Whenever we talk about management styles of leaders or the organisations across the globe, we usually think of 2 very specific terms, Micro and Macro. Let us try to explore and understand both these styles of management.
Micro Management is where the organisation or a leader believes in keeping a close watch on the employee and gives instruction for everything that the employee has to do or even should not do. It could be as simple as, telling an employee at what time of the day he can take a break or asking an employee to mark the direct manager in every email conversation they have with the client.
On the other hand, we have Macro, which believes in giving the charge to the employee and trusting her with it. They tell you what needs to be achieved and by when, however they let the employee decide the “how”. In this style of management for example, employees are free to take break whenever they like or they are not required to mark their managers in any email conversation they had with the client unless it’s an absolute necessity.
Being a micro manager will probably help you in achieving short term goals (monthly targets, KPI’s etc.) but will have a negative impact on employees growth and which in turn will have its consequences in long run on the organisation’s growth. On the other hand, a macro manager might see a slow start however because the employee would feel trusted and empowered they will be able to assure that the long term goals of the team and the organisation is achieved and they would turn out to be future leaders.
When we start thinking of it at a microscopic level, It all starts with hiring the right talent, which is dependent on the culture of the organisation. If the culture of the organisation is of mediocrity and rewarding the individuals who do not believe in being self dependent, if the organisation rewards the individuals who never set their eyes on long term goals for themselves or the team, chances are that its employees will mostly follow a template set forth which does not believe that every individual is different and might have their own working styles. Being a macro manager means, you consider the fact that each person is different, you appreciate different working styles, you are more flexible towards the subjective needs people might have and you reward self dependence.
By the end of the day, leaders can choose the style of leadership they’d like to adapt and more often than not, they’d choose Macro. However, when it comes to walking the talk, we as leaders sometimes wander off and end up micro managing a situation or an individual without even realising it. But here is the good news, like any other skill, this too can be learnt and we can get better at, with continuous practice and let me share the bad news too, we can develop this skill only if we are mindful of what we are trying to accomplish and by asking few simple questions to ourselves, such as, Do we want to build a team of followers or a team of leaders? Do we want our team members to always be dependent on us for even the smallest task? Do we want our business to crash when we are not around?
I’ll leave you all with a bonus and a very relatable question to ponder over, when we were little kids, did we want to be dependent on our parents for everything even after growing up or we wanted to grow up as soon as possible, so that we could explore our world by ourselves?
Be Great!
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