Is there something that keeps you awake at night?

Do you know what it is?

If you don’t know what your primary fears are, there’s really little that you can do about them.

Take the power of your fears away. You’re not some ragdoll those fears can throw around like a toy.

Turn and face your fears. Shine the spotlight on them. Get clear about what they are.

Some fears, after all, have merit.

They can be valuable warning signs and powerful incentives to take positive, problem-preventing action.

Other fears?

They may be nothing more than bad or out-of-date habits.

Now, if you’re the leader of your company or team, you may be asking, “Isn’t all this fear-facing work a waste of time for me? I’m supposed to be the fearless leader – or at least appear to be.”

If you’re a leader, it’s even more essential that you face and move beyond your fears.

That’s because – whether consciously or not – your fears and what you do about them affects the people you’re trying to lead.

Your followers are watching your actions and attitude closely. They’re picking up cues of fearlessness or fearfulness from you.

They’re noticing whether you’re courageous and action-oriented when dealing with those fears…or not.

And the impact, organizationally? Here’s how it often plays out:

People who have been confident in the past may, when fear-driven or fear-led, began to question their every move.

Their natural strengths, fear-restricted, start to shrink. They begin to freeze or make mistakes that are uncharacteristic of them.

Gradually, perhaps without realizing what or how it happened, a talented team can find that it’s creating failure that only un-faced or unfounded fears could have led them to create.

Don’t lead your company or team into this type of fate.

Catch and use the valuable information that your fears may be providing you and your team.

Here’s just one example of how this can work in a significant way:

It involved the CEO and co-founder of a company with which I was working on several major process improvements.

The CEO wasn’t sure how to do it, but wanted ways to monitor the key signs of change that he feared might happen and then hurt his rapidly growing company.

He also wanted a decision-making framework to help his leadership team choose the best course of action, and make the changes they’d need to have in place if the worst-case scenarios started to occur.

At his core, the CEO was afraid that the stellar customer relationships and results that had led to the company’s success so far could not be reliably maintained as they continued to grow.

He was worried that poor results, if they somehow occurred, would lead to the company’s ruin.

He asked me to do what we eventually called the “edge of cliff analysis.”

Here’s how:

1. First, we identified his greatest fears for the company.

2. I did some research to reality test those fears, along with possible impacts to the company if each one occurred.

3. Next, I identified measurements and other indicators they could track as an early warning system that risk scenarios might be starting to happen.

4. I recommended prioritized process improvements they would need to have in place if the worst case scenarios he was worried about did, in fact, occur.

5. Finally, I turned this analysis into tools they could use easily. We presented the work to the company and discussed what the results meant for employees and how they could most easily use the information and tools.

That “edge of cliff analysis” became an important leadership and decision-making tool for the company for the next few years, I later learned.

It was a unifying factor that made their shared priorities and decision framework very clear, among other things.

Whether you do an “edge of cliff” analysis for your company or not, knowing what your fears really are will be useful to you.

Start here:

1. What are the things you worry about now? What keeps you up at night?

2. What are the promises you’ve made or implied to customers through your marketing, advertising, websites and other ways of communicating with them? Do you have processes in place to make sure you can meet those promises?

3. What are the things you don’t even want to think about that you fear could happen and greatly affect your company and job or career?

Bring your worries to the surface.

Take a good look at them. For the fears that appear to be truly valid concerns, plan and take action to move beyond them.

It may take some time, but the freedom you’ll feel will have you far better prepared for the future than will continuing to worry.

Use your fears to help you create a better future instead of just worrying and watching it slip away.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.

---

The easiest way to understand and address the problem of micromanagement is to treat it as a likely response to stress.

And the first step to solving almost any management problem, including micromanagement, is to accept that as a leader, you ARE going to be dealing some uncertainty and stress.

It’s part of your job description.

As a leader, you have to:

– Try to anticipate the future and how it will affect your customers and your organization

– Prepare your organization to handle the upside and downside of the future you expect

– Learn to deal well with the remaining uncertainty, if and when it presents itself

And with all of that, yes, there is some stress.

