{"id":2173,"date":"2016-02-02T17:08:19","date_gmt":"2016-02-02T22:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/?p=2173"},"modified":"2016-01-08T17:37:58","modified_gmt":"2016-01-08T22:37:58","slug":"are-you-an-over-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/are-you-an-over-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You an \u201cOver Manager?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: Jim Cucinotta is a very senior executive, with over 20+ years of experience in leading sales, marketing, and operations teams. \u00a0He is also an author on Flevy. \u00a0You can\u00a0view his firm’s business\u00a0training guides\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

* * * *<\/p>\n

\"7650803266_4043c2321e_o\"There is a delicate balance between being on top of your team and over managing.\u00a0 And knowing the difference will dictate your team\u2019s performance.\u00a0 The Situational Leadership model developed by Ken Blanchard states that you manage people based on their proficiency in individual tasks and as they gain expertise in each task, you give them more freedom only in that task.<\/p>\n

However, as a manager, you tend to manage the whole person and fail to see the broad range of strengths and weaknesses your team members bring.\u00a0 You tend to focus on a one attribute or deficiency and manage all of their skills to that one skill level thus under managing or over managing a person or situation.\u00a0 Both are equally as bad, but today we are focused on over managing your team.<\/p>\n

To avoid over managing your team, you need to have:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Trust
    \n<\/strong>You need to believe that you gave clear and concise direction and that your team will follow that direction to achieve the desired outcomes.\u00a0 There are many different ways to achieve the goal.\u00a0 Your job is to make sure your team doesn\u2019t stray too far, not dictate how every move needs to be made.\u00a0 Your team may need to change their mini courses of direction to avoid issues, yours is to steady the ship and reach your destination.\u00a0 Without having mutual trust, your team will never reach its fullest potential.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Respect
      \n<\/strong>By over managing your team, you are showing them that you do not value their skills and abilities.\u00a0 You need to understand that your team has a variety of work experiences.\u00a0 This variation in backgrounds actually works to your advantage.\u00a0 They are able to see a situation from more vantage points and bring new ideas to the table.\u00a0 By keeping a lid on their ideas, questions, and visions, you are showing them that you do not respect them as individuals.\u00a0 This is a sure way to lose your team.\u00a0 People will accept a control freak who listens, not one who doesn\u2019t want input.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. Confidence
        \n<\/strong>To be a leader, you need to know that the direction you gave is sound, that your team members are competent, and that you are going to achieve your desired outcome.\u00a0 There is no room for wavering because wavering means you need to get more deeply involved.\u00a0 That lack of confidence either in your team\u2019s ability, the task at hand or yourself will cause you to ultimately micro-manage because \u201cit won\u2019t be done right unless you do it\u201d.\u00a0 Now you created an environment where mediocre performance is covered up by you.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        At the end of the day, it is really hard to manage a project without being in someone\u2019s business.\u00a0 There is a weak link in every chain.\u00a0 Your goal though is to make sure you are giving good direction, are there when your team needs you, and know that with those two things in place, good things will happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Editor’s Note: Jim Cucinotta is a very senior executive, with over 20+ years of experience in leading sales, marketing, and operations teams. \u00a0He is also an author on Flevy. \u00a0You can\u00a0view his firm’s business\u00a0training guides\u00a0here. * * * * There is a delicate balance between being on top of your team and over managing.\u00a0 And… Are You an \u201cOver Manager?\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":2174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[408],"tags":[1021,1020],"class_list":["post-2173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management-leadership","tag-micro-manager","tag-over-manager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2173"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2190,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2173\/revisions\/2190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}