Micro-Management and the Five Levers of Accountability

Man­age­ment is a fas­ci­nat­ing thing and is gen­er­al­ly defined with­in two extreme styles:

• The macro man­ag­er. A vision­ary, strate­gic leader who is so far from micro- man­age­ment, they are not con­nect­ed to the crit­i­cal details that need to be executed.
• The micro man­ag­er. A leader who is so far into the details and weeds that peo­ple feel like their hands are being held and their fin­gers moved.

Most high­ly effec­tive lead­ers, depend­ing on the sit­u­a­tion, move along the spec­trum between these two styles. Most good lead­ers who micro-man­age tend to do so when:

• Some­one on their team isn’t deliv­er­ing, as expected
• They haven’t devel­oped essen­tial del­e­ga­tion and strate­gic-think­ing skills, as they’ve pro­gressed in their careers from doers to leaders
• There is lack of crys­tal-clear expec­ta­tions or a sys­tem to under­stand how peo­ple are doing. You feel as if you’re throw­ing some­one out into the mid­dle of the ocean with­out anything.

Get the facts

We often find that expec­ta­tions are about as clear as mud. And it’s unfair to eval­u­ate some­one – par­tic­u­lar­ly for some­one who has been tagged as an under­per­former – with­out objec­tive data.

So, when we start work­ing with a new exec­u­tive team, we make sure that expec­ta­tions for each per­son is crys­tal clear – and then see how they deliv­er – before we form opin­ions on their lev­el of per­for­mance. It’s also a way to ver­i­fy the CEOs per­spec­tive on key people’s performance.

Five Areas of Accountability

To eval­u­ate the per­for­mance of an exec­u­tive, we make sure five things are clar­i­fied about their:

1. Finan­cial account­abil­i­ty — their areas of respon­si­bil­i­ty on the income or bal­ance sheet
2. Oper­a­tional account­abil­i­ty — the KPIs for the oper­a­tional health of the part of busi­ness they manage
3. Strate­gic account­abil­i­ty — the spe­cif­ic goals they and their team are respon­si­ble for exe­cut­ing, each quarter
4. Team devel­op­ment account­abil­i­ty — spe­cif­ic actions they are going to take with each of their team mem­bers to either sus­tain or improve their per­for­mance and con­tri­bu­tion to the team
5. Behav­iour account­abil­i­ty — out­lined by the val­ues of the organization.

I have rarely gone into an orga­ni­za­tion where all these account­abil­i­ties are crys­tal clear – and it’s such a crit­i­cal piece for lead­ers to get right. With­out them, it’s a fail­ure of the leader or orga­ni­za­tion, not the team member.

The goal is to give your team mem­bers autonomous account­abil­i­ty: an incred­i­ble amount of auton­o­my paired with an incred­i­ble amount of accountability.

Objec­tive Evaluations

With these in place, there’s less need for over­ly involved, micro-management.

• The exec­u­tive or leader knows exact­ly what they need to do to self-man­age, and what needs to be done to meet priorities.
• An exec­u­tive’s per­for­mance can be objec­tive­ly eval­u­at­ed based on facts, not opin­ion. You’ll know if a lack of results is due to a lack of clear expec­ta­tions and com­mu­ni­ca­tions or capability.

You also need a struc­tured sys­tem – in month­ly and quar­ter­ly meet­ings, and annu­al reviews – to man­age and review progress on goals and expectations.

The Chal­lenge 

• If you think you might micro-man­age or have peo­ple who don’t meet your expec­ta­tions, look to see if you are crys­tal clear on all five points of accountability.

Addi­tion­al Podcasts

• I’m Wor­ried That I’m Micro­manag­ing My Team – What Should I Do?
• Jim Collin’s Three Rules of Engage­ment for Healthy Teams
• Why Time Peri­od Should Your Role Be Focused On?

Addi­tion­al Blogs

• Do You Cre­ate an Envi­ron­ment of Autonomous Accountability?
• Ben­e­fits of The One-Page Strate­gic Plan
• Are You Fail­ing to Achieve Your Quar­ter­ly Goals?

Lawrence & Co’s work focus­es on sus­tain­able and enhanced growth for you and your busi­ness. Our diverse and expe­ri­enced group of advi­sors can help your lead­ers and exec­u­tive teams stay com­pet­i­tive through the use of var­i­ous learn­ing tools includ­ing work­shops, webi­na­rs, exec­u­tive retreats, or one-to-one coaching.

We help high-achiev­ing lead­ers to have it all – a great busi­ness and a reward­ing life. Con­tact us for sim­ple and impact­ful advice. No BS. No fluff.