The Ever-So-Important Balance Between Delegating and Micromanagement

There comes a time in business development when employees are needed – once this moment arrives, you can be certain that your company is headed in the right direction. The fact that you need to take upon employee hiring and management certainly proves your general business strategizing has begun to bare fruits and now it’s time for your enterprise to scale and grow.

By no means is finding the right people for the job easy – entrepreneurs and CEOs often find it incredibly turbulent to navigate through CVs and interviews before reaching the most appropriate candidates. But even once adding the best-suited members to the team, business owners still need to figure out the best management strategies to implement in order to ensure a smooth and obstacle-free working process.

That’s why I decided to focus my attention on the important balance between delegating work and micromanagement – while both aspects of people management have their strong sides, pushing too far and going to each side of the spectrum has proven to be a disastrous turn of events, both for employees and leaders. So stay tuned and let’s get to today’s article discussion – how to implement both delegation and micromanagement in the most successful way?

The Main Goal of Management is to Bring Out Everyone’s Potential

When asked, managers share that their main goal is to bring out the best in people in terms of their professional development and performance – through smart inspiration and support, virtually every employee could shoot for the stars and reach new heights. But the management approach matters the most – leaders have the power to both lift and doom anyone’s motivation and aspirations.

Throughout the years we’ve witnessed different types of management styles – there are bosses who prefer relying on the fear of punishment when it comes to navigating through their work processes. Others prefer to take the high road and get their employees accustomed to receiving praise – and as life often teaches us, there are benefits and disadvantages in both approaches.

But in order for a manager to be able to get the best out of their employees, they need to be completely aware of both delegation and micromanagement as well as how those approaches may or may not interfere with everyone’s productivity. That said, knowing your team well and being aware of each member’s individuality is a focal point when it comes to a manager deciding upon the best leadership direction.

Delegation and Micromanagement – The Ultimate Pros and Cons

When there’s work, there’s also delegation and micromanagement but what we need to pay attention to is not overwhelming neither ourselves or others with either of the approaches.

Managers need to delegate tasks to their employees in order to get the projects going – when a leader knows their team well, they are able to determine which tasks belong to which employee. Essentially, that’s where good management falls into play – without the leader knowing the team’s strengths and weaknesses, they wouldn’t be able to adequately distribute the workload and delegate the tasks in the smartest way possible. Through appropriate delegation, managers are able to build team spirit and create strong bonds in the team that, in the long run, promise to provide success and mutual growth. Also, delegating tasks allows employees to further develop their expertise and learn how to better time-manage their own duties and skills.

On the other hand, excessive delegation could quickly lead to burnout – if the managers assign tasks disproportionately to the employees’ abilities, then overwhelming them with the extra workload is inevitable at some point. This could potentially lead to team members leaving or failing to deliver up to the highest standards.

Of course, in order for the entire work process to be running at full speed but also optimized to the fullest, employees need guidance and support. However, oftentimes that guidance and support could quickly turn into excessive micromanagement practices that stop people from truly taking account of their actions and finding the best ways to navigate their work processes.

Offering support, guidance and help is extremely beneficial for the team – this way the employees know they could rely on their manager without them completely controlling their work process. Because micromanagement could quickly turn into controlling behavior with managers who simply find it hard to let go and trust others for their own competence.

On the other hand, however, the complete lack of management could backfire and make employees believe they are on their own in this work journey – managers should not perceive every support and intake as over-the-top micromanagement since there’s a reason between guidance and controlling other people’s work patterns and planning.

As we can see, the job of the manager is not an easy task – on the one hand, they need to be versatile in their supporting approaches without, however, interfering too much in people’s ways. Perhaps the best strategy is to pay close attention in regards to what works best for each individual – be open to offering support when needed but also be willing to grant your team the opportunity to pave their own ways and find what works best for them in terms of task and time management.