Managing vs Micromanaging | How Contractors in Alberta Scale Without Burnout
Hey guys, I’m Trevor with Inspired Method and Marketing and Coaching. And today I’m going to be interviewed by well, I’m going to have a discussion with Ryan and we’re going to be talking about managing versus micromanaging. When is the appropriate time and which one are you?
Because having discussions with a lot of business owners like yourself, it’s always that balance between am I managing or am I micromanaging, right? And I think there’s an appropriate time for each, but we’re going to have a discussion about that.
So let’s talk about you for just one minute. When it comes to your management style, would you say you’re more prone to being a manager, a micromanager, or a delegator?
I would actually say I’m a lot closer to an abdicator to be honest with you. So, for me, I would say management or delegation without management is abdication, and that’s more so my style.
Delegation Without Management Is Abdication
I trust people to do what they’re going to do, and then I pick up the pieces and cry whenever I don’t get the results I intended. And that is a common thing. It’s not you’re not the only person who is guilty of that. I’ve been guilty of that as well, right?
Because really you’re wanting to focus on other things, and when you think that you’ve actually given somebody a plan, given them instructions, they should know because how dare they not read my mind, right?
Exactly. And I’ve had that happen when I was working in the field, when I was an electrician. You know what you’re supposed to do and how things should be done. So when you tell someone, I need you to do this, and they don’t do it the way that you expected, that’s a failure on my part.
So what I found was I did not teach them the system. I didn’t teach them the guidelines of what my expectations were. And I think that’s where a lot of people fall into trouble when they’re trying to lead or manage a team or build a new business.
It’s you understand it because you have years of experience doing that thing. However, you cannot transmit that by telepathy to somebody else and expect them to do the same as you would.
So let’s talk a little bit about that.
Sure. Well, for me, I believe in personal accountability and my version of accountability holds no space for blame. It isn’t about who did what wrong. It’s not about saying you’re a terrible person. It’s just a matter of doing the autopsy after the fact, right?
What went wrong? What can we learn from this? And it has a couple of interesting consequences, at least in my view. I have staff who are happy. They’re not afraid to make mistakes. They feel empowered to do what they’ve got to do.
But on the same hand, I can only really look in the mirror at myself when I don’t get the results I want. If I’m not getting the result I want from an employee, I can’t blame anybody for that, right?
I have to take a look at that and say, where did I go wrong? How can I even take and get that system to them in a way they’re going to buy in? It’s not as simple as just saying you’re going to do it this way, this way, this way, and then still empowering them to make decisions, right?
Systems Should Guide and Empower Employees
And that’s just it. It’s a balance between creating a system, whether that is a checklist, an SOP, a combination thereof. Setting the expectation of what you are really looking for as the result.
Kind of like when we’re training AI. This is the result I want, right? How do we get to the systems and all the things we need to get to that end result?
So, what I find is with management, whether it’s with one of my business owners that I’m working with or myself, it’s I have to be able to show them and demonstrate what is the end result I’m looking for, and then empower them to either provide them with a barebones checklist or SOP so that they can get started.
But also say, hey, if there’s something we’ve missed along the way, if something has changed, I empower you to add to that checklist or that SOP so that the next person who comes along can review that and basically get started on that project.
It always doesn’t always go that way, but that’s the hope, right?
Yeah, absolutely. A good system is there to guide and empower somebody to get through. NASA uses checklists to get rockets to the moon. We’re not putting rockets on the moon, right?
We’re putting out a podcast, we’re changing a skylight, predictable, repeatable stuff on a regular basis until there’s something that isn’t there.
How can I take and say my staff is empowered to make the right decisions and get the job done if my system is so regimented they have no creative abilities to get there, right?
My systems should help them make better decisions, not constrain them.
Yes. Exactly.
Now, I had a conversation yesterday with somebody and they’re a classic textbook micromanager, right? They have to make sure that they’re looking over people’s shoulders and they’re ensuring this happens and that happens.
And if they’re not there to control, then they think it’s just going to all fall apart, right?
And I believe there is a time and a place for micromanaging. But I think once your business is established and you have a good crew in place and they understand your vision, they understand what the expectation is. When you’re micromanaging from that standpoint, I think it becomes oppressive.
Well, micromanaging is more of a reflection of the manager than it is the employee, right?
Correct.
It’s me saying, I can’t trust you to do anything. Well, if you’re coming at it from that perspective, you’re going to prove yourself right every time, right?
If you’re in that situation where you’re a micromanager and you’re just so concerned about everything, here’s an idea. Shut your phone off and go away for a week and see what happens, right?
If you want to know if your systems are in check, if they’re actually doing what they’re supposed to do, go away for a week and see what you come back to, would be my suggestion.
The Alien Abduction Test for Business Owners
Yeah. There is this one thing that Klay Clark has. It’s called the alien abduction test. Would your business survive if you were abducted by an alien for 30 days and come back?
And if the answer is no, then you need to work on your systems and training. If not, you don’t have a business. You have a full-time job. Michael Gerber would say best your job. Your boss is a lunatic.
There you go. Exactly right.
So back to micromanaging. The times when I think it’s appropriate is when you’re relatively new in business and you’ve got your first employee, right? First employee and you’re trying to determine how to teach this person, how to get the right result out of them.
