The Why and How: A guide to make everyone’s life a little better.

By Julie Adamen

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Micromanagement: To direct or control in a detailed, often meddlesome manner.”[1]

My working definition is: The over involvement of a Board or Board members in the day-to-day business of running a community association.

For the past two issues we have been discussing micromanagement: Why Boards do it, how they do it (May, 2007) what it costs us as an industry and what we can do about it in the long run (June 2007). As promised, here are some tips for managers in the trenches on dealing with their micromanagers on a shorter-term or day-today basis.

Short Term Solutions: The professional manager’s day-to-day guide in dealing with micromanagement: Act, don’t react.

One reason we find micromanagement so frustrating is because we are reacting to it, not acting on it. Reacting to micromanagement puts us on the defensive. Being on the defensive does not serve any manager well, and if your competency is being questioned (by the micromanager) it will only prove their point: “See? I told you she was difficult!” Acting on micromanagement makes us look cooperative, professional and competent. Don’t confuse cooperation (acting on it) with giving in to what you perceive are ridiculous demands (reacting to it).  By acting on the micromanager’s input with proactive cooperation – on your professional terms – you are being active, not reactive. You are managing micromanagement.

The next reason we find micromanagement so frustrating is because it adds to our workload.  One micromanager alone can add 5 or 10 hours to a normal  week. What if you are blessed with two micromanagers? Or three? The contracts we manage don’t hold that if one community starts micromanaging, the others slack off so the manager can accommodate those needs. The bottom line is a manager can spend hours hand-holding micromanager(s) and watch their pile of normal work grow exponentially. For site managers it’s a problem, but for portfolio managers it can be a devastating blow to any semblance of work-related productivity, let alone a normal personal life.

That said, this months’ guide on dealing with micromanagers on a day-to-day basis will not initially save the manager time in dealing with his/her micromanager(s). But by managing those micromanagers up front, the hours saved in the coming weeks and months may be significant.

Before we launch in to singular aspects on how to deal with micromanagement, there are three very important principles which you must embrace if you want to survive your current micromanager and any others you may encounter in the future. They are:

1. Depersonalize micromanagement.  Micromanagement may feel personal, but indeed it is not. Micromanagers are often control-freaks[2] in every aspect of their lives; you are a mere speed bump on that highway. They will micromanage you now and someone else later. It’s about them, not about you. Let go of that “I’m under attack!” feeling that makes you angry, reactive, resentful and unproductive.  

2. Don’t fight micromanagement. Don’t fight the micromanager. If you fight him/her, particularly if s/he is a Board member, you are the one whose image will suffer; pretty soon the micromanager is looking reasonable to everyone and you are the one who looks uncooperative and obstructive, because, well, you are being uncooperative and obstructive.  Do what they ask or need, and decide to out-manage them by acting on the micromanager’s requests on your terms, not reacting with paralyzing anger and indignation. (And don’t forget to bill for all that extra time as is (hopefully) outlined in your contract).

3. Cooperate and Communicate The starting points in managing your micromanager is cooperation and communication.  Whatever they want, do your best to cooperate – again on your professional terms – and communicate that cooperation, early and often.    Do they want to see all your correspondence? No problem-o. You set the time it is emailed to them. Do they want to approve all invoices for sprinkler heads? Develop a schedule with your landscaper to provide one invoice every month (in the case of a big association, every week – or every-other-day) specifically for sprinkler heads. Set the time and day it goes to your micromanager from your landscaper, and set the time it needs to come back to you. Make sure you continually inform your micromanager what steps you are taking to ensure he receives the information he has requested. See? You are starting to manage not only the micromanager, you are managing how and when you respond.  Having this sense of control goes along way towards alleviating that powerless feeling of frustration not only by your indignation of being micromanaged, but by being taken away from the myriad of tasks you would normally being accomplishing.

With this mindset, take your active stance in managing micromanagers to the next level.

