Advice for the Micromanager

2015-09-02T14:52:20-04:00

During my last tour on active duty I got to see my peers take early commands as O-4s in the Navy. Many of these Commanding Officers were friends and as such, we spent time talking about issues they would not discuss with most people. One thing I noticed is that our community had developed a group of micromanagers as part of our culture. There was this extreme fear of even the smallest of errors. People referred to it as the “zero defect mentality”. Many of these COs felt like they had to do everything themselves, which resulted in them working themselves to death. Some of the worst offenders almost never left the ship. Many got divorced and still did not have a successful tour, ensuring they would never command again. As I worked thorough my latest class, “Inclusive Leadership Training: Becoming a Successful Leader”, I became aware that some of the people on this forum could learn a lesson from this story and become better leaders within their organizations.

As I tried to help my friends realize that they had a team of good people to help bear the burden of their command, I would tell them these two rules about every person on their ship:
1. They are smarter than you on something or things.
2. They will never do a task exactly the way you do.

The problem was fear. Fear that someone would mess up and one defect would ruin everything. But in reality, sailors understand their jobs. They know their tasks, roles, and functions on the ship. We have the best Navy in the world because we have the best sailors. The problem is to get the leadership to let them do what they need to do in order to get the job done. As I said, this was a culture in the SWO community, so the CO did not trust the Officers, then the Officers did not trust the Chiefs, and so on. This is where they were missing the critical mark of a good leader, which is to empower someone to be accountable and make good decisions. Every person wants the opportunity to succeed. In my opinion, no one wakes up in the morning and says to themselves “How can I screw things up today?”

So the good leader must let go and let their team support the mission. This process may take longer and be painful for the leader to watch. This brings up a corollary to the second fact about people, which is that it may not be the same way but is it good enough. In reality, things are never perfect and never have to be. To quote George S. Patton, “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”

That is the mark of a true leader. Unfortunately, I think sometimes we get too caught up in this “zero defect mentality” to realize that we are hurting our organization. Hurting it today because our sailors do not feel valued and worthy of our trust and thus not operating at full potential. Hurting it in the future because these sailors grow up to be the leaders of tomorrow’s Navy.

A leader’s responsibility is to encourage and support their team to make decisions and grow. They should run top cover and ensure the team has all the tools and knowledge to be successful. Only then will their team feel fully engaged and working at full throttle. Allowing them to get their jobs done frees up time for mentoring and coaching. But, don’t use that newfound “free” time to look over their shoulders and fall back into that old habit of micromanagement.

In today’s Navy and Military we need transformational leaders. Gone are the days where it was an ole boy’s sailing club where what happened at sea stayed at sea. The fact is that we are a diverse, transparent organization where something could happen today and be the trending topic on Twitter tonight. Leaders have to get away from that “us vs. them” mentality and encourage feedback on ways to better the organization. Everyone from the senior officer to the junior seaman has to feel valued enough to be able to point out ways we can improve our system. We need transformational leaders that are willing to value both the differences of our teams and make each person know their opinion is considered.

I was honored to serve with many good COs and leaders in my 24 years of active duty and now in industry. I think each one of them had their strengths and weaknesses, but the good leaders always made me feel valued and encouraged me to make decisions without fear of messing up. I think that is the mark of a true leader. We are all part of a team and have never accomplished anything great on our own. Embrace your team and don’t be that micromanager that has a death grip on everything under their control. We are all leaders in some aspect of our lives and this applies to each one of us.

Response by SFC Terry Fortune made Sep 2 at 2015 2:59 PM

2015-09-02T14:59:03-04:00

If a C.O. has a good cadre of NCO's or CPO's they will get the job done. Had a C.O. who told the company that if we took care of him, he would take care of us. And we did and he kept his word. One of the best officer I serve under.

Response by Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS made Sep 2 at 2015 3:06 PM

2015-09-02T15:06:52-04:00

1) Your plate is only so big. The more you put on it, the more that falls off.

2) You have a staff for a reason. They are trained to be experts in their area.

3) You have to sleep. They can be awake when you are asleep. They can backbrief you when you wake up. If you don't like what they did, find someone who does it the way you like it.

Response by MCPO Roger Collins made Sep 2 at 2015 3:16 PM

2015-09-02T15:16:21-04:00

Sounds like the submarine Nuclear Navy. One strike and you are out, fear does have its unintended consequences. Glad I was "Nose Coner".