To break the cycle of unproductive ways of dealing with stress – including micromanagement – focus on building new instincts and behaviors as a manager.

Concentrate on improving your “management muscle memory,” much like an athlete building the skills and instincts to be able to perform well, almost automatically, under pressure.

Prepare yourself to reduce stress for others, releasing their best performance under difficult circumstances.

And as we all know, micromanagement pretty much has the opposite effect.

Here are nine ways to try to learn to reduce or eliminate your need to micromanage:

1. Don’t fight it: accept that you may be a micromanager.

Consider how you typically handle the stress that comes with your job.

And take this simple test:

– Do you ask yourself the question, “Why doesn’t he (or she) do the job RIGHT?!” when you see something that doesn’t meet your approval?

– Is your natural instinct to want to say, “Just get out the way! I’ll do the job myself!” when you’re not happy with the way something has been done?

– Has anyone ever implied or told you directly that you micromanage?

There are other signs, as well, but these are just a few clues that you might be a micromanager.

2. Remember a time, and a person who micromanaged you and how you felt about it.

What was that experience like?

What, specifically, did you dislike and find unproductive – or even destructive – when you were on the receiving end of micromanagement?

Consider the ways in which your own management behavior might be just like that.

Make a few notes about behaviors you might need to change, and circumstances in which you’re most likely to revert to them.

Make a note about the first signs or symptoms you normally notice that you’re starting to dive – or want to dive – into extreme and unproductive detail as a manager.

3. Acknowledge the problems that micromanagement can cause.

Consider again the person who micromanaged you. Remember the ways in which that style of management actually distracted, diverted, or depleted your own best attention and efforts.

Consider, also, how the implied lack of trust may have handicapped you and other members of your team from learning and being prepared to handle similar, or even greater challenges in the future.

4. Think of the most likely times of stress for your organization.

Prepare yourself and your team to respond well under the worst of circumstances, as well as the best.

5. Choose and learn improved ways of responding but do so, first, when you’re not under stress.

Like an athlete learning to perform well under the pressure of competition – let’s say the Olympics – you have to learn new skills and prepare with great intention, step by step.

Start by choosing and learning new skills without the stress of performing under pressure.

6. Practice so you can use improved responses when pressure’s on.

Your job as a leader involves bringing out the best in others, individually and collectively.

Start by doing the same with, and for yourself.

Learn and improve by example.

You’ll be a better and more respected leader if you acknowledge and fill gaps in your own performance.

7. Find a model of someone who you think handles well the same stressors that send you into a micromanagement tailspin.

What specifically do they do to handle the stressful situations better than you do?

How do they develop those behaviors or skills, or has it always been natural for them?

If you’re not sure, ask them for a learning informational interview.

Get their advice about what training you might take, what mentors or coaches might be useful, what ways they use to monitor and improve their own skills, as a leader, and specifically in the area of micromanagement, if they’ve ever found they’re inclined to it.

8. Set up a system that allows you to have confidence when you delegate.

Use your management and leadership skills strategically.

Set the customer-focused standards, work processes, performance indicators, and provide the training and feedback that enables your team to succeed.

Create a system that will, to the largest possible degree, enable you to produce customer-desired results predictably, effectively, most cost-effectively.

9. Create your own ways to monitor, create, and reward improvements in your tendency to micromanage.

And learn to ask better questions that guide you to better responses, instead of rescuing, diving for too much detail and micromanaging.

Look for continual improvement by monitoring improvements in indicators and questions like:

– How many times in the past week or month have I felt like I had to rescue a person, project or team?

– How many times did I feel frustrated with the work performance of someone who works for me?

– How could we have prevented it, or caught it sooner through an improved process, performance measures, training or other means?

– What do I need to do as a leader of this organization to make sure that problems and stressful situations are prevented, as much as possible?

Remember, as long as you know that you have a tendency to respond in an unproductive way under stress, there’s hope that you can change your natural course of action the next time…and the time after that…and the time after that.

Step away from the micromanagement trap.

Stretch yourself to fill your role, fully, and strategically as a manager and leader.

Prepare your organization and yourself to respond well under stress.

Let the people who report to you stretch and grow to fill their roles fully and confidently, too, leaving your organization well-prepared for future demands.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.