Develop formal times to meet with your micromanager on a regular basis. If you are an on site manager you probably have to meet every day with your micromanager(s).  When I was on site, these not-so-impromptu meetings occurred between 9am and noon because that’s when they all finished golfing. Unfortunately, this was my most productive work-time, forever lost to discussion about minutiae of the various aspects of what was going on in the community.  Also – they had no impetus to leave until someone got hungry – meaning meetings with no definite ending time.  If this is happening to you - how about formalizing these informal sessions in to real meetings – and you give them the time?  Try late in the afternoon when the office has calmed down. Go over all the details of whatever you are working on - and then some. I know this seems absurd and time consuming, but this strategy may be useful in that you are controlling the amount of time given to the micromanager in a set and formal meeting, giving your micromanager the importance he believes he deserves. Not to mention that folks usually have some sort of dinner plans and you are scheduled to go home in the foreseeable future; thus, meetings don’t go on without end. Face-to-face meetings can also work for portfolio managers, but they tend to be less often – not necessarily a bad thing as long as it is regular and scheduled on your terms.

Ask for suggestions.  Whenever you are meeting with your micromanager, take notes and memorialize your meeting in an email back to them. They will love you for finally seeing the light and wisdom of their input and scrutiny. Unfortunately, they should be careful what they wish for when a savvy manager takes this tack.  Now that you are cooperating and keeping them “in the loop” they so desperately need to be a part of, the micromanager will have a hard time keeping up with everything that to you as the manager do as simple day–to-day management stuff. The micromanager will have a very hard time continually imparting advice on subjects about which they truly have little knowledge. You may just find that the micromanager backs off a little rather than appear to you and others that s/he is unable to give pertinent advice or follow all the goings on of the community.

Give them projects. Here’s another good way to keep micromanagers busy - but you must manage this very well as there can be serious pitfalls should you not. Now, we all know our associations at times appoint various “ad-hoc” committees to study whatever issues that has a dissident group dusting off their pitchforks and looking for their Bic lighters. When the Board gives a dissident group “Ad Hoc Committee” status – it often isn’t so the committee will truly have input, it’s so that group can be managed.  It’s no different than giving micromanagers tasks: It’s so you can manage them, and completion of the task is not the point: Managing them by keeping them busy and feeling involved, is. This simple involvement – instigated by you, means you will develop a relationship with the micromanager, one that helps them see you as a proactive partner in solving problems, not as a defensive obstructionist. 

When implementing this tactic with a micromanager, make sure you have your list of projects that need completion, or follow up. This list should be your entire action list for the week, month, and year (if you keep one that far out). A big list not only shows what you do, but makes the micromanager feel they are needed to “help” you do your job.  Go over the list with your micromanager, and ask them to take on one, two or three projects. Make sure they know the deadlines for the projects - BUT - Don’t make the mistake of giving projects out without following up. See below.

Don’t mistake micromanagement for competency, or wanting to be truly involved. Micromanagers often appear to be competent in what they are trying to micromanage and/or as if they truly want to be involved in community projects and issues… until you involve them in a lot of things that rely on competence and commitment.

If you give a micromanager tasks – remember – you are still responsible for those tasks. You must keep track of what that person is doing and often implement a congruent method of accomplishing the task the micromanager has been assigned, or volunteered, to do.   Don’t make what could be a fatal mistake by missing a crucial deadline for which the micromanager was “responsible.” And don’t make the even more fatal mistake by allowing the micromanager to fail publicly, or by you making a point of that failure in any sort of semi-public manner.  It may be momentarily satisfying, but eventually you will pay the price, possibly with your job. Make no mistake, the buck still stops with you, and this tactic should only be utilized by the most skilled managers among us.

