Micro Managers Cause Macro Problems

Perfectionists and Micro Managers

Almost all Micro Managers share one common trait - Perfectionism. And like Cholesterol, there is good perfectionism along with bad.

Bad Perfectionism has a common trait that distinguishes this type from Good Perfectionism. It is the ingredient that makes perfectionism go sour. It is Control Freak.

A person with bad perfectionism is also a control freak. The two dance around together. Nothing separates them. The control freak has to control every aspect of the workplace. It drives them nuts if they can't control a workplace situation, no matter how tiny or insignificant.

Remember, the Micro Manager is trying to bring order out of the chaos of the perceived situation they are in. And they accomplish this with even more Micro Managing. Enter the Control Freak.

The control freak seeking a perfect little workplace seeks to control all problems. The problem is everything they see is a problem. . . Perfectionism! The control freak will take control of a workplace task even if they haven't the foggiest of what to do or how to do it. They get frustrated when they can't figure it out. (If they're lucky, their intelligent enough to realize this and pull back) But often the Control Freak's perfectionism kicks in preventing this.

Hence the downward spiral. . . and the inevitable compounding of mistake on mistake. A perfectionist in an attempt to control every nuance and task (micro manage) they often focus on the smallest tasks and are never able to pull away and see the bigger situation, the critical things that need doing. . . as a Perfectionist sees everything as critical.

One example is a manager who wanted several websites up and running. Not knowing how these things are done, she did the right thing and hired a professional to do the design. However, in walked the Control Freak, and quickly started to take over the project. Making unreasonable demands of the designer, such as complex and tricky page-layout using only basic HTML (so she could alter it later), or demanding that programs do tasks they were never designed to do. Eventually, she demanded literally 100's of changes to be implemented, but she wanted the websites up and perfect - immediately. Unrealistic expectations.

And then the anger develops, which feeds the control freak. The perfectionist wants everything done right and immediately. The Control Freak wants to do it themselves but does not know how. And the answer to all this is . . . you guessed it. Micro Manage even more.

These are the attributes of a Micro Manager. And why it always leads to chaos.

Thanks
Dafydd
mibw@yahoo.com

posted by The Fetish Lair @ 3:43 p.m.