I think then a little bit of micromanaging is fine. Or if they’re new to the trade or what have you, right? So, you’re bringing on a new roofer, relatively new to the trade being on the roof, you need to micromanage that aspect of it because for safety reasons, for quality output reasons and whatnot.
But there comes a point when it’s like, okay, I’m tired of babysitting you and micromanaging you. You need to do this on your own from now on, right?
I actually had one of my staff tell me just the other day, you don’t have to sit here and babysit me. Go away. They don’t want me there watching them, right? He’s done this more than enough times. He’s fully capable. He’s probably better at it by now than I am.
So, yeah, just go away, right?
Yeah, just go away.
So I guess that’s the really gist of my discussion today. When is it appropriate to manage, or how do you know when you’re managing, and how do you know when you’re micromanaging, and how do you get out of being a micromanaging lunatic?
Well, you touched on this earlier, but I would say it’s the result you’re after, right? If you ordered a chocolate velvet cake, you don’t need to be there to watch the chef stir in the egg. You just want to eat the cake.
So, if you’ve got somebody who’s making some great cakes, leave them be, right? If you’re not getting the results you want, micromanage the results, not the process.
How about that?
This is the outline. This is how you’re supposed to follow this, and we’re going to go after, and this is the result. If I don’t get that result, the first question is did you follow the process? If not, why?
What reasoning did you not follow that process? Maybe they’ve got a valid reason for not doing it. I don’t know every possible reason something could happen. But if they did follow that process and you get the wrong result, that’s a great indicator that you need to fix the process, right?
So, don’t manage the person, manage the result. That would be my thoughts.
Manage the Result, Not the Person
Yeah. No, that is really good because sometimes when you’re in it, you can’t see that you’re doing it, right? You can’t see that you’re being annoying.
Case in point, I used to do this a lot with my kids when they were younger, right? Even my wife, sorry. But I would either expect they knew things at the same level that I did, and when they didn’t do it, I would just be not nice.
Well, I think a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of people in our cut, if you will, have a high fit factor. And it’s really, really hard for us to not understand. Hey, I figured it out. Why can’t you, right?
And not everybody is able to do that. In my experience, probably only about 10% of the population can see their way through a problem. People are so conditioned that you have to be right, and they’re so afraid of being wrong that when they come up to a problem, the first thing they do is freeze.
I don’t know what to do here. I can’t. And then guess who’s getting the call? You. And now you’ve got to go solve that problem. And what’s the first thing you think? Why can’t this person figure anything out?
This is so simple, right? If your staff is so afraid to make a mistake because you’re going to berate them, you’re going to come down on them. You’re going to belittle them.
Yeah.
You’re going to be micromanaging a lot of people.
Yeah. And really the danger of that is you never can leave for a vacation or trip or have an afternoon off because your staff will be frozen to make a decision. Even if they know the right decision, they’ll be afraid to make any decision because of the fallout they’re going to get from your losing your mind over they didn’t do it my way.
Yeah. Of course we want the job to end up with the proper result, but at the same time, if they arrive at the result and they didn’t follow your exact path, then that’s fine. Let them learn.
Yep. Absolutely. And you’d be surprised at how often your staff is going to teach you, right?
You want to get something done efficiently, hire a lazy person to do it. They are going to find a way better way.
I don’t want to say perfectionist, but it’s like it has to be this way. And other people come in, and I work with this one old guy. He can’t do math worth of nothing, right?
And we work with a lot of angles and trigonometry and cutting in skylight angle. And I’ll sit there on the calculator and I’ll figure it out. That’s going to be a 32° angle at this long, and I get the rise and the run and the hypotenuse and blah blah blah.
And it’ll take me and I’ll get a really nice perfect cut. He comes by with a level and makes a line and cuts it. And I’m like, you got to be kidding me, right? It can’t be.
Sometimes I just overcomplicate things, right? This is how I figure things out, and he’s just like he doesn’t know how to do that, so he just does it his own way.
And it’s like do I really want to teach this guy trigonometry, or do I want to give him a level and a pencil? Just get it done, right?
So exactly. It’s kind of like seeing the angles in pool. Sometimes you got it and sometimes you don’t.
Something that’s taught me well is if an employee comes to me with a problem and they say, I don’t really understand how to do this, blah blah blah, the first thing rather than me giving them the answer, even if I know what that answer is, is let’s go back to the system and see what the system says.
If it’s not in the system, that’s a clue. I got to change that system. If it is in the system, it teaches them rather than come and ask me, look in the systems first because that’s the whole point to the systems.
You could have the world’s most beautiful SOP binder all laid out with pictures and flowcharts and the whole gamut. If nobody’s going to read it because it’s just easier to ask you, what’s the point of it, right?
It’s useless. Take everything back to the system where possible.
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. That’s really good.
So guys, that’s the talk for today. And if this was helpful to you, then give us a like, subscribe, thumbs up, pass it on to somebody that you know who could use the information and maybe your boss or manager. Just don’t get in trouble, though.
Give me all the tips because I need as many as I can get to.
Absolutely. So, thank you so much for joining us and we’ll see you on the next one.