One of the important traits of a successful manager besides leadership and operational skills is being aware of the difference between efficient management and micromanagement. Micromanaging your team members will not only frustrate them but also lead to unmotivated resources who will not be doing their best at work. For effective resource management, one of the main challenges for project managers is to keep all the components of a project running smoothly. So, what can you do to keep your projects on track? Especially when you have distributed or remote teams, it becomes very tough to monitor the productivity and performance of your team members. Mostly, it leads to micromanagement, which further leads to employee dissatisfaction. In this article, we will discuss some tips to avoid micromanaging and achieve efficient project management.
Disadvantages of Micromanagement
According to a study, almost 71% of employees surveyed said that micromanagement was a big obstacle in their job performance. Whereas about 85% of them were of the view micromanaging employees was being hands-on but is a controlling management style. What’s more? Approximately, 36% of the employees who are micromanaged switch their jobs because of being frustrated by being micromanaged. This management style also negatively impacts the confidence, job performance, interest levels, and engagement of the employees. Micromanagement refers to a supervisor or manager controlling the day-to-day activities and overseeing the team members to the minutest details. This shows that the manager doesn’t have enough trust in his or her team members that they will do the tasks or assigned projects accurately or as expected. However, there is a difference between being a hands-on manager and a micromanaging one. Let’s see what the key traits of each are.
Hands-on Managers
- Is ready to do hands-on work and helps the team members if they are overloaded
- Provides constructive feedback to the team members, which enables them to improve
- Offer the right opportunities to employees to correct their errors and learn more
- Communicate well and openly and explain desired outcomes or expectations as per the business goals
- Set clear benchmarks and milestones for all the projects and tasks
- Distribute responsibilities evenly to their team members and guide them to lead initiatives
- Style their management style that is suitable for each team member’s needs
- Guide the non-performing employees who are lacking direction
Micromanagers
- Oversee and manage the day-to-day issues in minute detail
- Dictates every small aspect of all projects
- Start fixing issues and challenges themselves rather than empowering the employees
- Do not give autonomy and independence to experienced and trustworthy team members in their daily operations
- Constantly monitor every minutest progress in a project
- Do not delegate responsibility easily
- Fail to set proper priorities in their projects
- Discourage creativity and innovative approach in their team
- Demand top-down management and control at all times
Tips for Effective Project Management and Avoiding Micromanagement
To avoid micromanagement and do effective project management, successful project managers rely on these techniques.
1. Define the outcomes clearly and establish the priorities
When starting a new project, it’s very important to set your goals with your team. If your team members don’t understand the key objectives of the business or the project, then they won’t be able to meet your expectations. Hence, after clearly defining the end goals or outcomes, communicate them to your team clearly. It is important to align your employees to the bigger picture and accordingly plan for your project. This kind of clarity empowers your team to achieve their targets, feel responsible, and execute the plan. While you do this, it is also important to set your priorities and let the team know about it so that the tasks can be planned and executed accordingly. This preliminary step is also vital for effective resource management.
2. Identify the strengths of your team
It is also very important for a project manager to know the strengths and interests of each employee in their team. This way, they will be able to assign the right people to the right projects or jobs. A resource management tool helps to find the right employees for the right projects in just a few clicks. The advanced filters of such a tool help in finding employees across locations by their skills, experience, role, etc. the right individuals. However, it’s always beneficial for a project manager to know the expertise, strengths, and development needs of their employees. This awareness also enables them to empower people to take responsibility, and initiative, enhance their skills through training, and be accountable.
3. Foster collaborations and associations based on open communication and trust
When supervisors are not able to trust their team members, then they end up micromanaging. Therefore, trust should ideally be the foundation of all your collaborations and working relationships. Leading by example and giving respect to your team members is one great way to earn trust. Especially when working with remote teams, building a stronger collaborative relationship, and fostering trust and open communication is a must for seamless project management.
4. Schedule one-on-one meetings and updates with team members
Instead of tracking every small detail of a task or project, it’s better to give opportunities to your team members to let you know the status of their work from time to time. This makes them accountable and offers them space and a chance to focus on their work. If you want to get updates on various projects, you can schedule weekly update sessions or meetings to offer meaningful feedback and guide them in the right direction.
5. Offer support and guidance
Imagine if rather than micromanaging or controlling the team members, the project manager can offer advice and support and help the team become accountable. But how can this be done? Reflecting on your management style and accordingly taking actionable steps to amend it can go a long way in effective resource management. It’s always wise to choose a supportive approach and lead by your own example of taking ownership and responsibility. You can assign tasks to your team members and let them know that you are there if they need support at any point or have any doubts or questions. It’s best to be approachable without being too controlling and yet keep supporting your team to find solutions to the challenges they face.
6. Facilitate training and upskilling sessions
After setting up a plan for your project and defining clear goals, you should empower your team with the necessary skills and mindset to win. Encourage your team to come and discuss any roadblocks they foresee and foster a collaborative problem-solving environment. As a project manager, you should help them to identify the right solutions, implement them, and find their own way to accomplish a certain task. Instead of micromanaging, help people grow and learn how to deal with issues themselves. This can be done by facilitating appropriate training, coaching, and upskilling sessions. This will help them expand their horizons and hone their competencies.
7. Use the right project management software
Implementing the right resource and project management tool not only helps in automating many processes but it also helps in saving your time, saves cost, and enhances the productivity of your team members. So, if you want to avoid micromanaging your projects, establish defined goals, and have a time management system in place, then implement project management software. The right project and resource management tool enable you to get s snapshot of what your team is working on, the status of projects, and resource utilization at a glance. This cuts down any need of redundant emails or meetings and you can save time to focus on more strategic tasks. Your team also benefits from such a solution as the tool acts as a single online platform or repository of all data. It becomes easy to everyone to share files for review, access data from anywhere at any time, and keep checking various plans, reports, and dashboards.
eResource Scheduler Helps in Avoiding Micromanagement and Fosters Efficient Resource and Project ManagementIf you are working with a remote or distributed team and want a way to track your team’s performance, productivity, and status of projects, then a tool like eResource Scheduler can work wonders. A top-rated resource planning and scheduling software, it also does timesheet management where your team members can fill their time-related data in this tool and you can easily track their effort, utilization, and availability in just a few clicks. That’s not all. This resource management tool also offers real-time visibility and enhances coordination and seamless communication between different teams and employees. The project managers can easily track resource utilization and manage their distributed teams without micromanaging. This award-winning project management software can be integrated quite easily with any other existing software your organization may be using. To see what eResource Scheduler can do for you, sign up for a free trial and say goodbye to micromanagement.
