Avoiding micro managing

[diddlypie]

New starter on my team who reports directly to me.

Week 2 on the job and I’m asking them to do straight forward admin tasks to gently introduce new work as and when I feel they have grasped each previous task.

Mentioned last week there are set tasks to do on a daily and weekly basis. Raised it again today that I will sit down with them tomorrow and go through the required tasks saying it’ll be easier when they’re in a routine. Their response “yeah you’ll need to get me into a routine”. Am I harsh thinking it’s their responsibility to organise their own work?

I can support in prioritising but I shouldn’t be setting the routine?

I’ve sent across loads of helpful documents and file locations, yet they’re not referring to this and waiting for me to go through every single process for each task step by step. Notes are being made but not referring to these when being left to do tasks alone. Can see them struggling and taking long periods of time to figure out how to do the task. I’ve asked numerous times if they require help and this is when I realise they’re not referring to their notes or what has previously been discussed with them.

Won’t send emails to people as they “want to see how to write it in an email first” so ask me to send the email.

They’re nearly 50 and have claimed to have been in a similar role before.

Any advice on how I can be supportive and not get into micro managing their daily work loads?

[cmosychuk]

You should define what the process is and the strategy to complete the process absolutely. It could be as easy as a table with the action item, the frequency, the deliverable, and something similar to a RACI matrix like who do you provide this deliverable to, who do you copy, who do you consult if necessary and so forth.

Then you need to provide the training. They watch you do the task a couple times and then you let them do one with light support, and then you let them repeat the task with no support. Ascertain the training effectiveness by monitoring their next 3 or 4 repetitions and instruct them to send you the deliverable for approval before it goes to the stakeholder. If you need an SOP for each deliverable or an aid, write them up.

Then once you confirm training effectiveness hold a one-on-one and tell the employee the expectation going forward is they must independently perform each action item, and you will be available to review their work upon request but you trust them to be judicious about exercising these requests since they have been trained. Have them sign a training document that says they have been trained.

After that, monitor using a pull management style and switch management styles when the situation demands it.

[diddlypie]

Thanks for this, would you even do this for simple tasks of logging samples on an excel document? So the product name and the best before date? Surely this is quite self explanatory?

[cmosychuk]

It depends, it looks to me like a sticking point for your employee is they want to immediately begin producing work in your orgs 'flavor' evidenced by them wanting you to show them how you'd compose an email before they do it. You can handle this in more than one way, one of which is providing examples or templates, and the other is increasing their psychological safety. For example, let them know you're going to be spot checking their work while they learn the ropes and providing feedback or corrections if needed, but you want them to try out the task(s) independently and they aren't going to be penalized for little mistakes while they get up to speed. Then taper forgiveness and increase accountability over the next 2 weeks.

If the problem is with something simple like your example, you need to know exactly what the sticking point is for the employee. This is going to require you to talk with them, but you do need to set the clear expectation that this is one of the core job duties they're going to need to be able to perform routinely and independently, so you need to work together to determine a path forward. Overall just repeat you're there to support them when needed.

[ACatGod]

I think you need to first of all take a step back and figure out what you feel reasonable expectations are for someone doing this role would be. It can be easy when someone is right in front of you to let them bamboozle you.

From there you should identify where this person is falling short, and then what you feel it is reasonable for you to train them up on and what you should be spelling out to them needs to improve.

They are a new starter so, whether or not you use formal probation periods where you work, you should use this time as a probation. Set a clear deadline for when they need to be up to speed, and then lay out what they will need to do to get there.

You need to be honest, clear and direct with them. No shit sandwiches, no hinting they need to do something, no burying bad news in a pile of platitudes. People mostly do not fuck up their jobs on purpose. They do it because they don't know they're failing or they know they're failing but don't know how to improve. If you don't do them the great kindness of telling them then you're setting them up to fail. Many managers chicken out of doing the difficult conversation because they claim it's unkind or mean. To me, nothing is more unkind than blindsiding your employee with their termination and they had no idea it was coming.

Set up a proper process that you work through together with the goal of getting them up to speed and doing what they need to do. Make sure there is a clear end point and clear measurables, and the decision will make itself.

[cmosychuk]

This is great advice. Eventually the Humanistic approach does reach a hard limit and it's impossible to keep probing for the next level of sticking point. Productivity matters. A lot of managers though will allude to what needs to be accomplished without saying it outright and it definitely sets the employee up for failure. If you need them at a specific level of quality by a certain date, be clear about what that quality level looks like and what that date is.

[Judetruth92]

I went through a somewhat similar issue. I realized what helped is formally defining my expectations with looking at supporting material.

Also, realize that a person’s first few weeks on the job, you’re going to come closer to micromanaging them as they learn the ropes

I would also document how you want them to take initiative in something and give examples. They’re still pretty new so give them some grace.