I am mentored by one of Uganda’s best businessmen (name withheld). And one of the peculiarities that I kept noticing about him was this insane micromanagement. At first, I used to wonder; ‘why doesn’t this person just trust his employees? And let them be?’ But the more time I spent with him, the more I realised that if he were to put a foot off the brake, this business would sooner than later deteriorate. It would continue to exist but not with the same attention to detail.
In this process of observing and shadowing this businessman, I arrived at new conclusions when it came to micromanagement. Micromanagement in general gets a bad rap. Most employees will always pinpoint it as one of the qualities they detest in their line managers. Yet, I am now of the school of thought, that we need to make a distinction about the form of micromanagement. Although micromanagement could be problematic, intentional micromanagement is what makes the biggest differences in many Ugandan businesses.
It is not enough to trust that people will do their job, one ought to verify, one ought to inspect, to supervise. Because once the micros start going wrong, the macros soon follow suit. It is from this businessman that I learned; ‘the most important thing is to hold tension on the small things, for the small things soon grow into big things.’ He works by one principle – ‘zero compromise. If you notice something going wrong, capture it immediately and address it.’ He believes that there are no small mistakes in business. It is the small mistakes that grow into big mistakes. It is the small behaviours that soon become the big behaviours. In business, it is always a slippery slope. You ignore a skewed behaviour, an employee who arrived 10 minutes late, and that late coming will grow into an hour, then it will become a day.
It is an instructive lesson for all those who run and manage businesses – be intentional in your micromanagement and know what you are watching out for.
The Japanese have a similar concept – it is about going to the Gemba. In Japanese business management philosophy, the Gemba is the ground, the place where the action happens. They believe a proper businessperson or manager must always do their walks to the Gemba as frequently as possible. If one is managing a school, they should take a walk to the kitchen, see where the school food is being prepared, sit in one of the classrooms, and that is how you drive the right behaviour. You go see and then ask why.
This business mentor arrived at the same Gemba principle through trial and error. If you take a walk with him through his businesses, he will notice the small things, pause, and ask whoever is responsible why it is happening. And if it is a behaviour, he will follow up. Why? Because this is also how you build a culture of high performance. It is like the football manager who practices touch line sensitivity. The best football manager keeps their foot on that line, they sense, they watch, they feel the game, and by being close to the line, they can read the game better and make the timely decisions.
Another case in point was Dr J.C Muyingo when he was a headteacher at Uganda Martyrs SSS Namugongo. Sometimes, a teacher would arrive late only to find Dr Muyingo camouflaged at the back among the students. And that was always enough to send the message – that at Namugongo, lessons start on time. It is this intentional micromanagement that builds the culture of high performance. The manager sets a high standard, lives by it, then he inspects for that standard.
Intentional micromanagement acts as a reminder to the employees – that this is what we are about. This is the company’s mission, these are the values, this is our purpose. And in doing so, the leader only gets a chance to do their number one job – coaching the right behaviour. Organisations behave, and this behaviour is a summation of all the employees’ behaviours. Organisations that cannot set the right behaviour will soon fail to produce the right results. Behaviour becomes culture, culture becomes process, and process becomes results or outcomes. Organisations that behave right will perform right.
All this is not possible with intentional micromanagement, without managers or leaders remembering to go to the Gemba. Thus, a distinction must be made between the destructive micromanagement (one born of a clueless manager), and intentional micromanagement (the kind that sets out to coach the right behaviour).
This lack of intentional micromanagement has created a management crisis in the country, as quite often, employees do not know what is expected of them. They are over-trusted with almost no guidance. It is akin to footballers being sent out to the stadium and just told to play football. What kind of football? What kind of attitude when winning?
It is thus high time we all made a rethink of micro-management, and appreciated the fruits of intentional micromanagement.