Is Your Boss a Control Freak?

Is your boss a micromanager?

These are managers who want to be involved in every step of each assignment they give to their employees. They ask for more frequent reports than are needed, and generally want to exercise as much control as possible over what their subordinates do. With few exceptions, micromanagement is terrible for the employees as well as the organization. By controlling everything that an employee does, these managers sap away the confidence of younger employees, who may end up feeling that nothing they can do is right. Older employees may get frustrated if they find their style of working and ideas are not welcome. While it’s important to guide your team, you should be wary of micromanagement. “Creativity and discretionary contribution…goes out the window,” says Anuraag Maini, head of human resources and training at Delhi-based DLF Pramerica Life Insurance Co. Ultimately, the output of the team suffers. Here are a few tips from human resources experts on how employees can deal with their micromanagers, and a few words of advice for micromanagers.

If you are being micromanaged: This is a frustrating place to be in, as micromanagers can stymie your growth. Address the reasons why your boss is micromanaging. Typically, it’s because the manager is insecure or anxious about whether you can do the job right. Of course, he may just be a control freak. To deal with this, you need to build confidence in your abilities. One approach is to initially give the manager what he or she wants – the control – but on your terms. “Offer to be micromanaged and then negotiate from a position (where you can) minimize that,” says Manish Sinha, director of human resources at Becton Dickinson India Pvt., a medical technology company in Gurgaon. For instance, when the manager assigns you a project, ask for a specific deadline and initiate a discussion about how the project will be monitored. Offer to update the manager at specific intervals, say once a week, or when specific milestones are reached. Give the manager an outline of how you will proceed on the project. Let the manger know that you will come to him or her in case you hit any roadblocks or major problem.

All this will let the manager feel that he or she is very much in control, and thus hopefully get the manager off your back on a day-to-day basis. Hopefully, over time, as you deliver good results on project after project, the manager will trust your ability to do a good job. “Once you build that confidence, then I think the micromanagement will come down,” says Mrityunjay Srivastava, head of management development group at Wipro Ltd. Some experts suggest a different approach: Have a frank discussion with the manager explaining that his or her day-to-day interference is hurting your ability to deliver performance.

This can be tricky, and may not work if your manager is not open to feedback or has a big ego. If you decide to try this approach, instead of being angry or aggressive, give the manager a solution. For instance, tell the manager that you need a certain period of time to complete a project, and if the result is not up to the manager’s standards, then you are willing to be reviewed more frequently. Also, prove to your manager that his or her growth is dependent on how well you do your job. If you are a micromanager: In general, you are hurting your team’s growth and ultimately your own career prospects. To be sure, there are some cases where micromanagement may be warranted. If it’s a high-impact project or an ambiguous situation like crisis-management where the situation changes often, then perhaps you need to be more hands on. Or, if you are dealing with very young or inexperienced employees, they may need a lot of handholding. Other than that, micromanaging can be suffocating for the employee. “Suffocation leads to an employee feeling that I’m not trusted or that the manager doesn’t see my capability or my manager is very insecure,” says Mr. Maini of DLF Pramerica. This affects team morale, output and innovation dries up. That’s a sure way to disaster. In addition, once you’ve built a reputation in the company of being a micromanager, smart employees will not want to work with you. As soon as you realize that you have been micromanaging, stop. Step back and assess whether everyone in your team needs to be micromanaged.

The answer is that they most likely don’t. If there are employees in whom you don’t have total confidence, start by setting up more frequent progress-review sessions with them for their first few assignments. Maybe team up the inexperienced employee with one that you trust. With more experienced employees who have done a good job in the past, it’s a good idea to let them know that you plan to be more hands-off. Ask them what resources and help they need from you. Set up a review mechanism, but at “a frequency which the employee is very comfortable with,” says Mr. Maini of DLF Pramerica. The review should be of the result or progress, not of each and every thing the employee did to get the results. Old habits die hard, so watch out for your tendency to check in every so often. If needed, stick a large piece of paper on your notice board as a reminder on this. Readers, share your stories and tips of how to deal with a micromanager in the Comments section.

Content From:blogs.wsj.com
Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan

Good Qualities of Remarkable Boss !

Remarkable bosses aren’t great on paper. Great bosses are remarkable based on their actions.

Results are everything—but not the results you might think.

Consistently do these five things and everything else follows. You and your business benefit greatly.

More importantly, so do your employees.

1. Develop every employee. Sure, you can put your primary focus on reaching targets, achieving results, and accomplishing concrete goals—but do that and you put your leadership cart before your achievement horse.

Without great employees, no amount of focus on goals and targets will ever pay off. Employees can only achieve what they are capable of achieving, so it’s your job to help all your employees be more capable so they—and your business—can achieve more.

It's your job to provide the training, mentoring, and opportunities your employees need and deserve. When you do, you transform the relatively boring process of reviewing results and tracking performance into something a lot more meaningful for your employees: Progress, improvement, and personal achievement.

So don’t worry about reaching performance goals. Spend the bulk of your time developing the skills of your employees and achieving goals will be a natural outcome.

Plus it’s a lot more fun.

2. Deal with problems immediately. Nothing kills team morale more quickly than problems that don't get addressed. Interpersonal squabbles, performance issues, feuds between departments... all negatively impact employee motivation and enthusiasm.

And they're distracting, because small problems never go away. Small problems always fester and grow into bigger problems. Plus, when you ignore a problem your employees immediately lose respect for you, and without respect, you can't lead.

Never hope a problem will magically go away, or that someone else will deal with it. Deal with every issue head-on, no matter how small.

