a right hand gal you trust, a project management tool you don't
After over two years of unemployment (minus a few contracts here and there or odd jobs for some friends), my partner, Rob, FINALLY got a full-time job offer.
Yay! We have health insurance again!
We had some friends over for dinner last week and they asked him all kinds of things about his new job.
He said he loves everything about his new company. He says he loves their mission, his coworkers, and the culture. Win, win, win!
He also said "I love that they are so supportive yet they don't micromanage. Every other tech company I've worked for did the opposite."
None of us at the table have ever worked for any type of BIG company. This piqued our interest.
We all leaned in. "What? That's a really interesting observation... say more about that."
Rob said the norm at most big tech companies is that they micromanage your time but never seem to be available to support you with the actual work.
This is how I learned that most tech companies are so bloated they have all kinds of middle managers there to micromanage people's time (aka making sure you're on Slack and you're responding ASAP).
They are always available because their only job is to watch you. (Ew, Big Brother, much?)
But the manager who can help with the actual work is usually too bogged down to answer when needed.
This is what we call: pseudo productivity 🤢
I know, I know - you are not the CEO of a Big Tech Company!
But I bet you DO have a fantastic right-hand-woman. The person who is there to support your team when they need it.
Yet, somehow, you BOTH feel like you are doing a bit too much micro-managing and not enough supporting-the-work-getting-done-well.
You have this feeling like you don't quite know what your team is working on, and you might not trust that the work is actually happening.
So your right hand babe spends her high-value time on micro-managing project and tasks instead of the letting, say, a well-oiled Project Management tool do its thing.
Here's how we can build a company culture that's more supportive of your team, so you and your high level lady can do what you do best:
✅ Communication channels are clear, not scattered. Your team knows who to ask about a task, and where.
✅ Documentation and SOPs. If an SOP isn't clear, your team knows exactly who to go to to get it updated, instead of guessing and stalling.
✅ A Project Management tool that is up and running. If your right-hand is spending too much time making sure people are doing what they're supposed to be doing - I'm here to tell you: that's the project management tool's job.
It tells your right-hand when a task is overdue, and THEN her job is to reach out and say: "I noticed this is overdue, how can I help? What do you need that you are missing?"
NOT "did you finish that thing yet?"
Notice the difference??????
