I hate having the minute details of my work managed by a supervisor. It can drive me crazy. Likewise, I’ve always tried to hire people and staff projects with resources based on the skills needed to do the job and I like to think that those roles have been filled by very competent individuals. Therefore, I’ve managed them as if that is the case until I see something that would cause me to think differently. Thankfully, that has rarely been the case.
That said, there are individuals out there who feel empowered to micro-manage their staff employees and/or their project team resources. They feel the need to look into nearly every detail of the work that their resources perform. I’m of the opinion that this serves no other purpose than to bloat the manager’s ego and feeling of self-worth while also serving to undermine the productivity and resourcefulness of the project staff they are overseeing. Creativity gives way to fear and resentment. And I’m fairly certain that fear and resentment is not what you want to see in your project team as you’re trying gain their respect and extract as much productivity from them as possible.
The experienced project manager needs to recognize the situation and the resources for what they are – skilled professionals – and treat them as such. Resist the urge to over manage or micro-manage. I’ve seen broken down employees and resources who have been under their supervisor’s thumb for far too long and it’s not a pretty sight.
Now that we’ve discussed what I believe are some of the negatives of over managing or micro-managing your resources, let’s consider what a project manager can do to create a more positive and productive working environment for his project resources:
Assign clearly defined tasks
If you want the most in productivity from your project team, give them clearly defined tasks. If you don’t want to end up needing to micro-manage them in order for them to do the work, then don’t make their work assignments vague or hard to understand. They should leave you knowing what to do, what’s expected of them, and what they’ll need to do in order to be successful. If they don’t know those things, then you’ve likely failed in providing them a clear assignment and your project may suffer as a result.
Be there to knock down the barriers
You’re not onboard as the project manager to be a burden to your staff. You are actually there to remove burdens from them. If something is causing them concern, they should come to you. If something is preventing them from getting their work done, they should come to you. If the customer is giving them conflicting information, they should come to you. One of the project manager’s main jobs is to ensure that the project team has a clear path to success. If they are successful, then the project manager and, ultimately, the project is successful.
Manage the project, not the resources
The project manager needs to provide direction to the resource as well as some management oversight. However, the project manager has great responsibility for the project communication, project deliverables, status reporting, status meetings, budget management and forecasting, and management of the project schedule. If the project manager does all of those things well, most of the rest of the project will do well, too.
Handle the customer