March 28, 2024

CX Master

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Leadership and Management: Micromanagers vs. Leaders

For any business, having the right leaders in the right positions is critical to success. Learn about the 5 levels of leadership and why they matter.

What is the difference between micromanagers and leaders? Micromanagers are people who try to control everything that their employees do. They have a “my way or the highway” mentality, which makes them difficult to work for. On the other hand, good leaders know how to let go of control and give others opportunities to grow and develop.

As someone that’s made a career out of client experience and operations, this wasn’t a lesson I immediately understood. Historically, I was so focused on fixing the issue that I didn’t really pay as much attention to how I could enable my teams to have this skill themself.

However, while this skill was helpful in getting me to the manager level, I needed to understand and gain new skills to get to the next stage in my career. One of the toughest decisions I had to make when transitioning into management and then leadership, was how much responsibility should be delegated. Control, which was a necessity in my previous roles was now a limitation with the greater scope of responsibilities I now had to carry.

While it didn’t really comfort me, I realized that a lot of people struggled with this transition and many other leaders in other organizations had the same concerns. I also realized that it was important to keep in mind that when a manager delegates responsibility, this doesn’t mean they are relinquishing their authority or power over the task at hand. It’s about sharing and delegating certain areas so you can focus on others.

Understanding the levels of leadership

Micromanagers are people who think they know everything about a subject, and so make decisions for everyone. They often have their way because they’re great at taking care of detail work, but they don’t allow others to grow into management positions. This causes an inability in companies to adjust quickly when there’s turnover or change on leadership level – it also can cause employees to feel unheard and frustrated with their jobs.

Leaders are team builders that want success not just for themselves but for those around them. They recognize the strengths in others and empower them by letting go of some control over specific parts of projects or tasks…however, must still hold tight enough to keep things moving along nicely (or else risk losing control over the product or project). I’d learned this lesson earlier in Organizational Behavior, where it was called “locus of control” however, that program might have overly complicated the lesson. Hopefully, the explanation below is a little bit less wordy.

Leaders empower their employees by giving them a sense of autonomy in various tasks, but there isn’t just one way of leading people or teams.

  • Level one – The informal leader is the unofficial person who steps in and offers some direction. The label of “boss” doesn’t necessarily apply to this type of leader.
  • Level two – The hands-on leader is a type of leader that contributes directly to the success of their team and typically takes on an active role in producing the desired results.
  • Level three – is the leadership expert. This type of leader still gets hands-on in guiding the project and offering their expertise, but this leader helps to guide subordinates rather than take control
  • Level four – The type of leadership you need changes here. It’s not just about meeting deadlines and delivering the results as it was back when your team members were followers; instead, it’s about making sure that you are working with them to achieve the objectives they’ve been set up for.
  • Level five – the highest level of leadership, is aspirational. The focus here’s on incubating a culture and creating an environment for sustainable success.

Leaders and managers come in many shapes and sizes, but the transition from expert leader to good team player is one of the most challenging. The skills that got you up to Level Three won’t work as well for Level Four: You’ll need a new skill set entirely if you ever hope to make it past Level Five.

In short, forget about micromanaging; step aside so that your people can grow and develop.

  • Leaders inspire people with vision, give them something greater than themselves to believe in when they’re feeling down or lost, show empathy for employees’ struggles without overtaxing their limited resources by giving too much personal attention. Managers administer policies set forth by senior executives but do not have any authority over day-to-day operations within an organization’s departments (they don’t really lead).
  • Good leaders create environments where people grow and develop through stretching expectations while also letting go of control which creates more opportunities for influence.
  • Micromanagers, on the other hand, tend to be more controlling. They try to maintain control by consistently monitoring and assessing employees’ work according to their own rigid standards without giving much insight or guidance into how they should do it better next time.
  • Leaders share knowledge with others so that people can continually learn from each other while micromanagers withhold information which creates a dependent relationship where followers need to seek direction for any decision.
  • Good leaders delegate authority meaningfully within an organization’s hierarchy and empower subordinates through visibility in decision-making processes but don’t give away power themselves (because no one is indispensable). Micromanagers hoard power by doing everything themselves, making decisions arbitrarily rather than consulting trusted advisors when needed because they’re afraid someone will take credit.

The starting point for effective leadership is to understand who you are and what strengths you bring. Your value resides in your personal skillset, beyond the knowledge it takes to execute a specific job. A good leader will identify talent in their team members and provide them with the opportunity to grow and develop those talents while operating within their mandates. This starts by letting go any need for perfectionism or mastery, focusing instead on empathy skills like listening, feedback and coaching that allow people around you to feel valued and understood before trying to change them or fix them.

For many, the reality of today’s work is that you just don’t have the time to be a micro-manager. Good leaders are those who know their organizational skills and let team members learn from each other as well as grow in their own ways.

You don’t need to be a superhero to be a good leader.

Poor leaders can’t bring themselves to let people grow and develop. They keep them in a state of dependency, give them little responsibility, and focus on their shortcomings rather than acknowledging their strengths. It’s no wonder that those who work for these managers either become frustrated or leave the organization altogether.

The good news is your team deserves better! You don’t have to be perfect or superhuman; you just need to learn how to lead and manage with intentionality so everyone can do what they are best at while feeling valued along the way.”

About Author

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I am an ITIL Expert and extremely passionate about customer service, customer experience, best practices and process improvement. I have led support, service, help desk and IT teams as well as quality and call center teams in Canada and the UK. I know how to motivate my teams to ensure that they are putting the customer first.

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