The best of both worlds: Micromanaging and Macromanaging

What is the best style of management? At a recent workshop I gave, participants were discussing the pros and cons and macromanagement and micromanagement. We know that either of the options will not produce the best performance from the team.

Marcomanagement is too hands-off and will not get the desired performance from the team. Micromanagement is too hands-on and will suffocate the team, also not getting the desired performance from the team.

Peter Druker, the revered 'father of modern management,' introduced the concept of Management by Objective. Management by Objectives, or MBO, is based on desired outcome. Unlike traditional management, where a manager directs his team by how much each member should produce or complete, MBO managers direct their team by focusing on the end results: what needs to be accomplished.

Objective and Key Results (OKR) is a good example of Management by Objectives:

• The manager decides what they need their team to accomplish in a given time frame.
  
• The manager helps create strategies to enable the team to accomplish the objectives.
  
• The manager develops metrics to measure how well the outcome was accomplished.

OKR can successfully be used for one time projects or ongoing teamwork. The OKR framework combines the best aspects of both micromanagement and macromanagement. With OKR managers meet with the team to decide together what to focus on, and what timely outcomes they expect. It provides the manager with specifics tools with which to measure the outcome and the performance of the team. It also enables the manager to entrust the team to make the best possible decisions based on the outcome they are all working toward. The manager stays available to coach and guide the team but becomes a mentor to consult with rather than a dictator that tells them exactly what to do.

A great manager must ask themselves the following:

• Am I giving the team enough information, and does the team understand what the desired outcome needs to be?
• Am I giving the team enough space to operate on their own without suffocating them and killing all creativity and innovation?

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If the answer to either of those questions is NO. Managers should really reconsider their management style and tactics and embrace a hybrid performance management framework like the objectives and key results one to get the best possible performance from the team.