Waging war on micro-managers

Would you like to boost productivity in your business? Corporate Commando, Adam O’Donnell says micro-management doesn’t work.

War, sport and business – when we distil them down to their core essence, we find more in common than we might at first think.

Unpredictability– we’re competing against an adaptive, thinking opposition determined to prevent us from achieving our aim

Confusion– we’re working in teams, groups or coalitions of various sizes where we are often as unaware of what our own side is doing as we are of the oppositions activities at any given time.

Overwhelm– we live in an age of unparalleled access to information, so much so that the concept of paralysis by analysis is a reality in many organisations.

The military have discovered, often the hard way, that in this testing environment micro-management simply doesn’t work and at times can even be fatal.  In business it might not have the same effects in terms of human life but it will, eventually, kill your business or leave it struggling for breath as your competitors race ahead.

Over hundreds of years of military conflict a philosophy has emerged which works very well indeed in this environment and has also been shown to work well in a business context.  It’s called Mission Command and it stresses autonomy of action within defined constraints to achieve specified outcomes.  In the business environment, I term this philosophy Directed Autonomy.

Intent
The heart of Directed Autonomy is the concept of intent, which sets out what the leader wants to achieve and why it matters in the bigger picture.  When subordinates clearly understand their boss’s intent, they’re able to act on their own initiative to solve unforseen problems and take advantage of fleeting opportunities without having to defer back up the managerial chain.

Outcomes
These are the SMART objectives that a subordinate is given responsibility for delivering.  Sounds simple? It is, and yet so many managers get it wrong and focus instead on the inputs – on how a task is to be achieved.  This may work in the short term but it very quickly overloads the manager and turns subordinates into unthinking drones rather than the autonomous, intelligent and engaged employees they really are.

Boundaries
These establish the precise extent to which a subordinate is free to act in the pursuit of their objectives.  They may be resource boundaries such as a budgetary or staffing constraint; they may be the less tangible constraints of legislation that applies to our business or they may be the internal policies we have established as part of our business strategy.  The key is to apply the minimum controls possible concurrent with achieving the desired business outcomes.

Backbrief
Having told your subordinates what you want them to achieve and why it matters, a military leader will then ask for a backbrief.  This is where his subordinates explain how they will deliver the outcomes requested and provides an opportunity for him to vet the plan and identify any risks or pitfalls that they may have missed.

Overwatch
Your job as a manager now is to think about the big picture – is your plan producing the results you expected and if not, why not? Do you need to commit more resources to a particular area? What opportunities have your subordinates spotted that need your attention?  You can’t do any of this if you’re always down in the trenches with them and they can’t focus on making progress if you’re constantly demanding progress reports.

Whilst serving with the British Special Air Service, Adam O’Donnell successfully led elite teams in some of the world’s most hostile, complex and rapidly changing environments.  Now, as the Corporate Commando, he helps business leaders to get the best from themselves and their team to boost productivity, morale and profit whilst still having time for the things that really matter in life. Visit corporatecommando.com.au for more information on his unique individual, team and organisational development programs.