Tag Archives: Management

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20131003-in-praise-of-micromanagement

Sydney Finkelstein from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business is promoting selective management as a valuable management tool.  We are all taught to delegate responsibilities and let go; Finkelstein argues that “it must be delegate and be intimately involved with what happens next”.

This is an interesting concept but one that is hard to practice.  When I am training my colleague to prepare him for my old position or managing my intern, I always have to remind myself to not get too involved, or micromanage, them.  Instead, I would like them to learn the process themselves and have it ingrained in them.

However, when I forget, I always worry if the job is getting done correctly or if there is something that I didn’t teach them correctly.  It’s hard to find the balance and I find Finkelstein’s point interesting, especially this paragraph:

“You will likely step on some toes along the way and you may go too far on occasion, but which is worse: occasionally butting in on a subordinate’s work to make a point, or not providing real-time feedback to help that subordinate grow and excel?”

How do you feel about micromanagement and do you think that selective micro-management is a skill you practice?