Micro-management Or Macro-management?
It was a total failure
It was a total failure. No doubt about it. It was one which I dont like to remember. I should, though. I want to share it with you so you will avoid such embarrassment in the future.
Was it a failure of the new strategic plan? Was it a Merger or Acquisition that ended without results? Was it a loss of a large customer contract?
Not at all!
It was a failure to simply follow up on a process. It was a failure to make sure that the one who was delegated a task is actually doing it. This issue wasnt the highest on my priority list but it was the highest on my clients priority list. It made my list completely irrelevant.
Konosuke Matsushita, who founded Matsushita said, Big things and little things are my job. Middle level arrangements can be delegated. Leaders cannot delegate management. In the corporate world, leadership is well practiced management. Well practiced management is primarily getting things done.
Mary Parker Follett said, in the 1920s, that managers get things done largely through other people - those in the unit who formally report to them as well as others around it who do not.
Is that right?
Henry Mintzberg is a Professor of Management Studies at McGill University in Montreal and the winner of numerous awards. He is the author of 15 books, including Managers Not MBAs and The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning. In his latest book, Managing, Mintzberg presents a new model of managing that puts the manager between the unit he or she has formal responsibility and its surroundings: the rest of the organization and the outside world relevant to the business unit (customers, vendors, etc.).
Managing takes place in three dimensions: through information, people and direct action.
Managing Through Information
We process information to encourage other people to take action. On the information dimension, we communicate (all around) and control (inside). We promote the flow of information all around and use the information to drive behavior within our department (controlling). Here we are 2 steps away from the real action.
Managing With People
When we manage with people we move one step closer to the action. On this dimension we help people make things happen. They are the doers. We lead people within the business unit and link people outside it.
Managing Action Directly
When we manage action directly we are the doers. We get close to the action and we just do it rather than get it done. In this case we are not passive. This is not about sitting in the office and giving orders or making judgment on those actions. Nor it is about designing strategies, structures and systems to drive other people. We get personally involved in those actions, hands-on. On this dimension, we do (inside) and deal (outside).
We shouldnt be either information-oriented, people oriented or action oriented managers. We have to be all of them to be well rounded managers. This balance is essential to success. Whenever one dimension takes over, we face organizational failures.
There is one kind of management that does not work. Email management. Too many of us depend on emails to manage people both inside and outside our business units. Emails are limited to the poverty of words alone. You cannot hear the tone of voice, see the gestures and body language or feel the presence. You cannot support emotional, delicate and complex interactions. Managing is as much about all these things as it is about the content of the messages.
As much as micro-management has a negative impact, macro-management is worse. Managers who are disconnected dont know whats going on. Hand-off too often amounts to brains-off. So, be a well-rounded manager. Play in all dimensions and make sure to be hands-on and brains-on.
by: Dave Osh
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