How to Manage Your Team Successfully Without Micromanaging

“Incompetent.” “Like they don’t trust me.” “On the edge of an emotional breakdown.”

When workplace communication expert Dr. Michelle Mazur asked her Facebook fans how being micromanaged made them feel, this is what they said.

Micromanaging negatively impacts workers in several ways. Find out how to manage your team members successfully — without micromanaging them.

Focus on Hiring the Best Fit

Micromanaging can be a symptom of lacking trust in your employees. You’re not sure they’re up to the task, so you hover over them to make sure they’re meeting your expectations. When you hire people who are actually a great fit for their roles, you’ll feel more confident in their abilities.

Too many managers rush into hiring staff because they want to fill vacancies immediately. However, you need to take time to find the right employees. Forget about hiring deadlines and keep positions open as long as needed until you find the best fit.

Also, consider your hiring process carefully and consider whether that process is telling you what you really need to know about candidates. Are you testing their aptitudes, or simply their personalities?

Work on Your Own Communication Skills

If you’ve hired the right people, you’ll know that they’re capable of achieving the goals you’ve established. But you need to make sure that they understand what’s expected of them.

Improving your communication skills will make sure your expectations are understood. Make sure you’re always clear and specific when communicating with your employees.

Emphasize which tasks are priorities and give specific, realistic deadlines instead of asking for task completion ASAP. Encourage your employees to use active listening techniques, such as paraphrasing what they hear, so you can be sure they have interpreted the message correctly.

Use Technology to Improve Collaboration

One of the biggest advantages of using collaboration tools is that you can check on tasks without your team members feeling nagged. They won’t feel like you’re constantly looking over their shoulders.

Technology like Redbooth can help you track your team’s progress without physically checking in with the team. This clever business software lets you collaborate with team members regardless of location, delegate tasks, and monitor their progress on projects.

Online communication also feels less formal and intimidating than in-person meetings, which can start to feel like micromanaging if they’re held too often.

Establish an Update Schedule

With an updated schedule in place, you won’t be tempted to check in with your employees too often. Your team members will also know when you expect progress reports, so they won’t feel micromanaged.

Updates from your employees will give you an idea of their workload, productivity levels, and any problems they’re having. When you can see evidence of their work output, you’ll feel more confident letting go of the reins. The updates will also give you the opportunity to offer feedback and answer questions all at once instead of having more frequent conversations, a process which can seem like micromanaging.

You might like a weekly progress email and quarterly face-to-face meetings. Perhaps you need more frequent emails and fewer face-to-face meetings. How your update schedule works are up to you.

By taking steps to manage your team without micromanaging, you’ll get the best contributions from your team members, make them feel valued, and boost workplace morale.