When Your Project Team Needs Extreme Management

Micro-management is like a bad four-letter word.  At least to me it is.  I know there are managers out there who love it and live by it.  And there are workers out there that need it – including some very needy ones that may actually want it.  But as a general rule, most individuals do NOT like to be micro-managed.  I know I hate it and I’m pretty sure that - with the exception of maybe one or two resources that I’ve had on projects or as direct reports – do not like to be baby-sat on a daily basis.  And in my mind “babysitting” is exactly what micro managing feels like – from both sides!  What professional has the time to do that?  I know I certainly do not.

I’ve spent many years as both a resource manager with direct employees and as a project manager in a matrix resource environment where I had no on-going direct responsibility for my project team members once the project was over.  In both cases, I assumed these individuals to be competent, capable, and skilled resources who were ready to perform on their assigned tasks.  In the case of the direct employees, that’s why I interviewed them and hired them.  In the case of the project resources … well … I always work with what is given to me but I also know that they were interviewed and hired (and assigned to my project) because they are skilled and competent.  Innocent until proven guilty, right?

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