Getting It Just Right: Don’t Micromanage

By CHUCK FRENCH

How many times have you heard someone say, “I hate to be micromanaged”? I had never heard this term before I began my career in the fire service, and it took me a while to fully understand the meaning of “micromanage.” Now I’m fully aware of what it means and what micromanagement looks like in the workplace. However, I now realize that some of our personnel don’t understand the difference between micromanagement and just plain management. Some of our people throw out “micromanagement” even when they’re simply being managed. So, either an employee truly doesn’t understand the term micromanagement or doesn’t fully comprehend when supervisors must manage.

We need to understand each of these terms well-micromanagement, management, and undermanagement-to better prepare fire service personnel for being managed and for company officers, district chiefs, and other executive officers to know how not to manage. Also, any good fire officer should know the four duties to perform to manage personnel effectively without them feeling they are being watched 24/7. Here are some tools to become an effective fire service manager.

MICROMANAGEMENT

“Micromanagement is defined as a management style in which a supervisor closely observes or controls the work of an employee.”¹ It’s the first sign of a lack of trust and the first sign that a supervisor has been promoted to a level beyond his abilities. Micromanagers have a hard time adjusting to new positions and end up reverting to levels of competency with which they are familiar.² This indicates they are working outside of their expected level of performance and usually creating time-management issues along the organization’s management path. Basically, they are not performing at the level the organization needs them to. Two examples follow.

• The manager is unable to perform effectively in his position, usually because of a lack of education, deficient knowledge/skills/abilities, or an unwillingness to perform.
• The manager cannot let go of the power he perceives to be part of his promoted position. Such a manager does not trust anyone other than himself to make decisions that affect the organization. He feels that he is the only person in the organization who can make the right decision.

Micromanagement can damage relationships between managers and employees. “Micromanagement stifles manager–employee communication, creativity, productivity, problem-solving, flexibility, trust, feedback, interest, and openness; it adversely affects company growth and goal attainment.” (1) Executive leaders who micromanage assume all responsibility, won’t take risks, don’t include senior members in decision making, make or review all decisions, and constantly work outside of the time-management model. (2) Bruce Tulgan, president of Rainmaker Thinking, a consulting and training firm, says when employees are asked what they want from their managers, they respond, “Clear statements of what is expected of them, explicit and measurable goals and deadlines, detailed evaluation of each individual’s work, and rewards for work performance given out fairly.”³ Tulgan adds that star performers yearn for autonomy and flexibility. Successful managers are highly engaged and hands-on but also demand strict accountability for results. If you’re the boss, the most important part of your job is taking care of your people.

Micromanagement can also create harm in an organization, as shown by the following quotes:

• “The micromanager takes essential management practices to extremes and interferes with employees’ ability to do their jobs properly while creating undue stress for them.”⁴
• “Micromanagement is mismanagement; and under it, the manager, the employees, and the business all suffer.” (4)
• “Micromanaging may work for a while, but, in time, it acts as a brake on all progress.”⁵

Is there a time to micromanage? Micromanagement can be effective sometimes, especially when dealing with new employees or those who need correction because of a lack of proper performance. When you get a rookie firefighter, sometimes you do have to manage him closely and help him understand the proper way to perform tasks. However, coaching and mentoring these new people are the ultimate goals. Teach them, and help them along the way. If all you do is micromanage them, they will become drones who will respond only when managed in such a way.

MANAGEMENT

“Management means working with others to accomplish mutual objectives,” according to R.S. Fleming.⁶ He adds that management has four functions: planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. Each function is supported by communications and decision making. According to Tulgan, when you inform your employees what is expected of them and reinforce it over and over, they start performing to the level that is expected. When they follow standard operating procedures/emergency operating procedures, employees learn best practices through repetition and the policies the department expects them to be familiar with. (3)

In today’s fire service, managing is getting harder and harder because of high pressure, high maintenance, and higher expectations from the general public. The budget constraints every department faces demand that we learn to do more with less, including managing our fire personnel. Remember, our business is managing people. As long as we are in that business, we must hold our people accountable and responsible for their actions. It’s the adult course of action: Act like an adult, and you’ll be treated like an adult. Management can create the right atmosphere to effect a productive workplace. Without proper management, chaos develops and leads to organizational failure.

