Summer has officially arrived — and your employees are more unenthused about their work than ever. It’s easy to blame the drop in productivity on the warm July weather and the excitement buzzing over upcoming vacations, but the problem might be bigger than that.
If you’ve been seeing a steady decline in efficiency over the past few months, it’s time to dig a big deeper. One of the leading causes behind a lack of motivation is the boss’s constant micromanaging. Sound familiar? If so, you need to make a change before your team moves on to another company, where they’re trusted to do great work on their own terms.
4 Ways Micromanaging Diminishes Productivity Improvement
You hired your employees because they’re talented people who are great at what they do. Now it’s time to loosen the reigns and see what they’re capable of when you actually let them do their jobs, before they give up on your organization for good. Micromanaging can be detrimental to a company in the following ways:
- Lack of Ownership: People get excited about projects they’re responsible for. It’s very rewarding to see something through from beginning to end and know that you built it from the ground up. Employees know they’ll be held accountable for achieving results, so they do their very best work to ensure their efforts exceed your expectations.
- No Room for Creativity: Innovation happens when employees have the freedom to share their ideas and complete assignments their own way. If you stand over their shoulder and dictate instructions for every little task, they’ll eventually stop giving their input. You’re not going to make much progress moving forward if you’re only willing to listen to your own ideas.
- Lower Morale: It’s beyond discouraging to feel like your opinions don’t matter. Your team members — especially top talent — are bound to become resentful and disengaged if they feel like you don’t trust them to do great work on their own. Disengaged employees don’t take much pride in their work, they’re distracted and you can expect them to leave as soon as they find a comparable job.
- Constant Bottleneck: Micromanaging isn’t just a nuisance to your employees — it’s also an inconvenience for you. It definitely takes your team a whole lot longer to do anything when you have to review every little detail. Plus, you’re causing yourself a ton of extra work. Prepare to be pleasantly surprised at how quickly things get accomplished when you take yourself out of the equation.
Want to find top talent in the Chicago area?
Contact Premium Staffing, Inc. As engineers ourselves — with a specialty in manufacturing — we know exactly what you need.