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There’s a dark side to delegation and that’s micromanagement. Those who manage with excessive control or attention to detail are often referred to as Micromanagers. Is this style of management ever appropriate? In some key situations, yes, it is. Most managers are going to recognize these situations, so this will be a review. If deadlines are missed, the manager must step in and get everyone back on track, find out what happened and, if necessary, create a plan of action for the individual or group to make sure it doesn’t happen again. If a project is not going as planned, or they are hitting milestones but the results are not what were expected, again, you’ll need to step in and help manage that back to the results that are needed. If a team member is not able to perform because they don’t have the skills, the time, or maybe the interest, then as the manager you need to step in to make sure that that task gets completed. This is important for the overall health of the team, but also for the individual. If the delegated role is beyond their skills, you might cause more damage by letting them completely fail than stepping in. You can turn the experience into a training experience and get the work done either by doing it yourself or preferably delegating to someone else, but have them stay involved so they can continue to learn from the process. If, however, a team member has the skills, the time, and the ability, and is just not willing to perform, then you need to look at the situation from a personnel perspective. Ask yourself what is causing the problem. What’s going on with this individual? Remember, even seemingly individual issues can cause problems for the team very quickly. Of course, if a team member is tasked with a particularly sensitive file or job, you may want to stay hands-on since the threat of the information getting out, or the danger of there being a problem with it, is so high that safety and security is more important than ensuring that that person feels they have complete autonomy. When is it not okay to micro-manage? Unfortunately this can be a bit of a gray area and a dangerous one, since when employees feel micromanaged, they tend to manifest this by being frustrated or even fearful. What this means is that the individual ends up not trusting his own judgment when you’re second-guessing or asking a lot of questions on how he is getting to that end result. The less he trusts himself, the harder it is for him to take on the next delegated task. The most cited reason for why employees leave a company is poor management. They may feel that they don’t have enough control, or autonomy, or the ability to grow, but the good news is that these are all things a good manager can control. If Micromanaging affects the mental health of the staff or the overall efficiency of the organization, it’s not okay. If you’re constantly undermining an employee’s decisions and performance, that behavior will inevitably affect their ability to perform, and it’s also going to impact the team dynamic. To see where you fall on the micromanaging spectrum, answer the seven questions below. 1. Do you find it difficult to delegate tasks? 2. Do you believe you can complete most your team’s tasks better than they can? 3. Is it more efficient to do a job yourself, rather than give the job to a team member? 4. Do you encourage your staff to learn from mistakes? 5. Do you spend a large amount of time overseeing single projects? 6. Are you and your team overworked? 7. Does your team always check with you before doing anything? Did you answer honestly? Remember, it’s not all black and white.