Through the recruitment process, no-one answers the question ‘how do you liked to be managed?’ with the answer “I really enjoy it when someone micro-manages me.”
Likewise, ask someone being interviewed for a management role about their management style, and the chances are that the first words out of their mouth are “well, I’m not a micro-manager.”
So we know people don’t like to be micro-managed, and they don’t like to be seen as a micro-manager…but what about the problem of ‘under-management?’
We work with clients across a wide range of industries, and a common theme that we’re seeing emerge is that sometimes managers don’t manage enough. Whether it’s fear of being seen as a micro manager, concern for conflict or simply not paying enough attention to the importance of getting results, under management is a real thing for a lot of businesses.
Finding the right balance of management attention to task and relationship behaviours is a dynamic impacted by the individuals in the team, the stage of the business and the macro environment that the business operates in. There’s no one answer and the answer is ultimately variable…and that’s the skill of the manager.
What’s important is that the management requirement doesn’t get left behind.
We’ve recently come across this article by Victor Lipman on the Harvard Business Review website which talks to this issue and we thought we’d share. There are three development steps you can take if you think you’re suffering from under management in your business….it’s great to know that this issue isn’t just on our minds!
https://hbr.org/2018/11/under-management-is-the-flip-side-of-micromanagement-and-its-a-problem-too