---

Imagine this situation. You’re a manager and this happens:

- You feel your blood pressure rising.

- You start to use your “stress response voice” as you try to keep it together.

- You dive into deep detail mode, even though your real job is to manage an entire company, division, department or project.

- You reach for the red pen, mouse, steering wheel, or other implements of control in your work world.

What happened in this imaginary circumstance that’s so terrible?

You delegated.

Someone failed.

They did the assigned task the “wrong” way, at least in your eyes. (And remember that sometimes failure is real, but often it’s subjective. And ultimately, the definition of success depends on what customers will support).

And so, here you are, in cleanup, do-it-yourself mode, rescuing yet another person, project or team.

But wait…

Is it possible the failure is yours?

Is it possible that, as the person in charge, you did one or more of the following things?

Perhaps you:

- Under-led.

- Under-inspired.

- Under-defined and communicated customers’ criteria for success.

- Under-planned the way your team could reach the target best.

- Under-taught the skills that were needed to get the job done most easily.

- Under-monitored progress and work quality while the work was underway.

These are a few reasons that might have happened:

1.  You like to be the hero.

In this way – by deep diving into the detail – you get to seem to be the hero, again and again.

Maybe you like the role of rescuer, but you just don’t realize how other people see it.

They may see that you’re just getting in the way, rather than that you’re saving the day.

Perhaps it’s a matter of redefining what a rescuer is.

Taking the long view, a rescuer and a real leader is someone who takes whatever situation they have, and
makes it better now, as well as for the long-run.

Focus on creating a reliable system of processes, skills, tools and measures that enables your team to
consistently produce a great outcome.

That’s when you’ll really be the hero.

2. You do a better job of reacting to what’s wrong than facing the challenge of creating a system to do things right, consistently.

Some people are better critics than managers and leaders.

It’s just a fact.

They’re more comfortable finding what’s wrong in others’ work than taking the risk of possibly being wrong, themselves, when they face the unknowns of leadership.

Consider if that might be the case for you, if micromanagement is a management mode you slip into easily.

3. You were never taught to be a good or great leader.

Maybe you weren’t taught, coached or mentored, yourself, to learn to do the job you have well.

Maybe you jumped into leadership before you were fully prepared for it.

Frankly, that’s often the case.

The all-too-frequent scenario is that somebody needs to have someone manage something.

And somebody else really wants new responsibility, status and pay…and may even think that “management doesn’t look that hard.”

And so a “match” is made.

But it’s not a match made in heaven because the new manager or leader was not well-prepared to succeed.

Maybe you’d still like training, guidance or mentoring, yourself, even if you’ve been in management for a while.

If you have a tendency toward micromanagement, this possibility is one you should seriously consider.

4. You really like the work that you supervise more than you like the work of being the supervisor or leader.

In this case, maybe micromanaging is the way for you to get back into the detail of what you really like to do best.

Maybe becoming a manager or leader wasn’t your idea…at all.

Maybe you miss the front lines of action.

Some people are promoted into positions of greater leadership because they show such strength in their individual roles that, as one theory goes, they’re eventually promoted to a level that’s greater than what they’re good at.

Could this be the case for you?

Were you, in fact, happier at an earlier point in your career?

It’s just something to consider.

5. Diving into detail is a way to cover up the insecurity you feel about the unpredictability of trying to plan and create a better future.

Micromanagement may be like a comfortable old blanket you pull over you as you try to cover up, or ease, your own insecurity.

Sometimes people are afraid of these, and other things, when they become leaders:

- That they’ll be passed by a strong subordinate. They’re afraid to let others really stretch and grow, taking on greater responsibility…
which means taking on even more responsibility, themselves.

- They can’t easily share the spotlight, applause, and stage of leadership.

- They’re afraid they’re a failure if they don’t have the answer to every question.

- They don’t realize they don’t have to know everything…nor can they.

- They haven’t learned that strength is sometimes strongest when it’s shared…that the web of interlocking strengths of a team can be a very powerful thing.

Whatever the case, if you have tendencies toward micromanagement, take some time to figure out how, and when this happens most consistently.

