Last week, I spoke at a conference and one of the topics that I covered very briefly was micromanagement. Despite only being a couple of slides, the topic and advice really seemed to resonate with the audience and, so I want to take this opportunity to expand on the topic and advice a little today.
If you’re a newish subscriber and want to read more on the topic of micromanagement, you should check out these previous articles:
- Four Signs that you’re a Micromanager (and How to Fix them)
- Micromanagement: Is It Always a Bad Thing? Is It Sometimes Necessary?
- What to Do If Your Boss is a Micromanager
Now, let’s focus on a specific method to not only avoid being a micromanager, but also to explicitly give trust and autonomy to your team. The method applies to probably the most common scenario that you’ll have as a manager – delegating a task or project which very broadly, looks like this:
You start with a brief for the task. Then someone carries out a bunch of tactics or “things” that lead towards an outcome.
We’ll talk first about the importance of the first and final steps, then add some steps that you can take along the way to ensure that things stay on track, whilst giving freedom and autonomy along the way.
Spend more time that it feels necessary on the brief
If you get this step wrong, then you’re setting yourself (and your team member) up for failure. Many people (not just managers) rush this step because they are busy and miss the fact that if they spent more time on it, it would actually save them masses of time in the long run.
In the context of micromanagement, writing a good brief means that you don’t need to stay as close to a task during it’s completion. You can step away, give space and let someone get on with the task because the task is clear to them.
Sure, they can get off track and we’ll talk about how to minimise this shortly. But a good brief should give you some reassurance that you can leave them to it.
To give you some quick guidance on writing a good brief. Here are 8 steps to follow:
- Describe the task and what success looks like for it
- Specify the outcome, not the steps to get there
- Connect the work to a human being (client, customer etc)
- Set a deadline.
- Specify when you’ll check in and give feedback.
- Give context on the task: why it’s important, what it’s being used for, what the value is to the client, what the end result is.
- Tell them who they may need to speak with.
- Be clear on what you’re delegating e.g. authority to make decisions.
This sounds like a lot and to be honest, at first it definitely is. But the more you do this, the more efficient you’ll become. Also, for tasks that are repeatable, you won’t need to start from scratch every single time that you brief someone on it.
Be very clear on what a successful outcome looks like
This is actually part of writing a good brief, but it’s such an important part (and it’s often forgotten) that it deserves calling out separately.
In order to give someone true autonomy over a task, they need to know what a good outcome looks like. This is a level beyond giving them direction on what needs to be done or even how to do it. It actually leans towards why they’re doing the task in the first place.
One way to do this is to explain things such as:
- Why the task is important.
- What the next step(s) will be once the task is completed.
- What kinds of KPIs the task is expected to help influence and how.
Where possible, give your team member some examples of where the task has been successfully completed previously and what makes those examples good ones.
For example, if you brief someone on completing one of the following tasks, you can probably find examples of them being completed successfully before in your team or company:
- Technical SEO audit and recommendations.
- Content creation such as copywriting.
- Keyword research recommendations.
- Competitor analysis.
Obviously you need to be clear that someone shouldn’t just copy these examples! But that’s where explaining what made these examples great ones is important. For example, the competitor analysis may be a great example of a successful task because it gave the client or stakeholder specific research that they’d never seen before and some concrete actions to take as a result.
Now, let’s move onto some steps that you can take during a task, whilst not getting too close and accidentally micromanaging it.
Let someone find their own way to the outcome
Once you’ve set the brief and given them a strong idea of what a successful outcome looks like, you should feel like you can let them loose to find their own way there.
For example, if you were to do a content ideation task on your own, you may use tools or tactics similar to these ones to find your way to the outcome:
Of course, as part of the brief and guidance that you give to someone, you may mention these things to help them get up to speed quickly.
But here is the key part – you should tell them that they don’t have to follow exactly the same path that you’d take. They can use elements of it, but if they can find a different way to meet the brief and achieve a successful outcome, then they have the freedom to do so.
This overarching principle helped me hugely in the early days of my career as a manager.
In summary, I could say to my team:
- Here is a brief and an outcome that you’re aiming for.
- Here is a rough idea of how I’d approach this.
- But as long as you meet the brief and outcome, you’re free to find your own ways of doing things along the way.
Of course, this didn’t always go 100% right! So it’s important to always try to keep things on track as you go along.
Let’s look at how to do that.
Using feedback to keep a task on track
There is a delicate balance between giving someone the freedom and autonomy, whilst ensuring that a task reaches a successful outcome.
A very effective way to do this, without getting too close and micromanaging, is to use the 30% and 90% feedback method.
You can read about it in detail by clicking the link above, but in summary:
- Pick key points to check in with someone during a task – I suggest 30% of the way through a project and then 90% of the way through a project.
- During these check ins, give feedback that is appropriate for the amount of time that is left. So the earlier you check in, the more feedback that you can give because there is more time to action it.
- Tell someone beforehand that you’ll be checking in at these points.
- In between, leave them to carry on with the task but tell them to let you know if they need any help.
This method works particularly well for concrete tasks and deliverables, because you should be able to give solid feedback that ensures that the outcome is successful and the brief is met.
Again, in the context of micromanagement, this method works really well because you are checking in with someone at points that you’ve pre-agreed, meaning that they won’t feel like you’re interrupting them or getting too close.
It also works because you give someone space and autonomy, whilst keeping oversight and hopefully having the chance to correct things if they have gone off track a little.
