🎒 Microlesson

🪞 Reflect

How do you know that your team members are making progress? How do they know what you've accomplished and what's not yet complete?

💡 Concept

Now that you’ve identified certain behaviors as micromanagement, it’s time to take action to stop them.

Preventing micromanagement requires addressing its root causes:

1. Lack of trust

2. Lack of explicit, documented expectations for productivity and performance

3. Lack of tools and processes that make progress and workflows visible, e.g., project management tools

Consider the examples from last week’s lesson: micromanaging behaviors are reactions to not knowing whether or not work is getting done in a virtual environment.

Trust is critical to building a positive remote or hybrid work environment, and if you’re leading a project or team you play a big part in setting the tone. Instead of asking yourself, “How do I know they’ll get this project done?” try asking, “Do my team members have what they need to be successful in completing this task?”

Additionally, here’s how to avoid micromanaging your distributed team members:

1. Focus on results, not input. Remind yourself that presence, whether in the office or online, does not equal productivity. Productivity means being able to accomplish tasks or projects in a designated time frame.

2. Communicate your expectations. If YOU don’t know how to articulate your expectations, then your team members surely won’t be able to meet them. Set expectations for how and when work will be done, how progress and success will be measured, and how team members should communicate updates, blocks, or requests.

3. Provide the resources to support success. Make sure your team members have what they need to get their work done, including all relevant information, documented workflows, and access to the people they will be working with. Help team members remove any blockers that might be keeping them from achieving their goals.

And here’s how to influence others’ tendency to micromanage:

1. Redirect the focus to results rather than input. Ask how success is defined for a given task or project, and how feedback will be provided if success is not achieved.

2. Request documented expectations. If you’re assigned a task or project and expectations are not documented, clear, or complete, request additional information.

3. Build task-based trust. Do your work, meet your deadlines, follow through on your promises, and proactively seek help when you encounter any barriers to achieving your goals.

🎬 Take Action

Here are some action items you can do today or this week to reduce micromanagement in your remote or hybrid team:

• Check to make sure assignments have documented expectations. If you use a project management tool to assign tasks, check that each task has all the necessary information and context that a team member needs to accomplish their work.

• Update Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) so they reflect the most current workflows.

• Create a performance rubric to provide clear descriptions and examples of success in a given role.

• Use team agreements like your communication charter to set expectations for how quickly team members should respond to messages.

✅ Check In

🧠 Keep Learning

Learn how to set clear expectations and build trust in your distributed team with the Leadplaceless virtual leadership course.

📰 News

Free Webinar on August 24: The Small Business Guide to Effective Remote Work

If you’re a small business owner or operator looking for guidance on effective remote work, sign up for this free webinar on August 24 at 12 pm ET, led by Workplaceless CEO Tammy Bjelland and hosted by the Virginia Small Business Development Center (SBDC).

🎁 Learn with your team!

Refer our weekly microlessons to your team members to learn as a group! Just follow the instructions in the section below to get started.