3. Rescue your worst employee. Almost every business has at least one employee who has fallen out of grace: Publicly failed to complete a task, lost his cool in a meeting, or just can’t seem to keep up. Over time that employee comes to be seen by his peers—and by you—as a weak link.

While that employee may desperately want to “rehabilitate” himself, it's almost impossible. The weight of team disapproval is too heavy for one person to move.

But it’s not too heavy for you.

Before you remove your weak link from the chain, put your full effort into trying to rescue that person instead. Say, "John, I know you've been struggling but I also know you're trying. Let's find ways together that can get you where you need to be." Express confidence. Be reassuring. Most of all, tell him you'll be there every step of the way.

Don't relax your standards. Just step up the mentoring and coaching you provide.

If that seems like too much work for too little potential outcome, think of it this way. Your remarkable employees don’t need a lot of your time; they’re remarkable because they already have these qualities. If you’re lucky, you can get a few percentage points of extra performance from them. But a struggling employee has tons of upside; rescue him and you make a tremendous difference.

Granted, sometimes it won't work out. When it doesn't, don't worry about it. The effort is its own reward.

And occasionally an employee will succeed—and you will have made a tremendous difference in a person's professional and personal life.

Can’t beat that.

4. Serve others, not yourself. You can get away with being selfish or self-serving once or twice... but that's it.

Never say or do anything that in any way puts you in the spotlight, however briefly. Never congratulate employees and digress for a few moments to discuss what you did.

If it should go without saying, don't say it. Your glory should always be reflected, never direct.

When employees excel, you and your business excel. When your team succeeds, you and your business succeed. When you rescue a struggling employee and they become remarkable, remember they should be congratulated, not you.

You were just doing your job the way a remarkable boss should.

When you consistently act as if you are less important than your employees—and when you never ask employees to do something you don’t do—everyone knows how important you really are.

5. Always remember where you came from. See an autograph seeker blown off by a famous athlete and you might think, “If I was in a similar position I would never do that.”

Oops. Actually, you do. To some of your employees, especially new employees, you are at least slightly famous. You’re in charge. You’re the boss.

That's why an employee who wants to talk about something that seems inconsequential may just want to spend a few moments with you.

When that happens, you have a choice. You can blow the employee off... or you can see the moment for its true importance: A chance to inspire, reassure, motivate, and even give someone hope for greater things in their life. The higher you rise the greater the impact you can make—and the greater your responsibility to make that impact.

In the eyes of his or her employees, a remarkable boss is a star.

Remember where you came from, and be gracious with your stardom.

Post Shared from : Linked-in
Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan

Extraordinary Bosses

The best managers have a fundamentally different understanding of workplace, company, and team dynamics. what they get right ? "Best of the Best" bosses tend to share some common principles.

1. Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield. Average bosses see business as a conflict between companies, departments and groups. They build huge armies of "troops" to order about, demonize competitors as "enemies," and treat customers as "territory" to be conquered. Extraordinary bosses see business as a symbiosis where the most diverse firm is most likely to survive and thrive. They naturally create teams that adapt easily to new markets and can quickly form partnerships with other companies, customers ... and even competitors.

2. A company is a community, not a machine. Average bosses consider their company to be a machine with employees as cogs. They create rigid structures with rigid rules and then try to maintain control by "pulling levers" and "steering the ship." Extraordinary bosses see their company as a collection of individual hopes and dreams, all connected to a higher purpose. They inspire employees to dedicate themselves to the success of their peers and therefore to the community–and company–at large.

3. Management is service, not control. Average bosses want employees to do exactly what they're told. They're hyper-aware of anything that smacks of insubordination and create environments where individual initiative is squelched by the "wait and see what the boss says" mentality. Extraordinary bosses set a general direction and then commit themselves to obtaining the resources that their employees need to get the job done. They push decision making downward, allowing teams form their own rules and intervening only in emergencies.

4. My employees are my peers, not my children. Average bosses see employees as inferior, immature beings who simply can't be trusted if not overseen by a patriarchal management. Employees take their cues from this attitude, expend energy on looking busy and covering their behinds. Extraordinary bosses treat every employee as if he or she were the most important person in the firm. Excellence is expected everywhere, from the loading dock to the boardroom. As a result, employees at all levels take charge of their own destinies.

5. Motivation comes from vision, not from fear. Average bosses see fear--of getting fired, of ridicule, of loss of privilege--as a crucial way to motivate people. As a result, employees and managers alike become paralyzed and unable to make risky decisions. Extraordinary bosses inspire people to see a better future and how they'll be a part of it. As a result, employees work harder because they believe in the organization's goals, truly enjoy what they're doing and (of course) know they'll share in the rewards.

6. Change equals growth, not pain. Average bosses see change as both complicated and threatening, something to be endured only when a firm is in desperate shape. They subconsciously torpedo change ... until it's too late. Extraordinary bosses see change as an inevitable part of life. While they don't value change for its own sake, they know that success is only possible if employees and organization embrace new ideas and new ways of doing business.

7. Technology offers empowerment, not automation. Average bosses adhere to the old IT-centric view that technology is primarily a way to strengthen management control and increase predictability. They install centralized computer systems that dehumanize and antagonize employees. Extraordinary bosses see technology as a way to free human beings to be creative and to build better relationships. They adapt their back-office systems to the tools, like smartphones and tablets, that people actually want to use.

8. Work should be fun, not mere toil. Average bosses buy into the notion that work is, at best, a necessary evil. They fully expect employees to resent having to work, and therefore tend to subconsciously define themselves as oppressors and their employees as victims. Everyone then behaves accordingly. Extraordinary bosses see work as something that should be inherently enjoyable–and believe therefore that the most important job of manager is, as far as possible, to put people in jobs that can and will make them truly happy.

Content From : Inc.com
Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan