A few years ago, leadership at the health system where I worked was tasked with reading, The One Minute Manager by Kenneth H. Blanchard. As part of "leadership," I also read the book. The basic premise behind The One Minute Manager is that effective managers give their employees instruction, and then they leave employees to their own devices to do their jobs. That is, effective managers, go in, get out, and get out of the way.
I recall in discussions, how this was a nice idea. I recall further making the comment how it was a refreshing take to some other philosophies of management, which I called, "Managing Every Minute." There are some managers who think that having control over what their employees are doing every minute of every day is important.
Now, I have served as a project manager in the past, and there are times when as a leader, and manager (note they are not necessarily the same thing), that you do have to manage tasks, time spent, and activities to make sure that deadlines are met, budgets are kept, and projects are completed on time. Serving as that type of task master is not always fun or easy, but sometimes it has to be done. There also are some employees who do need regular guidance and hands-on task management. To deal with those employees, rather than asking them what they were doing for each task, I would provide them with a checklist or a "To Do" list for the day. That way, the tasks were completed, and the employee also felt a sense of ownership and accomplishment.
However, there are also those managers, who are somewhat controlling in their behaviors. The behavior goes beyond completing tasks or getting work assignments done. They demand a certain type of behavior from individuals. When the manager's demands are not met, then the employees should watch out for the freight train coming after them. This is demonstrated in the below scenarios.
A physician director had 50 direct reports in his department. Every day he would receive at least 100 emails from his reports. Sometimes, he responded to them, other times he didn't. He felt that it simply wasn't necessary, and he wished his direct reports would stop bothering him. He told them that he suffered from a reading disorder, and he did not wish to receive emails from his direct reports any longer. His comment seemed suspicious given that he was able to overcome the reading disorder enough to graduate from medical school and become a physician, but employees respected his request. He insisted that employees only call him on his phone, never leave messages with his assistant, and only talk to him in person. Many employees became frustrated as time went on. The physician director was rarely in his office, so reaching him on the phone was nearly impossible. Employees tried speaking with him in person, but he was never available. Any time an issue arose, employees would have to try to work it out themselves or schedule a meeting with the physician director. The physician director became overwhelmed with the number of employee meetings. Employees became increasingly upset and frustrated with the lack of communication.
The Information Technology (IT) manager learned when she assumed her new role that she could view all of the analysts' desktops. She always wondered what everyone was doing all day and why it took them so long to do the reports. She also thought that if she could only see what they were doing all day, then she could improve their work processes and the quality of their work. She spent most of her day perusing the analysts' desktops, and then sending them emails telling them to fix this or that with whatever they were doing. After some time, the analysts' became aware she was engaging in this behavior. They also noticed that the IT manager was targeting certain individuals, particularly high performers, over others. The high performers were getting very upset because they knew they were doing good work. When confronted, the IT manager told the high performing analysts that she wanted them to make a step by step process chart of everything they did everyday. She wanted this for every report. Creating the process charts was very time consuming for the analysts, but they knew they had to do it because the IT manager was watching their every click on their desktops. They became more and more paranoid. Some started working later shifts, so the IT manager would be gone when they were working. Several others quit. As for the IT manager, she was reprimanded by her boss because she spent so much time "evaluating" everyone else's work that she didn't have time to complete her own.
Controlling managers often create a ripple effect with their actions. Although one or several employees may be targeted, the unhappiness of the employee and the actions of the manager can affect many in the organization. The controlling behavior can cause frictions between and among different work teams, can cause a breakdown in communication, frustration and distrust among managers and subordinates, and can create a high stress, paranoid environment. Moreover, controlling manager behaviors can lead to loss of productivity, lower quality work, and high employee turnover.
I recall in discussions, how this was a nice idea. I recall further making the comment how it was a refreshing take to some other philosophies of management, which I called, "Managing Every Minute." There are some managers who think that having control over what their employees are doing every minute of every day is important.
Now, I have served as a project manager in the past, and there are times when as a leader, and manager (note they are not necessarily the same thing), that you do have to manage tasks, time spent, and activities to make sure that deadlines are met, budgets are kept, and projects are completed on time. Serving as that type of task master is not always fun or easy, but sometimes it has to be done. There also are some employees who do need regular guidance and hands-on task management. To deal with those employees, rather than asking them what they were doing for each task, I would provide them with a checklist or a "To Do" list for the day. That way, the tasks were completed, and the employee also felt a sense of ownership and accomplishment.
However, there are also those managers, who are somewhat controlling in their behaviors. The behavior goes beyond completing tasks or getting work assignments done. They demand a certain type of behavior from individuals. When the manager's demands are not met, then the employees should watch out for the freight train coming after them. This is demonstrated in the below scenarios.
A nurse executive had a regular quarterly meeting with a group of physicians her area served. She asked a new manager, an early careerist to attend one of the meetings. The meeting was at 7:00 am off-site in a metropolitan area. The new manager drove to the meeting, was stuck in rush hour traffic, and got lost in the building because she couldn't find the meeting room. She was 15 minutes late. Several of the physicians arrived after her. They complained about the terrible traffic, and they also mentioned how they could not find the meeting room. After the meeting, the nurse executive chastised the new manager for being late. She said that the manager had embarassed her in front of the physicians and told her she was not welcome to come to any more meetings. As time went on, the nurse executive continuously complained about the new manager being late to meetings, even though it had only happened the one time. A few months later, the nurse executive told the manager that if she was going to be late to a meeting not to come to the meeting. Because of the demands of her job, the new manager missed several meetings. The nurse executive then complained to the physicians vehemently about the new manager stating that the manager was late to the meetings and also never came to the meetings. She said the new manager "didn't have any skills and didn't know how to do anything," and continued to retaliate against the new manager. Physicians eventually stopped attending the nurse executive's meetings.
A physician director had 50 direct reports in his department. Every day he would receive at least 100 emails from his reports. Sometimes, he responded to them, other times he didn't. He felt that it simply wasn't necessary, and he wished his direct reports would stop bothering him. He told them that he suffered from a reading disorder, and he did not wish to receive emails from his direct reports any longer. His comment seemed suspicious given that he was able to overcome the reading disorder enough to graduate from medical school and become a physician, but employees respected his request. He insisted that employees only call him on his phone, never leave messages with his assistant, and only talk to him in person. Many employees became frustrated as time went on. The physician director was rarely in his office, so reaching him on the phone was nearly impossible. Employees tried speaking with him in person, but he was never available. Any time an issue arose, employees would have to try to work it out themselves or schedule a meeting with the physician director. The physician director became overwhelmed with the number of employee meetings. Employees became increasingly upset and frustrated with the lack of communication.
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Controlling managers often create a ripple effect with their actions. Although one or several employees may be targeted, the unhappiness of the employee and the actions of the manager can affect many in the organization. The controlling behavior can cause frictions between and among different work teams, can cause a breakdown in communication, frustration and distrust among managers and subordinates, and can create a high stress, paranoid environment. Moreover, controlling manager behaviors can lead to loss of productivity, lower quality work, and high employee turnover.
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