aren't ops gurus, your back end processes are a little rickety.

Your spreadsheets are all over the place in random google files, your Canva looks like an overcrowded garage where you can’t find anything, and every single one of your customers has some complicating factor. For a given project, you know where you’d start, how long the task might take, what’s the output you expect, and any context about challenges. And you have tricks and tools to make actually doing the job more efficient, even down to the best keystrokes or commands in your software!

So make your thinking about how you would approach the task explicit, especially for someone who hasn’t spent hours looking for that one particular report or document that you always use but can only find because you favorited it on your bookmarks bar.

How do we do that? One easy way is to screen cast (aka film a video) showing how you did or would do a task.

I like Loom, or you might try Rewind.ai or a tool like Trainual.

That way instead of having to type everything out yourself - or rely on someone remembering everything you said on a live call - record it. They can download a transcript for a future process document, re-watch what you said as they are doing it later, and YOU as the manager are forced to slow down and anticipate the needs of your team member.

Do you remember when you were new and facing down so much of a firehose that you were lucky to remember 25% of what was said to you? Recorded videos will really be a game changer, especially for complicated tasks or for newer employees.

Make Your Analysis Explicit

When you do a project, you probably know all of the places something can go wrong in the final product.

“Well this customer’s invoice’s terms are X, but that one is Y.”

“On LinkedIn, we can only use 3 hashtags and we need a hook, but on Instagram we get more hashtags but a shorter caption and on TikTok we barely get a caption at all.”

You as the business owner have a long list of “checks” you make before the final product goes out that only you look for.

So, start documenting those exceptions and failure points.

Make checklists of all the places to look for edits and errors and write them down.

Atul Gawande talks about the power of checklists in his book “The Checklist Manifesto”.

“It is common to misconceive how checklists function in complex lines of work. They are not comprehensive how-to guides, whether for building a skyscraper or getting a plane out of trouble. They are quick and simple tools aimed to buttress the skills of expert professionals. And by remaining swift and usable and resolutely modest, they are saving thousands upon thousands of lives. ”

These tasks may seem like a lot of work on a busy manager’s plate, but once you build in the rhythm of checklists, Loom videos, and having a place everything can go, it becomes a habit that will give you more peace in your management style.

But above all? Take the time upfront to make the implicit explicit.

If you need support in building your “one stop shop” of processes, systems, job descriptions, meeting agendas and tasks - I invite you to apply to work together and get your organization working together smoothly.