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Was the biggest issue just the micromanaging? I've seen this several times when newly promoted managers are given 1 or 2 reports. Specifically individuals tha
by JamesBarney 6y ago
Was the biggest issue just the micromanaging?
I've seen this several times when newly promoted managers are given 1 or 2 reports. Specifically individuals that are high conscientiousness, i.e. hard working, detail oriented, organized. Then they are promoted, and put into stressful position where there previous strengths can become liabilities and they spend all there time making sure their reports do the job in the same way they would have done it. And if they had more reports it would quickly break them of this micromanaging habit because they just don't have the time.
I found that more relaxed/laid back managers tend to do better with a 1-2 reports but then quickly start to run into issues as the team size grows and overwhelms their organizational abilities.
- magneticnorth 6y agoYeah, I think that's about exactly it. He was micromanaging and also somewhat randomizing, asking me to switch focus often when he thought something else was higher priority, which doesn't work well for my work style in terms of actually getting things finished. And to my non-credit I didn't really communicate this issue to him at the time. But I think he did figure it out much like you described, and is successfully managing (and not micromanaging) a high performing team today.
- drtillberg 6y agoOnce in a similar management dynamic, at my manager's request I compiled a presentation of several key points for a one-hour discussion, that my manager immediately hijacked for the first 15 minutes to lecture about why in the world I had started the numbered list of issues with the numeral zero rather than the numeral one. (It was a gating issue that was background to the others!) So yes, I buy the hypothesis that 1:1 management grouping promotes non-ideal management behavior.