Confessions of a recovering micromanager | Chieh Huang

Micromanagement and its Effects

In this section, the speaker defines micromanagement and explains how it affects employees.

What is Micromanagement?

• Micromanagement is defined as taking imaginative people and crushing their souls by telling them what to do.

• Being micromanaged can lead to fatigue and exhaustion due to someone constantly watching over your shoulder.

Why Do We Micromanage?

• Despite knowing that micromanaging isn't effective, we still do it.

• A survey of hundreds of managers across the country found that 94% said they did not want to hire dull and unimaginative people.

• However, when starting at an organization, one starts at the bottom doing work. If you're good at it, you get rewarded with more work. Eventually, if you're really good at it, you start managing people doing the work.

Starting a Company in a Garage

In this section, the speaker talks about his experience starting a company in his garage.

Starting Boxed

• The speaker started Boxed in his garage with a slow printer.

• They shipped big packs of consumer packaged goods directly to customers' homes.

• To break up the monotony of packing boxes for hours on end, they wrote personalized messages on invoices.

Micromanagement and its Effects

In this section, the speaker introduces the concept of micromanagement and how it affects employees in an organization.

What is Micromanagement?

• Micromanagement is taking great, imaginative people and bringing them into an organization.

• It involves looking over someone's shoulder while they work.

• A recent study in the UK found that people who were micromanaged felt more fatigued than those who weren't.

• The speaker questions whether the definition of micromanagement is wrong or if organizations want to hire dull and unimaginative people.

Climbing Up the Ladder

In this section, the speaker talks about how one climbs up the ladder in an organization and how their role changes as they move up.

Starting at the Bottom

• One starts at the bottom doing work.

• If they are good at it, they get more work.

• Eventually, they start managing people doing the work.

• As one moves up, they start managing people who manage others doing the work.

Making Work Fun

In this section, the speaker talks about how he made his job fun by breaking up monotony with small gestures.

Making Work Fun

• The speaker started a company called Boxed in his garage with his wife.

• They shipped consumer packaged goods much like a warehouse club would do.

• To break up monotony on long shifts, he wrote personalized notes on invoices to customers.

• This gesture broke up monotony for him and made his job more enjoyable.

What is the real upside of not micromanaging?

In this section, the speaker talks about how he takes credit for projects that he didn't do and how he learned a challenging lesson.

Taking Credit for Projects

• The speaker talks about how he takes credit for projects that he didn't do.

• He mentions that people think of him as a CEO who does nothing but takes all the credit.

• The reality is that he didn't do any of these projects, but he's standing on a TED stage taking all the credit for it.

Challenging Lesson Learned

• The speaker admits that he doesn't have the CEO thing down 100 percent pat.

• However, he has learned the most fundamentally challenging lesson in his life.

• He reveals what this lesson is in the next section.

Learning to Let Go

In this section, the speaker talks about his experience with micromanaging and how it affected his team.

Micromanaging Experience

• The speaker shares his experience with micromanaging and how it affected his team.

• He realized that by micromanaging, he was not allowing his team to grow and learn from their mistakes.

• This led to a lack of innovation and creativity within his team.

Letting Go

• The speaker decided to let go of micromanaging and allow his team to take ownership of their work.

• This allowed them to grow and learn from their mistakes, leading to more innovation and creativity within the team.

• By letting go, the speaker was able to focus on other important aspects of running a business.