Just Do It! - People Trust

We build churches with volunteers! Everyone works!Leaders are accused of being micromanagers many times when they don't deserve it.  Far and away the number one false diagnosis of micromanagement is made by the person who simply cannot follow the plan.  This person has not become part of the team, he is not a good follower, she does not want to learn, he is lazy, she is a "know it all," and he simply will not learn to do it the current way before he wishes to not do it, do it poorly or do it his own way.

This person is the new guy who has all the "brand new ideas that no one has ever had before" or the new girl who joined your great organization so "she could add to it and improve it."  I first met this person when I, who was still in college, was hiring people who had finished their undergraduate degrees but had no work experience.  These people actually thought that they were going to come in and run the company, change the world and just jump to the top of the pile.  To be fair, many of them were very smart, very adept and very good at what they had learned.  These star performers would most certainly be groomed but they had no experience in the business and therefore had to learn the basics.  Some of the new hires got it, slowed down, listened, watched, grew and then after mastering the way it had been done successfully before their arrival, they began to really help, add and improve the processes.

Unfortunately, there were many who never got it.  They simply had not been trained as kids to follow, to listen or to learn.  They were apparently raised by superheroes who never needed instruction and who knew the right way all of the time.  They simply could not do anything without correcting it, feeling they could improve it or needing to change it.  They had to have their way.  Aha - they are really the budding micromanagers! 

The fact that a person does not want to follow the plan or course already laid does not mean that the person leading them is a micromanager or too controlling.  Leaders need to be careful to LEAD while they are in the TRENCH.  Yes, I believe it is essential that leaders have been in and be able to survive in the very trench in which their followers work; however, I also know that friendship, comradery and the like cannot be allowed to cloud the leadership ability of the leader.

Democracy means mob rule.  For a decade or more the rage has been to have "facilitators" instead of a leader in charge.  Meetings are longer with no clear agenda, and there is no one to direct the group when there are seemingly unresolvable conflicts.  I say, "All hail Donald Trump!"  Okay, there may or may not be some questions you have about him morally, but those are your questions.  He has taken his ego, bravado and solid business sense and spun it into a huge success.  Even more, he recovered from horrible loss of that success.  There are many things that Donald does well, but most outstanding is that he does not do mob rule.  For better or worse - he leads.

Leaders need to shut down the people who begin to whine "micromanagement" without first submitting to management, embracing the team or learning to do it by the book.  Leaders need to look at their people and say, "Just do it already."  How many ways are there to clean a toilet and who named these newbies the toilet cleaning consultants?  Did you really hire this man to change the way you process and record sales or did you hire him to sell?  There is a time for the leader to say, "Just do the job."  That is not micromanagement - it is management and leadership.  If people whine about basic leadership, they most certainly do not need to be the people to redesign the process.

The flip side is: when trusted, faithful people - who have mastered the process, continued to learn and have innovated - come up with new ideas or want to take over a task, they need to be trusted.  Give them their shot, for even if the idea is not better the job is getting done, you aren't doing it and a leader is emerging. Win, win, win!