UNDERMANAGEMENT

Undermanagement occurs when managers don’t tell their people what to do and how to do it. In our society, leaders, managers, and supervisors fail to perform by failing to lead, to manage, and to supervise. Too often, the people who are supposed to be in charge are not because they are not stepping up to take charge. They fail to establish expectations; consistently track employee performance; correct employees; and, worst of all, recognize success. (3) How can this type of management be detrimental to your department? Undermanagement can destroy the organization from the inside out, creating management problems inside the organization with personnel and leaving it vulnerable to attacks from those outside of the organization (e.g., city administration like human resources, legal departments, and workers’ compensation). If you continue to undermanage your people, they will not learn the values of the organization. Undermanagement also does not properly prepare the leaders of tomorrow to learn how to effectively manage. We are setting those future fire service leaders up for failure.

Most of the time, we create a cycle that is repeated within an organization and is not corrected until something awful happens. That awful event could be a black eye for the organization from the actions of its people at an incident or something far worse, like a line-of-duty death. Usually, that is when a dramatic change takes place in the leadership practices of an organization because now it has to change. The public, the city officials, and all those affected by the services provided demand quality management.

MANAGEMENT VS. MICROMANAGEMENT

Understanding the differences between management and micromanagement is important. Sometimes employees don’t know the difference. Sometimes employees do know the difference but use micromanagement as a tactic to embolden their position. Sometimes even managers don’t know the difference. Managers need to understand how to deal with employees who want to buck the system using micromanagement as their cop-out. The balance between micromanagement and undermanagement is management.

When an employee tells you he doesn’t want to be micromanaged, ask him why he feels he is being micromanaged. You may find out that either he doesn’t understand you’re just trying to manage, or he understands and is using the statement to get you to shut down as a manager. What you may also learn is you really are micromanaging your people. Communication concerning how we deliver our message to our people is paramount in almost every situation. As a good manager, you must be able to understand the people you work with and, just as important, they need to be able to understand you. Understanding each other comes from good quality communication skills.

THE GOOD OFFICER’S FOUR DUTIES

Duty #1: Guide. What is guidance, and why is it important? Guidance is leadership, instruction, or direction that helps pass on knowledge to those who don’t have it. To offer guidance is to help steer a person along the right course of action. The importance of giving guidance, especially to succeeding generations, is that it is one way we pass on our fire service traditions. Guidance is needed at every level in an organization. Firefighters, company officers, and chief officers all need people to help guide them along the way.

The experience we gain in the field is an important component of our profession. Guidance offers us also the right experiences to be a successful firefighter. Your firefighters want and look for a good leader to be a guide. They want someone who will take time to teach them and pass on his wisdom. By taking on your task as a guide, you’re helping your people reach their career goals by building on their success.

Consider all the guides available to us in the world: tourist, mountain, river rafting, and hunting. When we journey to unknown places or on unknown adventures, we hire a guide to lead us through the unknown so we can be safe and achieve success. I think of a sherpa who guides people on climbing expeditions on Mount Everest. The sherpa knows the best path to the top, along with the mountain’s hidden dangers and weather patterns. With this knowledge, sherpas help guide people who have only a limited knowledge of the environment all the way to the summit. That is exactly what our people want in a fire service guide. The fire service can be a great adventure. While we are experiencing that adventure, we need excellent fire service guides. By being a guide and taking people under our wing, we are leading them along a successful career path.

Duty #2: Direct. This means being straightforward and frank with each other. I like candid, straightforward discussions, especially when they are warranted. It lets me know what is expected, how I should perform, or what is needed from someone. I often tell people, “Hey, if you see me messing up, please let me know!” Otherwise, I’ll just keep doing whatever it is I’m doing the same way.

Directness is a skill you must practice for proficiency. Human beings naturally tend to avoid conflict, and so we often avoid being direct with each other. However, when such a moment presents itself we must be direct, because by doing so we clearly communicate our expectations. Directness in our dealings with people need not create conflict. In most instances, directness creates mutual respect. Also, recognizing the times and places for directness can lead to more open communication.

