Thursday, January 2, 2014

Project Management vs Micro-Management, Don't be the fall guy

I don't think anybody likes to be micromanaged.  I know of more than one very talented project manager that left a position because they were being micromanaged.  I have left positions because  I was expected to micromanage my project team and I was in turn being micromanaged.

When is a PM Micromanaging?

Let us get the definition of micromanagement out on the table.  The PMBOK, denotes the definition of a task to be a minimum of 80 hours.  So if you are tracking tasks, interim milestones and deliverables that have durations less than 80 hours, then you are micromanaging.
 
A leadership style that comes off as micromanaging is "Pacesetting".  Where very high expectations are set for the employees.  If the leader setting this pace, is one who proofs everything then it gets into micromanaging and is very bad for moral.  

Remember that your team members need to be leaders in their area of responsibility on the project.  They should have their own processes to follow and you should be looking for deliverables.   They should be fully capable of setting up their own working meetings and creating documentation and deliverables.

If you are required to micromanage in order to get anything accomplished, there are inherit organizational performance problems.  Instead of providing your team with the right opportunities for leading in their own areas of expertise, and moving the project forward through the various quality gates, you'll find yourself, doing your team's jobs, such as documenting their business requirements, their design, setting up their internal design meetings and design reviews for them and holding their hands every step of the way.  If the organization is requiring micromanagement.aka. extremely detailed tracking, this too is an indicator of other systemic performance problems within the organization and you as the PM are just going to be their fall guy.  

What do you think? I would love to hear your comments on this.


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Armada Business Consulting, Inc.

Need help getting from strategy to execution?  I can help.  For more information contact Trish at trish_sutter@thegoodprojectmanager.com.

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