By Pooja Patil CEO & Co-Founder of One Impact
Most leadership books, videos, podcasts and blogs talk about how the biggest strength of a leader is to be able to think about the ‘big picture’. While it sounds great and most leaders do it beautifully, some of us find it difficult to let go, to delegate, to let our resources take the reins and get things done. Such leaders and managers often get things done their way, achieving the minutest detail possible. But what impact does it have on their teams and consequently the output? Does this realisation ever hit them?
The very essence of a CEO along with several other things is to lead like a futurist. As an entity that is giving direction to the growth of the company, it is imperative that you think of things from a bird’s eye perspective. It is important to remember that the sole reason why you have on boarded other people with subject matter expertise is so that they can get things done on a daily basis and keep the show-up and running, while you focus your energies on newer opportunities/avenues for your business.
What happens when you don’t think ‘Macro’ and get over-consumed in the ‘Business as Usual’ routines? It slows down the engine of your business (of course) and impacts its performance. However, a noteworthy point to consider is: It affects the quality of output of the fuel (your human resources). A micromanagement type of leadership creates an insecure working environment that deprives employees of confidence in their work. The team may find it difficult to function when the manager is absent.
Here are some signs that show when you are not ‘leading’ and are only ‘managing’, consequently impacting your team in the long run. Most of these would seem normal for you, but, your teams at different levels may look at it otherwise.
1. You want detailed status reports every day, twice a day and a consolidated weekly report.
Why you do it: You want to ensure that things are running and are concerned that your team might not be delivering perfect work.
What this means for your team: They now have two clients to be answerable to on every deliverable, one is the actual client and second is their internal client (you).
What this does to them: They spend 25% of their time preparing reports for both external and internal parties.
2. You want random internal meetings too often and they run too long.
Why you do it: It is probably because you want to be in touch with your teams and want to discuss every issue in depth because that’s how you are, you like to get the crux of every little thing that probably could get fixed at a much lower level and in half the time.
What this means for your team: Disturbance- It breaks the flow of their ongoing work. Anxiety- Of preparing to meet you and answer all your questions and be ready with all reports each time.
What this does to them: They spend 15 % of their time in lengthy meetings with you, discussing big plans that never get executed because of ‘lack of time’.
3. You want to be CC-ed in every email that goes out of everyone’s mailbox.
Why you do it: Because you feel you could go through them in your dead time and get a sense of things.
What this means for your team: Nothing really, they just need to add another name in the CC list.
What this does to them: Every email they write is with an inherent thought in their head- ‘My boss is marked’, ‘I need to ensure I don’t mess this up’. They end up putting you first, while the email is actually going out to the client. This makes them read every mail they write twice and also think for 10 seconds before hitting the send button. The juniors wonder why they need to mark you, when they have their managers marked and are accountable to them.
Every time you overdo ‘micro management, it leaves a certain impact on your team, making them feel incompetent and under-confident. You in return get stuck in the vicious cycle of doing everyone’s jobs, simply because you cannot get yourself to delegate. You are always in a crisis solving mode which leaves you little or no time to explore new avenues or give your 100% to focusing on the growth of your business. Your teams are always running short of motivation and their power to think is drastically affected.
At a macro level, leaders should be more focused on the broader perspective of the business, at the same time, scanning or anticipating changes in the internal environment of the organisation. Building an ideal work culture and management is an essential ingredient of adopting the ‘Macro’ approach. All the actions at the leadership level must be oriented towards achieving sustainability of the organisation, workforce satisfaction and overall business growth.
Therefore, at the macro leadership level, the leader plays a ‘transformational’ leader role.
