Stop Micromanaging! Invest Time In Self-Management Strategy

by | Mar 12, 2020 | employee performance, leadership, productivity, soft skills

leadershipWhat is self-management strategy?  One of the main problems that Derek Alexander encountered in the new TIGERS® Success Series book on leadership, Becoming TIGERS – Leading Your Team to Success,  is how to properly manage his employees. Half the time he found himself micromanaging them because nothing was getting done. When he stepped back, he realized that self-management was a better strategy.  He was bossy and nobody had the initiative to manage their own day and self.

The question, of course, that people like Derek often find themselves asking is how to find the perfect management balance? How do you encourage your employees to embrace self-management, too?

At TIGERS(R), we believe employees who are successful self-managers are more productive and generally happier in the workplace. Here are five strategies that improve self-management in your company!

Self-Management Strategy #1: Efficiently Communicate

Tasks suffer when coworkers aren’t properly informed and communicated with. A productive workplace starts with efficient communication and a comprehensive understanding of projects. When employees value clear and timely information, and they practice the skill of relaying information this way, you find productivity measurably improves. Effective and efficient communication is one of the top self-management skills to improve.

Self-Management Strategy #2: To Do Lists 

Okay, it sounds cliché. However, employees who know how to create and stick to their daily to-do lists are more productive. It goes hand in hand with time management skills. By thinking through and planning your day, you  carve out time in the right time segments, determine who you will be communicating with, consider what preparation is involved before you meet and decide how long each task will take. By planning your day this way, you also find time to self-reflect and reduce stress. Some people find great benefit from planning their to do lists by the hour, so everything is efficiently accomplished.

Self-Management Strategy #3: Physical Activity 

To do lists are extremely helpful. Sometimes employees get so focused on getting things done, that they become miserable. They fluctuate from one extreme to the other, moving from motivated to exhausted and apathetic. Why? They do not spend enough time moving and spend too much time thinking and sitting. To correct this, encourage employees to get up and move around… maybe take a walk around the block for a walk-with-me-talk-with-me discussion with their coach or mentor.  When people are healthy and less stressed, they handle challenges better and are more productive in the long run.

Self-Management Strategy #4: Know Yourself

There are early birds and night owls. Some people are up early, wide-awake and ready to go. Others do best at night, stretching their waking hours into the early morning. Make sure your employees know which camp they fall into. If they recognize they are most efficient in the mornings and early afternoons, help them create a schedule that works to avoid their slump hours. Maybe this means giving them access to the office earlier in the morning.

Other employees may not start feeling efficient until after 11am. In some cases, they are more productive working later into the evening. Combining flexible schedules with self-knowledge can turn productivity up a notch. Of course, there will have to be meetings and compromises, but encourage employees to recognize and utilize their productive hours.

Self-Management Strategy #5: Banish Micromanaging For Good

Micromanagement is not required for goal achievement.  If it is required, then employees need self-management skills and so does the manager, just like Derek, the protagonist in Becoming TIGERS — Leading Your Team to Success.

By making the commitment to learning and improving employee work and soft skills,  you invest in the long-term productivity and efficiency of your business. Lead the way in in self-management to embrace improvement and rethink the way your company operates.

What skills could be incorporated? Here are a few ideas:

  • When accountability and commitment benefit your team, consider trust skills.
  • If boosting employee cooperation and reducing competition between departments or dissolving silo behavior is required, take into account interdependence.
  • For learning how to communicate in sincere, frank and forthright ways without coming down harsh or too wishy-washy then genuineness skills are the ticket.
  • When conflict resolution, listening and understanding others without lashing out or avoiding misunderstandings would benefit the team, think about empathy.
  • If decision making and planning, continuous learning or critical thinking would reduce failure, think about risk resolution skills.
  • When improving goal achievement, time management, performance coaching or establishing peer to peer mentoring are needed to boost employee productivity,  then success skills might be the ticket.

These soft skills develop the thinking, planning, behavior and success practices required for good self-management. Delivered through micro-training, your employees can at work and practice immediately on the job..

Care to dig deeper into self-management? 

Read more about the benefit and skills of self-management along with some cost effective resources in the following links:

Copyright TIGERS Success Series, Inc. by Dianne Crampton

Project Team CultureAbout TIGERS Success Series, Inc.

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