We hear a lot about micro-management and the tendency some managers have to be a little too involved in their employees’ work. Micromanagement creates frustration and erodes trust among team members. But there is a flip-side to this issue that is just as damaging to individuals and teams: under-management.
Management trainer Victor Lipman explains: “This is the term I’ve given to a constellation of behaviors that I’ve seen occurring together often during my 24 years in management: weak performance management, a tendency to avoid conflicts with employees and generally lackluster accountability. As the name suggests, there’s just not quite enough management being done – and results often suffer,” he writes.
But unlike the micromanager breathing down your neck, the under-manager is harder to spot. Because they shy away from the harder aspects of management – difficult conversations, holding people accountable for their actions, etc. – under-managers are often well-liked and receive positive feedback from their teams, says Lipman.
“But while maintaining positive relationships with your own employees is a good thing,” Lipman writes, “over the long run your priority is to deliver results.” In this article, Lipman offers three tangible steps under-managers can take to improve their own performance as well as their team’s.
