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A one percent improvement, just one… that’s all we need to take productivity in the UK from the bottom, to the top of the international league table. That is according to Sir Charlie Mayfield, Chairman of John Lewis. Halting the plague of micromanagement across the business world would solve this at a stroke, and the role of the HR director is key. This article is taken from issue 159 of theHRDIRECTOR. Contributor Mike Taylor, Managing Director – Accelerating Experience.
The productivity crisis in UK is well documented. Policymakers and boardrooms have grappled with faltering productivity for years, which has inflicted a prolonged drag on the economy. The gap between the UK and rival nations is growing and not shrinking, Sir Charlie Mayfield, Chairman of John Lewis and of business forum the Productivity Leadership Group has warned. Yet just a one increase in UK productivity could reduce the annual government deficit by around £8 billion, add and increase annual profits across the country by almost £3.5 billion. If Brexit is the big political challenge, productivity is the big business opportunity. Smart businesses use their wits to exploit uncertainty, not wait for the clouds to clear.
Micromanagement is a 21st Century curse. As we look around the business community, micromanagement is clearly a major contributor to the productivity debate. Several years ago, Booz and Co suggested there were two types of CEO, the Growers and the Cutters. These days the Cutters predominate, with a micro-detailed approach to squeezing out all cost saving opportunities. The claustrophobia of micromanagement impairs a growth mindset. Many in senior roles have reverted to micromanagement as a default behaviour, rather than leadership and seeking growth during times of uncertainty. Micromanagement at the top of organisations leads to huge internal inefficiency and dysfunctional top teams as self-preservation behaviours become common place.
Command and control is the dominant leadership style, rather than challenge and support to motivate, encourage and inspire everyone in the business to contribute to success. Command and control too often results in disengaged workforces, stifling initiative in the workplace, ultimately undermining businesses’ bottom lines. Even amongst the management community, a recent survey revealed that 43% of managers rated their own line manager as ineffective. The scale of uncertainty that businesses currently face demands a thoughtful but robust response. In practice, we see far too much management, too little leadership in many businesses, large and small. A leader’s role fundamentally is to look up and outwards, scanning the horizon to find opportunities and identify threats early, ready to adapt, make decisions, and reset direction for their business quickly. Creating capacity to do that means getting out of the detail, liberating managers to manage and deal with much of the internal day-to-day activity.
Anything that is value diluting is of course a business issue. But if business leaders are failing to address the issue, it is the responsibility of HR Directors to address it. The HR Director has a key responsibility in raising the organisation’s consciousness of micromanagement and making sure that the detrimental impact it can have is fully understood. When this is communicated successfully, a resolution will then become both a strategic and tactical imperative affecting all people leaders throughout the business. Additionally, the HR director has a strategic role, helping to develop, clarify, and communicate the leadership styles and values that the organisation wishes to adopt.
Looking more tactically, there are numerous small but meaningful steps that they can take to help address the negative impact that micromanagement can have on productivity. These include increasing awareness internally of the issue and enabling a more regular dialogue between each people leader and his/her boss to generate feedback, and help identify the support and encouragement needed to change behaviour. Tackling micromanagement matters now more than ever in the uncertain economic environment. Strong Executive leadership frees leaders and managers across the business to use their initiative, and role modelling the desired leadership style self-evidently starts with the top team leaders. But HR and L&D managers then have an important and influential role in supporting individual people leaders as well as reporting and tracking collective progress. Maximising organisational capability, with colleagues liberated to play what’s in front of them, self-evidently boosts productivity. Just one percent. That’s the target.
www.acceleratingexperience.com
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