As a leader, it can sometimes be tempting to micromanage your team. You don’t WANT to micromanage but it happens…
It happens because you care about the outcome of the work (after all, it’s YOUR company’s reputation on the line) and you worry that your team isn’t going to deliver the work to the level that you would deliver. You know that micromanaging isn’t a great use of your time or an effective use of your employees but you do it anyway because you want the outcome to be perfect.
If you find yourself fighting the temptation to micromanage, or if you find yourself wishing that you didn’t HAVE to micromanage your team, here’s the simple “3T” strategy to replace it.
Train your team
Train your team to do the job as well – or better – than you could it yourself. Invest the time up-front to train your team and you won’t feel the need to micromanage them because they’ll wow you every time. I think this is often an area where service business owners fall short: They train their team enough to sort-of know how they want the work done and then the owner unintentionally fills in the knowledge gaps with micromanagement. So train upfront! (And, of course, train on an ongoing basis as well).
Trust your team
Trust your team to do the job well. You hired them and you trained them and they’re supposed to represent your company to the public. You’re 90% of the way there! Now take it all the way to 100% leadership by trusting that your team is ready and able to work on your behalf. Make sure they know that you trust them – share with them the responsibility you feel when you show up to a customer’s house and encourage them to feel that same level of responsibility (because when they do well at a customer’s house, it’s good for your company and gives the employee a secure job).
Track your team
Track your team to ensure that they are doing the right things. Tracking can include anything from mystery shopping to spot checks to self-reporting to metric-based scorecards. Use a combination of these tools to help you keep track of your team and ensure that they are moving in the same direction as your company.
This 3T approach to leadership – training, trusting, and tracking your team – is a powerful replacement for the far more common approach of micromanaging. It takes an investment of time to set up correctly but it will pay off in the long run. After all, you’re building a team so you can build a bigger company and as long as you micromanage, you’re holding yourself back. Use this 3T approach to release you from the time-consuming burden of micromanaging and allow you to work ON your company.
In Secrets Of Leadership Mastery I cover 22 powerful keys that you can implement to build a high-performance team and lead them to greater success.
