By Kristen Hayer
I’m writing this in the middle of the COVID-19 outbreak in the spring of 2020. Most people in the US, and in many other countries around the world are under some sort of quarantine or “stay at home” order from their government. In the tech industry, this means that most people are working from home. Most of these at-home workers have never done so for more than a day or two at a time, and certainly not for weeks or months.
When teams are working separately, many pieces of management that come with working together in an office disappear. You can’t overhear conversations with customers and coach your team in real-time. You can’t pull your team together for an impromptu standup when you’re facing an issue. You can’t tell if someone is having a tough day from their demeanor. From a management standpoint, it can feel like you’re flying blind. This can be especially challenging for managers who haven’t implemented strong management practices in the first place.
Many newer managers confuse management with micromanagement. One of my favorite books on the topic of micromanagement (My Way or the Highway) defines it like this; “Micromanagement is when participation, collaboration and oversight interfere with performance, quality and efficiency.” Unfortunately, management (oversight that adds to performance, quality, and efficiency) often gets confused with micromanagement. To ensure that they aren’t being a micromanager, new managers often go too far in the opposite direction and end up not really managing at all.
Great management doesn’t just happen. There is a discipline and structure to managing that ensures your team performs at its peak, and sticks around. Here are my top 5 management tactics that drive results and ultimately prevent you from being seen as a micromanager.
1. Set metrics-based goals for your team. Some companies are great at establishing goals across their organizations, but most aren’t. As a leader, you can’t wait for your company to give you goals. You need to make sure everyone on your team has concrete goals that they understand. If you’ve never built goals before, start simple. Every company has a churn or retention metric that they are trying to hit, and your finance team can tell you what that is. Break that down into individual goals for team members, and hold each team member accountable for hitting their goal. As you communicate this with your team, be sure that everyone understands what they are trying to achieve, and how you think they can go about accomplishing their goal.
2. Hold weekly one-on-ones with all direct reports. For some of you this will sound like overkill, and if you’re a new manager it may seem pushy. One-on-one meetings are where you build professional relationships with your team members, where you talk about their performance, where you coach them, and where you help them develop their careers. Once a month or every other week isn’t enough to accomplish this. A weekly one on one demonstrates your commitment to making your team members successful: the opposite of micromanagement. In The Effective Manager, Mark Horstman provides a great outline for conducting a strong one-on-one meeting.
3. Make performance and metrics transparent. Everyone on your team should understand how they are performing at any point in time. Use your CRM or CS platform to create reports and dashboards that team members can use to see how they are doing. If they have to wait for an annual performance review, they can’t correct their course in a timely manner. Talking about performance should be something that happens in every single one-on-one meeting, so that there are no surprises. This may feel awkward at first, as a new manager, but over time you’ll see that your team appreciates knowing where they stand.
4. Provide active coaching. This is often neglected once a new team member has gone through their initial training. Coaching should be an ongoing activity. Everyone has room for improvement. Side by side calls and meetings are a great way to observe how team members are tackling their daily tasks, and give you great information on how your team has implemented the program you put together. Provide feedback to your team members immediately, and of course, provide your positive impressions along with any ideas for improvement. Reserve difficult conversations that need privacy for a meeting room or your weekly one-on-one.
5. Delegate tasks to team members who are ready. If you’re doing all of the above, you’re going to be busy. Very busy. Delegating isn’t about pushing work downstream. If applied thoughtfully, delegating helps you free up your time to focus on active management and provides development opportunities for members of your team. I categorize my activities into 3 areas: things I enjoy, things I add unique value to, and things I am good at. If an activity falls into all 3 categories, I should be doing that. If it only falls into 1 or even none, that’s an activity I should be delegating. Keep a list of activities you should be delegating, and when you have a team member who is ready, give them that task.
A final tactic that I want to mention is letting poor performers go. Poor performers are the ones who will think you’re a micromanager no matter what you do, because they don’t like being held accountable for their own performance. You can’t go easy on them, because the rest of your team is watching. If you continue to let them perform poorly, your top performers will get discouraged and ultimately leave, and all you’ll be left with is poor performers. This points back to tactics 1-3 above. Measure performance and let poor performers go as soon as you know that they aren’t motivated to improve.
The reason that management sometimes feels like micromanagement has a lot to do with the manager’s intentions. If the intent is to create a high performing team, whose members achieve great things and build their careers, it won’t feel like micromanagement. If you’re reading this while we’re still in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, try these tactics now and start strengthening your relationships with the members of your team while you’re all working from home. You’ll find that your team will be better prepared when they do return to the workplace, and that you’re a stronger leader as well. Stay safe and healthy, everyone!
Bonus: Kristen’s Top 5 Management Books:
1. The 12 Elements of Great Managing
3. Multipliers
5. What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
Looking to add to your leadership toolkit? The Success League is a customer success consulting firm that offers a Leadership Training program designed for Success leaders. For more information on this and our other programs and offerings, see TheSuccessLeague.io
Kristen Hayer - Kristen believes that customer success is the key to driving revenue, client retention and exceptional customer experiences. Her areas of expertise include developing success goals and metrics, designing the optimal customer journey, selecting technology, training teams, and building playbooks. Prior to founding The Success League, Kristen built and led several award-winning customer success teams. Over the past 20 years she has been a success, sales, and marketing executive, primarily working with growth-stage tech companies. Kristen has her BA from Seattle Pacific University and her MBA from the University of Washington.