“I’d be a detail freak too if I had the time…”
As readers of this blog know, much of the content shared originates from real-world scenarios, conversations, and work with our clients as we design, develop, and deliver simulation-centric learning solutions.
During a session last week for an advanced leadership program, we started talking about personality styles and how critical it is to have the skills to understand and work with all different types of styles. As the conversation continued, it started to get dangerously close to jumping the track as it went from a discussion of business leadership to an all-out gripe session. Using my facilitator skills, I was able to reel it back in, but some of the conversation was especially relevant and interesting to think about from a business leadership perspective.
The topic of micromanagement and leadership is always interesting, and can be emotional as well. One of the participants in our session shared that she was involved in a situation where she felt she was being “micromanaged to death” by a functional leader in her organization and it was driving her crazy. Our participant shared that she is on a global product management team and that a normal day for her is 12-14 hours with calls to Asia and Europe all of the time, making it impossible to have any consistency. She also shared that her team was shorthanded as a result of cutbacks in 2012 and most of the team that was eliminated has never been replaced even though the business continues to grow. She said that she is constantly stressed out and exhausted. Sound familiar?
To add to the complexity of the situation, her team has a dotted line relationship to the Compliance and Audit function. Because of the nature of their products (specialty chemicals), there are significant rules and guidelines that must be followed and standards that must be met every day in terms of product handling, formulation, delivery, inventory management, manufacturing, and implementation. Our participant shared that dealing with her contact within Compliance is needed, but extremely frustrating. The main problem that she shared was that the Compliance lead is a “detail freak” who “doesn’t have a clue how the real world of business works.” The participant further added, “It’s amazing, absolutely amazing that this Compliance manager has like one thing to do all day and I am trying to run a business. I would be a detail oriented freak too if I only had one thing to do in a day.”
This got me thinking about practical ways of working with people who could come across as being a micromanager (or a detail freak).
A micromanager wants to be involved in every little detail of the process. They comment on everything and feel that no matter what you do or say, you are wrong and they need to provide you with “the gift of feedback.” These detail oriented people can be exhausting to work with, and so I have summarized some of the things discussed during our class in terms of how to deal with micromanagers in the real world of business. As I am writing this blog, it seems they also may have good application to life in general…
#1 of Life - Avoid the detail freaks in the first place!
If you know a manager or leader has the reputation for being a control freak and you know you don’t react well to that type of behavior, just don’t do it. Run, don’t walk!
But what if you don’t know if someone is going to be a detail freak problem?
Here are a list of tendencies and behaviors our participants came up with during the discussion (they are not in any particular order):
- Detail freaks are “independents” and not part of a team – “Yeah, I don’t really have a department…I work in ‘The Matrix’ and have to pull resources from other departments to get the work done. I used to have a team but then one of my direct reports took a job in another division and then the replacement direct report wasn’t working out so it’s easier this way.” Look for patterns; one kind of crazy person in someone’s life is fine and normal, but when everyone starts running away from that person, there is a pattern.
- Detail freaks are focused on the details first and not the big picture – “Yeah, yeah, I get that we are trying to build a strategic relationship with the customer and grow a business, but can you tell me how long is it going to take for us to get all of the compliance data completed, categorized, duplicated, coded, and sent to me for review?” The detail freak loses sense of the business purpose and gets lost in the minutiae.
- Detail freaks are very particular and offer specifics on their world and your world – “So I don’t have much experience with what you do, I have only worked with a few other people that do what you do, but when I have, I know that they have done X, Y, and then Z. And I never quite understood why they did Z third when it seems obvious that X should be third. But again, I am not the expert here, only you are…but if it were up to me…and can you explain your thought process again so I better understand why X comes first and not Z?” They claim they don’t want to micromanage your job, but is that really the case?
What if for whatever reasons you can’t avoid them and you find yourself stuck with a detail freak anyway? What do you do? Our group came up with a few very interesting ideas:
Do not let the detail freak pick you to death with the slow torture of the never-ending list of requests; force them to think through and give you everything they want in a list upfront. There are two amazing things that will happen when you do this…
1. By design, it forces the micromanager not to change his mind so often and not contradict himself with endless babble. For example, “I want this new product to have high quality and I also want it to be safe and positioned as a strong brand of quality and safety.” This is opposed to endless one-off conversations about the varieties of quality, the infinite safety protocols, and the many ways to position the brand. By getting everything upfront, you can determine what the detail freak really wants.
2. The second thing that will happen is that it will help keep things in a linear order as opposed to living in the tornado of grievance and chaos.
#2 Proactively Channel Their Energy for Good, not Evil
The detail freaks are also freaks of energy. It seems like they have an endless supply of it to dig into details and keep causing chaos. The good news is that they have lots of energy. Therefore the recommendation from our class is to proactively focus that energy on positive things. For example, if the detail freak keeps telling you what he thinks you should do and you are struggling getting all of the details and go through the countless rounds of revision, ask the detail freak to write it all out for you. That way you can channel the energy into something helpful and not distracting.
#3 Get Deep and Psychological and Figure Out Where the Freak is Coming From
Bullies get what they want by being bullies. They have limited if no self-awareness and they feed on being total jerks. It’s worse in the business world when detail freak jerks are measured by productivity and they gain success by wearing everyone else out through their behaviors. We know these people and these people are just rude. If they are over the age of 14, there is a good chance that the rude detail freak jerk will never change and stop being a rude detail freak jerk. The suggestion here is that you simply can’t accept rude behavior and say “oh, that’s Fred just being Fred.”
It’s important to understand and diagnose where this behavior is coming from. What is driving it? Are they afraid of losing their jobs? Are they under an unrealistic time frame from someone above them? Have they had bad experiences in similar situations and are now taking it out on you?
Our group talked a lot about this and we unanimously agreed that knowing where the detail freak is coming from enables you put up with a certain amount of insane behavior. Understanding that it is not personal makes a world of difference and helps you get to the root cause of the issues and have the “hard conversation” that can hopefully reduce the stress and increase the productivity by channeling the energy in the right way.
Conclusion
In closing, it seems that the detail freaks are actually a lot like us: they want and need things, and want to control the outcomes of their lives. Channel their energy on the things that are helpful and proactively seek to defuse the detail freak’s tornado of chaos. If managed well, the detail freak can actually make you better by driving a better solution! Embrace it and manage it the best you can and don’t let it disable you and your ability to perform.