Take actions to reduce the need to reach for that red pen, and to dive deeply into the detail.

Instead build your comfort and strength in planning, strategizing, creating systems to enable your team to succeed, consistently.

Teach your team to be able to handle more detail and responsibility on their own.

Teach them to count on more, and higher level support from you.

Let yourself be the leader you were meant to be.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.

---

Delegation sounds easy enough, right?

It can be deceptively difficult.

Many managers delegate projects or tasks to their direct reports, expecting that the work will be implemented unfailingly, with ease.

And yet, they may not stop to check periodically to see if they’ve provided adequate information, support, and the opportunity for dialogue as work proceeds.

Think back on your own experience.

Recall a time when someone delegated a project or task to you, and it was very successful.

- What made that project and experience of delegation work out so well?

Now, think of a time when a project or task was delegated to you and things did not go well.

- What made that experience so different?

Contrast the differences, focusing on delegation of the work, and how it affected the project experiences and outcomes.

Now reflect on your own experience delegating work to others.

- When have you been successful as a delegator?

- When have you been less so?

- What were the differences in how you delegated in each of those cases?

Here are tips for ensuring that your next experience with delegation goes smoothly:

1. Consider your audience

Consider the people who will be receiving information from you in order to complete the work successfully.

- How do they need to receive the information in order to use it most effectively?

- What written or online information do they need?

- What in-person communication do they need, at the start of, and throughout the project?

- Have you checked your assumptions about how to communicate best with the people you will delegate to?

2. Communicate completely

Make sure you communicate clearly and simply, but completely.

Then test periodically to see if you have communicated well, and be ready to adjust, if need be.

- Have you communicated the desired outcome of the project? Are you sure it has been clearly received and understood?

- Is it clear who the customers are for this work, and what their expectations are? Is it clear how they will measure success, ultimately?

- Does the person you are delegating to know how to measure and monitor his or her performance, or that of the team he or she is leading, while the work is underway?

- Do they know when you’ll check in with them to see how things are going, and to evaluate progress and success as the work proceeds?

- Is it clear what resources are available to them if they have questions or need more information?

- Do they know how to get in touch with you, if need be, if they have questions or need further guidance as the work proceeds?

3. Check in regularly

Follow up in the way that you said you would with the person or team to whom you’ve delegated the work.

- How are things going, compared to the plan?

- What’s going better than expected?

-Have you acknowledged that fully?

- What’s not going as well as expected?

- What help does the person or team need to solve the issue?

- Is the performance measurement and monitoring system working out well as an evaluation and management tool?

- Is it helping you to communicate clearly with those who are doing the work?

- Does the person or team doing the work need additional information or resources, other than what they already have?

4. Check results

Monitor outcomes of the work as they emerge.

- Are results coming in as planned, and as the customer of this work expects and needs it?

- If not, what can you do about it now to solve it?

5. Check in with yourself regularly

Delegating is not always easy, as we noted at the beginning of this article. It takes a lot of trust and good communication from everyone involved.

This is especially true if the person delegating, or the person to whom the project or task is being delegated, is new in his or her role.

- How do you feel about how things are going with this person, team, and project?

- Do things seem to be going as well as your direct reports say they are? If so, what gives you that confidence, specifically?

- If not, what is causing you concern? When, and how can you raise that issue with the person you’ve delegated the work to?

- Is there additional information you need to have confidence (without turning into a micro-manager)?

- Does the person you delegated the work to need additional resources, training, support or information to be successful leading this work?

- Is there anything you miss about not doing the work yourself? (Be honest…this can affect your ability to let go and let others learn to grow and excel, too).

6. Debrief

Discuss the project and how well it worked when the project is complete.

- What worked well, overall?

- What could have been improved, overall?

- What worked about the delegation, specifically?

- How could the delegation be more effective next time?

7. Find someone who delegates well and learn from them

You may be able to find a mentor who delegates well, or your own manager may excel at this.

Look for someone to learn from as you learn and practice effective delegation.

For anyone in a management or leadership role – of any type – delegating well is an important leadership skill and trait that will always be valuable to have.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.

---