Whether consciously or not, you’ve developed a management style you believe empowers your team to be productive, efficient, collaborative, and innovative. But what if instead of furthering those goals your management style was actually holding all of them back? It’s a troubling thought, but if you are known as a micromanager, it’s likely a reality. Just consider the negative impact this management style has on IT teams:

You Fail to Manage Fully

Micromanagement is all about control, and by its very nature it takes a lot of time. If you’re spending most of your day looking over people’s shoulders and sweating over irrelevant details, it means you’re neglecting your other responsibilities as manager – leading, motivating, planning, strategizing, etc. That does a huge disservice to your IT team because it means they have a babysitter rather than a manager invested in doing the best for everyone.

You Lose the Trust of Your Employees

The more you micromanage your employees, the less they will trust and respect you. That has far-reaching consequences, from loss of productivity to increases in turnover. The simple fact is that if you don’t trust your team, they won’t trust you back. Instead of hovering, delegate responsibilities, and have faith that your team will turn in quality work that reflects your instructions.

You Make Your Employees Dependent

In many ways, micromanagement is a self-perpetuating phenomenon. The more closely you monitor and control your IT team, the more closely they will need to be monitored and controlled in order to complete assignments. That simply wastes your team’s skills and talents because you’re essentially making every single decision for them. Over time, the quality of the team as a whole will decline and morale will plummet as a feeling of incapability sets in.

You Burnout

Keep in mind that micromanagement is as hard on you as it is on your team, possibly even harder. You spend all day closely monitoring everyone, closely scrutinizing every detail, and closely tracking performance. That is on top of whatever other responsibilities you have. As the work and stress mount, it can easily lead to burnout. As a result, you either become even less effective as a manager, or leave your team without a manager entirely.

You Constantly Struggle With Turnover

There are very, very few people who appreciate or enjoy being micromanaged. As people sour on your overbearing style, they will feel a strong temptation to quit, often without warning. Sudden turnover like that throws your entire team into turmoil and adds recruitment to your long list of things to do.

Clearly, micromanaging is bad for your team. But so is an entirely hands-off approach. Your team needs a manager, just not one that breathes down their necks. Learn more about building and managing great IT teams by having a conversation with the NYC IT staffing professionals at RennerBrown.