40 By Greg Condon Micro Manager vs Effective Manager How to do it How to manage effectively The workplace is full of well-intentioned employees that are more educated than ever before but are stuck behind a wall of poor management. A micro manager can stifle innovation, pro- ductivity and happiness. An effec- tive manager does the exact oppo- site. This topic comes up many times at work. The Challenge: being accused of acting as micro manager when approaching an employee about job performance. The difference between the two is many fold. While they both probably get the job completed well and on time, the micro man- ager will find themselves limited to the amount of jobs that can be My definition of a micro man- ager is someone that will ensure every single detail is completed in a manner that aligns perfectly with how they would have completed the job. On the other hand, my idea of an effective manager is someone who establishes clear goals and timelines and allows their employees the freedom to complete the tasks inside of those boundaries. Definitions completed. By trying to have a hand in every task there will be a ceiling that the business will reach where they will not be able to surpass; not to mention the potential for disgruntled employees. By putting more trust in their employee’s abili- ties, an effective manager can lead many teams at once with much greater productivity. This will lead to a team of engaged and happy employees that will accomplish much more than they imagined. As your organization gets bigger, a manager needs to morph from a person that com- pletes a variety of tasks, to a per- son that facilitates others to com- plete those tasks while holding them accountable. Even the most efficient person can only complete so many jobs in one We need to delegate day which is why delegating is so important. Delegation is a hard concept for most small business managers/owners to accept because they know they could probably complete each task more efficiently than the employee that was ultimately assigned to the task. Effective managers will understand that getting ten people to complete ten tasks at 80% effi- ciency of the best possible person is better than that one person com- pleting just one or two of those tasks. Now back to the challenge Many employees are accus- tomed to being led by a micro manager, so they will assume that by you giving them the bound- aries as well as a timeline that you might be trying to control the situ- ation too closely. Make sure they “A micro manager can stifle innovation, productivity and happiness. An effective manager does the exact opposite.”