An Alternative Approach to Leading and Doing
The Macro
You’ve been there. You have complained about it. At some point(s) you have even done it. We all have. And yet, in our heart of hearts, most of us know that micromanaging is a bad thing. The very essence of micromanagement is baked in a lack of trust and the need to control. It makes employees dependent, managers burn out, and results in a high turnover. We all know this. It is so pervasive that everyone reading this knows and uses the term frequently.
So why don’t we hear the term macro-manage more? The spellcheck just now noted it as a misspelling until I added the hyphen. The micromanagers are so common they no longer need a hyphen. A macro-manager takes more of a hands-off approach. They let the employees do their jobs with minimal direct supervision. Give them a mission, vision, and objectives and then turn them loose. Bosses who do this have the humility to know the job is not all about them and the courage to trust in others. And here is the kicker – they get rewarded by creative and innovative ideas that the micromanager will never realize. Morale is higher. Retention is higher. Performance is higher. There is no downside except the bruised ego of a micromanager forced to convert. I retired last April. But I did not stop working. In fact, I am able to produce a higher quality and quantity of work because I am not constantly being directed, questioned, analyzed, judged, and corrected. It is time-consuming and soul-crushing to spend most moments of the day giving another human exactly what they want in the content they want in the format they want it only to have to re-do it to correct some happy-to-glad edits, move a margin, or pick a different picture under the control of the micromanager. Enough.
My goal here is not to bash micromanagement. We have all done that for yours. Rather, I want us all to embrace macromanagment. Let’s take the hyphen out, praise it wherever it exists, share success stories, and talk about it glowingly until we shame all the micromanagers out of existence. What generation are we up to now? Z? A? I double-dare them to take this on and have fun with it.
The Mono
You’ve been there. You have bragged about it. We have all done it. But we have been wrong. Multitasking is a bad thing. Worse than that, I don’t even believe it exists. You have heard people say things like “I’m juggling a lot of things right now.” But most people can’t juggle. And even those who can juggle will tell you that juggling one ball is far easier than seven flaming torches. Multitasking causes stress, anxiety, and mistakes. Have you ever been a meeting where you would read or respond to something on your smartphone? I have. Most of us have. Usually, it is because we feel we have to do it to keep up. That’s a leadership problem. I always found it ironic when the same boss who would tell us to put our phones aways is the same boss that is giving us so much work we feel compelled to multitask. There are even studies out now that have determined that multitasking negatively impacts short term memory loss. Nobody really gives 110%. I don’t even think 100% is realistic. When we do three things at once, mathematical that pie of capacity is divided. We are not giving any of the three things our full attention to the task. That is why multitasking does not exist.
So, again, why are we all not talking about monotasking more? At least this concept doesn’t require a hyphen in this form. Increased productivity. Higher quality of work. Less stress and anxiety. A more peaceful life. It is all about living in the present. It would be nice to hear someone say, “I am doing some monotasking right now and I am hitting it out of the park.”
I am a macromanager and a monotasker (both of which would need a hyphen in this form to pass spellcheck). And I want us all to talk about it. Often. Let’s get rid of the hyphens, micromanagers, and multitasking.
Are you with me?
ps. No hyphen was injured in the crafting of this editorial.
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Stoneking Strategic Communications (SSC) 