Response by PO1 Glenn Boucher made Sep 2 at 2015 3:36 PM

2015-09-02T15:36:06-04:00

Sounds like the FFG I was stationed on, there was ZERO trust from the CO down the entire chain of command. It was also one big penis measuring contest, everyone trying to outdo everyone else to get the gold star on their forehead.
I was actually glad that I was knocked unconscious one morning while making breakfast in the Wardroom galley and was put on LIMDU for severe headaches which were diagnosed as Post Concussive Syndrome.
Without trust, the command will delve into barely controlled chaos and ruin many a good career.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Sep 2 at 2015 3:48 PM

2015-09-02T15:48:31-04:00

Working for micro-managers sucks ass.

Response by CSM Michael J. Uhlig made Sep 2 at 2015 4:54 PM

2015-09-02T16:54:30-04:00

Great post LCDR Private RallyPoint Member and relevant to most branches of service!

Response by Sgt Spencer Sikder made Sep 2 at 2015 5:32 PM

2015-09-02T17:32:43-04:00

LCDR Bill Wright: As you say, "good leaders always made me feel valued and encouraged me to make decisions without fear of messing up." I tried to encourage my staff to make a decision. If they discover it was wrong, to see me so we can review it. I wasn't going to fix it, but guide them. I needed for them to be able to learn from these events so that when I retired, they had the necessary confidence to push forward. I also knew that if I micromanaged the fix, the people to whom I fixed the problem would always rely upon me to get what they needed and ignore my staff member. I didn't want that to happen. Also, I get my care at that facility, I didn't want my staff's failure to negatively impact my care.

Response by Cpl James Waycasie made Sep 3 at 2015 2:27 AM

2015-09-03T02:27:45-04:00

Working in a supervisory/Manager role most of my life ( 3rd Squad Leader in boot, squad leader and acting Platoon Sgt while on active duty, then mostly retail management) I have been assigned to different stores. I would take a few weeks of evaluation time for my associates. I would assign them different tasks and turn them loose and watch their performance. I would inform them I was available for any questions they had or if they needed a hand. During this time period, I would note weak areas and lack of knowledge. I would then retrain them in needed areas. Within 3 months I would usually have a crew that worked as a team. I could assign them any task and leave the store with the confidence that the assigned work would be finished correctly in a reasonable amount of time. Of course there have been periods where I have had to weed out associates who had no team spirit, no drive, and could care less if we were profitable or not. All they were concerned about was doing the least amount of work possible, and getting paid. These weak links, if left unchecked, can cause serious damage to the morale of the team as a whole and you can quickly lose control. Remove such obstacles, insure your people are properly trained, teach them and learn from them. Once they see it's a team effort and you are willing to work as hard as they are and are willing to do anything you ask of them, you earn their respect and loyalty. Smooth sailing from then own. Pass out the assignments, let them do their thing and focus your attention on the things you need to be focused on.

Response by TSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 3 at 2015 3:51 AM

2015-09-03T03:51:21-04:00

Only in a perfect world would this be possible. However, the ugly reality is leaders cannot afford to have their subordinates make mistakes. Broken mentalities and systems seem to be widespread across not only the military but the civilian sector.

I will share my example that has put my career progression in its grave. I had two young airmen under my supervision that disliked being in the Air Force. Nothing would motivate them to go above and beyond or even meet the basic standards (Failing PT tests and failing duty position evaluations). They both had plans to leave the military and were in the "short time" mentality. I gave these two airmen ratings of 4 out of 5 on their performance reports. They had realistically earned a 3's and communicated to me they were surprised to receive 4's. My supervisor asked me about the ratings and I explained in detail why I was doing what I was doing and his response was, "I will remember that Sergeant Puuri." I perceived this as an indirect threat and subsequently expressed my concerns to my E8 Superintendent and my E8 First Sergeant. Both individuals gave me a cookie cutter garbage answer after allowing my concerns to pass in one ear and out the other. Long story short, my supervisor gave me a low rating on my EPR that I did not come close to deserving, fired me from my office position, and changed both of my subordinates EPR's to firewall 5's (flawless rating). Which is illegal but nobody seemed to care to do anything about it.

