Nursing leadership: how micromanagement can destroy the creative and proactive spirit
Do you remember the day you were hired at your current job? When you got the final word that you were employed because you could serve the company with the right skills. You had what they were looking for.
After 3-6 months, her boss started slowly changing the way she would perform a skill because “it would be better that way”. After several changes in his style of finishing a job, he noticed that he was waiting to be told how to do a project instead of finishing it on his own. The boss has now added more stress to his own job by mousing over staff to tell them what to do next.
Micromanagers are generally type A people with high expectations. They have trouble delegating tasks without retaining control, because they feel their work will be fired for any failure.
Basically tell the staff: I don’t trust you and in time they will except you and allow the manager to work twice as hard.
Micro-managers create negative motivation as it demoralizes employees, thus being detrimental to the organization.
As a nursing leader, you want to be respected and admired by your staff. When this happens, your staff will start working to please you. Your job as a leader is to encourage and complement your team to achieve greater effectiveness in whatever your goal is. Micromanagement weakens the team.
I know that at some point in your current job, your boss has come to you and let you know that something you did was wrong, and to make corrections. I know very few people who care to be told they made a mistake, and they usually have no problem correcting it. However, at the same time, when you do something well, you would like to attract attention.
In my career as a nurse, I completed two decades under my employer’s roof. We were in a policy change meeting of about 20 people. Before the meeting started, my supervisor slid something on the table in front of me in a yellow folder. Inside was a piece of paper that had been printed from the computer and my full name. “Congratulations on turning 20 at XXX.” He said what was in the envelope-everyone applauded-and then to the meeting. No handshake, no thanks, not a good job. I sat there and looked at this piece of paper and everything I could think of – in a yellow binder, not even framed or plaque. Two decades served for a piece of printed paper. The supervisor was already known for micromanaging and demeaning other people around her; I thought to myself that she had really outdone herself with the smallness with which she treats her staff.
Leadership is like a waterfall; water always falls from above and runs downstream. If the stream gets polluted along the way when it pools at the end, it will be stagnant and smelly.
Leading people is the same. They must be trusted to do a job they were hired to do and fed the encouragement to excel. If they are disrespected, and they are not congratulated. After a while, you have a stagnant, smelly group of staff to manage your units.
This attitude is easy to see in time and attendance; it can be seen in how the units look and are maintained.
Happy Staff – The result is a happy environment and well-cared-for patients.
When you don’t see people moving up to new open leadership positions. You need to look at the way your model runs. The hesitation in your staff should tell you something. If you have meetings and no one is asking questions or giving suggestions. Again, you need to look at the model of what you are currently running.
Good managers train their employees to do well by giving them opportunities to excel; Bad managers undermined their employees by hoarding those opportunities. And an employee without power is ineffective, one that requires a lot of time and energy from his supervisor.
From the micromanager’s perspective, the best way to build healthier relationships with employees may be the most direct: talk to them.
It may take several conversations to convince them that you are serious about the change. Getting candid feedback from employees is the hard part. Listen to them, listen to what is said.
Managers don’t listen when they forget that their employees have important ideas, and people who don’t feel heard tune out.
Are you listening to your staff?