Be Careful – Your Management Style Reveals More Than You Might Think

By really observing what a manager focuses on you can get a good insight into their management style. Rather than talk about the common autocrat democrat stuff we have indentified an interesting sub species - The Micro-Strategy Managers.

Mic-Strat obsesses about two things - micro managing and strategy. This is a very dangerous combination because it misses out the meat in the sandwich, operational delivery. Spending time on pursuing a huge acquisition whilst simultaneously choosing the colour of the office chairs is not a good combination.

Strategy is fine, growth is obviously a critical capability, but so is operational excellence and this is something Mic-Strat struggles to pay attention to. S/he has made a fundamental mistake. They have confused micro managing with attention to detail, they think they are synonymous – they’re not.

Attention to detail is all about making sure there is a coherent, joined-up plan that shows clearly how the big picture stuff gets converted into operational delivery. Having set up the process, attention to detail means building ownership throughout the organisation to pay attention to the small things that make the difference, literally the detail. When people (both front line and management) feel accountable for all the components of operation delivery, high standards become institiutally embedded.

Micro management is none of these things. Micro management is about getting involved in things that should be delegated down the line. Micro management disempowers people to take responsibility, if a CEO is choosing the table decorations for the Christmas party between meetings on a key merger and interviewing a new COO you can see the problem. Welcome to Mic-Strat’s world. Their waking nightmare is losing control; they feel that nobody can do the job as well as they can, that they can add value to every decision in every field. They think this approach comes across as passionate, leading from the front rather than in reality; their subordinates see them as desperate and insecure.