Being direct does not mean being cold or mean toward each other. Choosing the correct tone of voice and phrases will help get your point across effectively. Being direct is like being a movie or television director: You make tiny corrections to get the best performance from your people. Don’t beat around the bush-tell them what you need them to do to get it right, and then move on. Movie directors know that they need their actors to succeed on the set to produce a quality film. If they don’t direct their actors, the product is of poor quality, which yields little or no profit.

Duty #3: Mentor. A mentor is a trusted person who serves as a counselor or guide to an individual. Mentors can also be seen as coaches, bosses, or teachers who help people develop to their full potential. Everyone has mentors at different phases of their lives. Your parents, schoolteachers, coaches, friends, professors, coworkers, and even supervisors have made an impact on your life and career. These are the people who have invested their time and effort for you to succeed. They noticed your potential and knew that they could help you along the way in your career. They did that not to gain anything from you but to pass on what was done for them before you came along.

Mentoring your firefighters is important because they seek your counsel. They want to know when they are doing the right things and what areas they can work on to improve their personal skill set. All firefighters want to be the best they can be throughout their careers. Firefighters have incredible drive and seek constant improvement. They know that constantly improving themselves improves their crew while improving their fire department. Mentoring firefighters has also been a hot topic in the fire service overall. Fire departments often complain about succession planning and having personnel ready to accept high roles within the organization. Mentoring is one piece of the puzzle to help fill in the gap.

Duty #4: Correct. Correction is one of the hardest actions for most managers. No one likes to be corrected, but sometimes a subordinate must be corrected. Correction is the act of adding to or taking away mistakes to correct an action. It is important to correct subordinates so they learn the right way to accomplish a task. They need to understand the organizational expectations, the steps they need to complete, and why they must include such steps to produce the right result. That right result could relate to a wide range of things in the fire service-e.g., performance issues such as selecting the right diameter hoseline to attack a fire, completing emergency medical service reports correctly to prevent documentation problems, or treating your primary customers (i.e., citizens) with respect whenever or wherever you encounter them.

How does correction impact management? If not done, undermanagement results, which leaves the people in your organization unclear on the rules and expectations. So, they may make the rules up as they go along or justify actions that should have never been taken in the first place. Correction is the hardest task for a manager, but the more you do it, the better you become at it. To improve your approach when correcting someone, study and practice the best ways to apply correction. You will prevent future issues, and your people will appreciate you in the long run.

Management is an important function in any organization. Without proper management, outcomes for a public or private entity can be detrimental. The fire service also needs good management practices. If we don’t develop our people into good managers, we can’t expect them to be great leaders. Having a good grasp on management concepts and applying them when needed are musts for company officers and higher ranking members.

Endnotes

1. Fracaro, KE. (2007) “The Consequences of Micromanagement.” Contract Management, July 2007. Retrieved from http://www.ncmahq.org/files/articles/ecb0a_cm0707_c01.pdf.

2. Sargent, C. (2006) From Buddy to Boss: Effective Fire Service Leadership. Tulsa, Oklahoma: Pennwell Corporation.

3. Tulgan, B. (2007) It’s Okay to be the Boss: The Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming the Manager Your Employees Need. New York, New York: Harper Collins.

4. “Micromanagement is Mismanagement: Are You a Micromanager?” (2001-2013) National Federation of Independent Business. Retrieved from http://www.nfib.com/business-resources/business-resources-item?cmsid=31587.

5. Adams, PE. (1999-2002) “Micro-Managing Will Strangle Your Business.” Retrieved from http://www.adams-hall.com/micwilstrany.html.

6. Fleming, RS. (2010) Effective Fire and Emergency Services Administration. Tulsa, Oklahoma: Pennwell Corporation.

CHUCK FRENCH is a 16-year veteran and a chief officer with the Tulsa (OK) Fire Department. He has a master’s degree in fire and emergency management from Oklahoma State University. French was an instructor at FDIC 2013, has written articles for Fire Engineering, and was featured in the Fire Engineering webcast, “Manage Your Air, Manage Your Survival.” Since 2006, he has been a technical rescue and advanced fire behavior instructor in Oklahoma.