Due to the lack of motivation of two individuals, the corrupt and immoral mentality of my supervisor, and the self serving attitudes of two different E8's, my career is in the toilet. I have no doubt that I will never reach E7. I will have to spend the second half of my career as an E6 at the most because of two airmen failing.

I was told I was a poor NCO, a poor leader, poor mentor. When in reality I do more than most NCO's I work with. Several airmen have expressed to me I was the best supervisor they had ever had, but that doesn't mean anything to the shot callers that look at your documentation.

I was instructed to conduct business like a micro-manager under the dilusional guise of "mentorship." I told them "You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink." They didn't care to hear it. They only cared to fry me and my career to serve their own ends.

The ability to "lead" is dead, we can hope and wish and pray for it to return but the sad truth is that corruption has taken the reigns. I see it on a daily basis and it is disheartening.

I will never be a micro manager, I love allowing my subordinates to grow and flourish and they love me back for it. Love and the right thing however will burn my career to ash. So be it.

Response by SCPO David Lockwood made Sep 3 at 2015 9:20 AM

2015-09-03T09:20:27-04:00

Every manager has to learn to trust those they have put in positions of responsibility (there's a reason you put them there). Let go and let those who work for you do their job, they need the job so they won't screw up on purpose. Be a fair but just leader, deal with problems quickly and find out the solution to the problem at hand.

I worked for this on LT (LDO) and we were on shore duty. He was barking out orders left and right and wanted things done now. I figured I would give him some time to adjust to shore duty life since he just came of sea duty as a maintenance officer. After a month he still had not let up, so I told the Chiefs under me to go about their business and do their jobs. After a week went by the LT called me into his office and asked me why the things he asked to get done hadn't? I replied to him "What time do we get underway"? That stopped him in his tracks and he thought about it and looked at me and smiled and said you're right Senior. I need to relax. I told him unless he had a class to teach he can stay home and spend time with his son that we got things covered.

Once he grasped the concept of trusting others and knowing he didn't need to micromanage anything his life became so much nicer and he was able to relax.

Response by LCDR Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 3 at 2015 9:30 AM

2015-09-03T09:30:09-04:00

I asked the RP team to add me to their list of contributors because I think I have something to give back to the community. All to often I see a lot of stuff on here that I feel does not contribute to the community. I will not go into my background you can view it in my profile but I think my experiences give me a unique prospective on management, leadership and training. As such if I continue to get positive feedback from the group I will try to develop more post like these to encourage junior members on this site to develop into tomorrow's leaders. I look forward to the feedback but also welcome any criticism that feel these post are a waste of time and not meant for this forum.

Response by SGM Mikel Dawson made Sep 3 at 2015 10:50 AM

2015-09-03T10:50:40-04:00

One thing I know - we are all replaceable! If we don't train those below us to take our position we are faulty in our leadership abilities. The mission comes first. If we can't trust those we are training then we must:
Get someone else to do the job we can trust or
Stop and look at ourselves and see if it's "me as the problem"
Either way micro management isn't the way to go, no one learns -- neither us as leaders or them we lead.

Response by LCDR Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 3 at 2015 11:00 AM

2015-09-03T11:00:38-04:00

Great subject...and a great article.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Sep 3 at 2015 12:51 PM

2015-09-03T12:51:14-04:00

If I have to peel back the leadership style of micromanagers, they lead by stressing their subordinates.

Response by LT Mike Folker made Sep 3 at 2015 6:29 PM

2015-09-03T18:29:03-04:00

My shipboard COs had their strong points, I s'pose, but each progressively showed an intense fear of failure. One CO was basically gun-shy & called cease fire during a firing exercise in a panic to return to the phib group. The gun crew wound up conducting a genuine hang fire procedure, which the CO just didn't understand. A new CO decided he should take the conn his first time out w/ the ship & backed that baby into a tug across the basin.

This was back in the mid-80s, & it sounds like thing have only got worse.

Response by 1st Lt Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 24 at 2017 8:39 AM

2017-03-24T08:39:55-04:00

The opposite to micromanagement is empowerment. When we empower, we get employee-engagement.
The military seeks zero-defects, not as a Lean/Six-Sigma idea, but out of fear of failure. Top companies develop great products and great leaders specifically because they empower competent people to make decisions...and allow for mistakes. Mistakes are the greatest of teachers, providing more insight than a thousand lectures.
When we question the military's future, we must challenge the accepted status-quo. It's not inherently disrespectful to simply ask, "Why?"