Most importantly, continually communicate with your micromanager(s).  The simple act of informing the Board member(s) of all the issues shows them your competence in dealing with daily business. Emails, emails, emails. What you did, what the staff is doing, when you will be where. What’s upcoming?  What’s behind? What correspondence was sent? Who came in to your office? Include the micromanager (and cc the rest of the Board whop will be astonished at the amount of work you do) in every loop there is – and them some. This process will actually take just a few minutes at the end of each day if you do it without indignation and anger. If you let go of that resistance (act with purpose, don’t react with emotion) it can save you vast amounts of time in the long run: Instead of having long phone conversations or meetings about the same subjects, they may get dealt with quickly and at your convenience via email.  And there can be an upside, in that a  daily recounting of what happened can give you a few minutes to reflect on how things went, how they may have been done better, or give you a sense of accomplishment for something that did get done on time and in budget. Also…

…Make sure and send reports at the end of the day. When you are getting ready to leave (and I mean out the door with your cell phone OFF), hit the send button and give the micromanager what s/he wants. Now there is breathing time for you. You have managed to manage the output of information given to the micromanager in a concise manner at your convenience, professionally and without rancor.   You have acted with directed professionalism, not reacted with paralyzing anger and emotion. At the end of the day, you have shown the micromanager how many complex issues that are part of the day-to-day business and that you can competently handle them. Look at it in this (proactive) light: Sending this information may well build confidence in your work for the micromanager, providing you with someone on the Board that really knows what you do.

The micromanager can become your best ally. Counterintuitive, I know. But many times the micromanager can become your champion and ally in the Board.  How? S/he may develop a close relationship with you and as s/he has had more opportunity to see what actually transpires on a day-to-day basis.  From my own experience: During my last stint as a manager (1300 condominium units), my micromanaging Board member got the bright idea that all landscape complaints, including very minor ones,  received during the day should receive a call back from the office that afternoon, beginning at 4pm, as a follow up. Sounds great, right? Well, I sat there calculating the time it would take one of my staff members to perform this task (keep in mind we had thousands upon thousands of square feet of landscaped common area). I asked one of the other Board members – one who used to micromanage and as a result had formed a close relationship with not only me but the office as a whole -  to sit in with the staff member while she returned dozens of phone calls about broken sprinklers and tiny brown spots in the lawn. Needless to say, this Board member-ally made sure that bright idea from the micromanager went quickly and quietly in to that good night as it was obvious after two days this new task would require additional staff and an increase in budget.

The Wrap Up: What we know.

The past three months I have devoted this column exclusively to the subject of micromanagement. We have examined why it occurs, what it costs and how to alleviate that micromanagement from the macro- and micro-perspectives. Here is what we know:

1. Micromanagement costs everyone money. It adds exponentially to our workload and takes us away from our required and often time-sensitive tasks.  It stunts employee development and takes the passion out of the job. It’s a major cause of manager loss, and that loss means thousands of dollars to associations and to management firms for each manager that leaves. 

2. The solutions for micromanagement control are usually not simple and take time and patience from the Board and the management team.

3. Managers must develop professional detachment and impartiality skills. All management companies should dedicate resources to help managers deal with micromanagement as it is an inescapable aspect of our profession.

4. Boards must develop leadership skills and long term management strategies for their communities through adoption of Vision and Mission statements and policies and procedures manuals, as micromanagement also takes the passion out of the volunteer members and stunts future volunteerism.  

5. Management executives must be aware of how micromanagers are adversely affecting their staff and their bottom line. They must take steps to rectify those adverse effects, be they through that executive’s intervention with the Board or by ensuring the community is invoiced for out-of-contract work product.

6. For managers on a day-to-day basis, you must remember to depersonalize and stop fighting micromanagement as it makes you defensive and gives you the appearance of being an obstructionist. Out-manage micromanagers by acting on their requests on your terms, not reacting with paralyzing anger and indignation.

Through these past three issues of NewsLine, I hope I have brought some clarity to the issue as well as some solutions. At a minimum, I hope to have driven some of you to think about how micromanagement really affects us as managers, Board members and executives. My continual contention is that we need to be proactive in combating micromanagement because micromanagement can be so terribly destructive for not only our end of the industry, but for the communities as well. And if we, as the professionals, don’t take this task in hand – who will?

“Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”

-         Stephen Covey

Did you miss the last NewsLine(s) about micromanagement? No worries, they are posted on our website, http://www.adamen-inc.com/.