This topic is also one of those that I encounter daily in my work. If you think back to your school days… did you work easier/better when your teacher let you do your homework or when she stood behind you, breathing down your neck and you felt her control over your work? Well, in the business world it is exactly the same, only with slightly different approaches, responsibilities and, of course, consequences.
Most employees are able and ready to deliver the assigned tasks (why else would you hire them!?) but it happens that they may not have had the opportunity to meet all expectations, they may not have enough experience or knowledge in a specific field, or they may have started working in not to the familiar, to the world. In short, in cases where it comes to this point where it is necessary to involve the leader, the leader appears at the crucial point of his decision. His behavior at this point shows the test of this leader.
The leader has TWO choices at this point. One is BLINDLY TRUST that the employees will deliver the assigned tasks, and the other is MICRO-MANAGING the employees.
At first glance, these two options seem quite innocent, but in practice this is not the case.
Blindly trusting also means leading, teaching, encouraging and helping your employees to deliver their work. Micromanagement also contains all of the above, but with a very important difference: that in all of this, the manager is constantly looking under the fingers of his employees and wants to have control and insight into every step of the process. This is not at all positive.
Micro management or control goes hand in hand with dictatorial leadership, which I wrote about in a previous blog. Namely, micromanaging is a “by-product” of sheer distrust of team members to get the job done.
Trust, on the other hand, consists of sincerity, credibility and competence.
Managers who exercise micro-control are in many cases unconfident, unsovereign and often less experienced than their employees. Therefore, their micro-control is a kind of “defense mechanism” for their own insecurity.
Managers who choose to trust their team clearly show that they understand the process, that they know the procedures in detail, are open to different opinions and are therefore not “afraid” or they are not afraid that his employees will not deliver good work.
To be clear, by this I do not mean that everyone can do whatever they want, freely according to Prešeren… by this I mean that once the tasks are assigned, when the work process is agreed upon, when it is clear who does what and what is he expects that each individual respects the set plans and follows the leader. When I talk about a decision point, this is the point where an individual or team needs the help of a leader. Either because of ignorance, because of an important decision that needs to be made or simply because of personal security that they are on the right path.
For employees/team members to truly grow and develop into independent individuals and for their responsibilities to be effective, team members must be involved in the development and work process from day one.
One of the biggest mistakes that managers make is that they decide everything on their own, that they create a work plan without the involvement of their team, that they expect everything to the last point exactly as they have imagined and do not deviate from it. This is dictative management and also micro-control during the work process itself.
Trusted employees feel more valued, respected, which will help them feel more engaged in their work, and every organization needs an engaged workforce to succeed. This will also encourage a greater sense of employee satisfaction at work and lower staff turnover rates. In addition, the individual grows by learning through his work process.
Just like in your personal life, right? Where we feel valued and respected, we also feel good and “at home”.
Trust in the workplace means that team members enjoy a culture of honesty, psychological safety and mutual respect. They take pride in where they work and are more willing to do more for the organization. Trust in the workplace also helps employees feel safe in their jobs and consequently reduces stress.
So, trust your team members, encourage them to deliver a job well done.
