The Engagement Power of Trust and Autonomy
There is nothing worse than being micromanaged by someone. This is an energy and effort drain to constantly having to look over our shoulders to see if we are making a manager, or leader happy. Constantly having to report out on my effort and to be told I should change this to make the impact was frustrating. I had a new manager that was also a friend one time and it was hard to manage the relationship.
I thought I could, but when the manager would constantly tell me how to do things, change the report to this view, put in these bullet points, it caused me to stop and say, why do you have me doing this? I can be kind of blunt so I’m sure when the manager heard this their blood pressure skyrocketed as well.
It took many discussions to figure out the relationship because I had a friendship, but think about how many people report to micromanagers that are not friends with them. I shared a few weeks ago that engagement globally fell to 21% in 2024. Now there are various reasons why, but one can be attributed to leaders and managers that are micromanaging their teams.
Involve, Don’t Dictate
As a high driver, it is sometimes hard for me to let my son do things his way when I have had the experience. Sometimes I am even surprised by the fact that it worked out even when not doing it my way. Yes, I have a lot to learn about parenting, but the same is true for leadership and management. They need to let the employees develop their own way of doing things and not be told exactly how to do everything. By dictating to people we are in essence training robots. Sometimes we can be surprised at the outcome being better or more efficient than our ways.
Autonomy Is Key
We can have Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) about the position and show the employees how to perform certain tasks, but then leaders and managers need to step away and let the employees take ownership of the operation so they feel like they are apart of the decision and outcome. If we direct every movement when things go wrong, the employee will just throw up their hands and say it’s not their fault. By giving autonomy, the employee will take ownership on how the task / operation is done and want to improve and make better the outcome. They will want to keep showing up and improving to become more efficient.
Tell the Truth
The best leaders take ownership of the outcome when things fail and give credit to the team when missions succeed. They also tell the truth. We are not talking about my bluntness here. We are talking about when the leader makes a mistake they don’t brush it under the rug, they acknowledge it and own the mistake. Transparency and ownership of the issue allows the employees to see the value that the organization has and they will start taking more ownership and communicate better as well.
The employees are looking at the leadership to see how they are to engage in the environment so it is up to leadership teams to make sure they are doing thing well as a guide to what success looks like. They need to sometimes show, then step away to let the employees lead themselves on the task. Being truthful and transparent will also carry the weight of the mission with the employees allowing them to take more ownership and become more engaged as well.
Hope this helps and here’s to your success Cheers!
Master the Art of Influence: Build Trust, Drive Sales, and Lead Effectively
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