Needs for help and support have a forum to easily emerge. The relationship is informal and unforced. The intent is not to check up on your team member. The chat can be about work or personal matters. Most of the executives I support opt for a different engagement style with their team members. Anxiety levels rise, as do the endless possibilities for micromanagement. You run the danger of having a predictable work cadence with this team member - and then you suddenly swoop in and hover in the midst of a perceived crisis. Think of venturing beyond the traditional “standing 1:1 meeting” with a member of your team. These are all ways in which you create a culture of help where you helping your team is just that – HELP, not micromanagement. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do. Live the famous Steve Jobs quote: It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. Show how asking for help and receiving help are not a sign of weakness.Īpproach your team members for help when they may be able to do so. Talk about how you receive help – from your own boss, from a coach or an advisory team. Demonstrate that you are not a know-it-all boss or the smartest person in the room. Explain that help comes in many forms and moves in many different directions. Talk about the notion of helping others to be successful. And the ability to slip in and out of different ways of inhabiting your leadership role. Helping well requires, as the authors suggest, situational astuteness and finesse. Joan, well-intended as she is, is the leader who eschews the subtleties of helping. In my experience as an Executive Coach, this is not as easy as it sounds. Align the rhythm of your involvement – its intensity and frequency – with people’s specific needs.

Clarify that your role is to be a helper.Time your help so it comes when people are ready for it.Their research suggests 3 specific strategies that will help you to be a hands-on boss who doesn’t micromanage: They spent the last 10 years studying how effective leaders offer help without micromanaging. The authors hail from University College London’s School of Management, Harvard Business School and NYU’s Stern School of Business. Amabile and Julianna Pillemer (HBR January/February 2021) – got me thinking about this perennial dilemma. I hire professional staff and then micromanage them until they walk out the door.' AnonymousĪn article in Harvard Business Review, earlier this year - How to Help (Without Micromanaging) by Colin M. And you will quickly become the leader who isn’t actually leading. It will likely keep you anxious and wondering. Taking a completely laissez-faire approach, on the other hand, doesn’t serve anyone. The leader who nurtures helps, coaches, guides, sets her team members up for success. There is a boundless playground between being the leader who nurtures and the micromanager from the dark side. I would hate to be the micromanager from hell. I don’t like to hover over them, Joan explains to me.

Her style implodes when members of her team fail to execute. It’s a gorgeously mature leadership style. She leads her team with a compelling strategic vision, clear directives, and then she lets them run with it. Chief Medical Officer at a highly regarded Biotech firm, Joan is a seasoned pro who knows her stuff.

Hands off leadership approach