Leadership Not Micromanagement

Nonprofits are full of managers… micro managers. How many times does an e-mail go out where staff is carbon copied and then a staff member complains about the words used in the e-mail? Or have you ever dealt with a supervisor who asks you to do something but then asks another employee to work on the same project? What about the times where you write an article for the newsletter but it has to be handed off to three different employees before the final copy looks like someone else wrote it? And then there is the micro managing board who has to have their hands on every single project and program done by the staff.

Rather than building on the strengths of an organization’s employees, these employees are always checking and double checking each others work and looking over their shoulders. In a time where nonprofit organizations are cutting their budgets and forcing furlough days on their staff, how can micromanaging be beneficial to the organization? Imagine how efficient nonprofit organizations would be if the staff, board of directors and volunteers rallied around each other.

In a recent class at Regis University, my teacher talked about his organization’s collective discussion on what constitutes as a snow day for the organization’s employees. The staff sat down and had an open discussion about what they felt was reasonable and came up with a policy they could all buy into. Imagine if the staff was told what the policy was going to be from the executive director or the board of directors.

By opening up the lines of communication, a nonprofit organization’s leadership can show they value the opinions of the staff members. The staff will begin feeling like they are being heard and will buy into the vision and mission of the organization’s ED or CEO. All it takes is different approach to leadership and much less micromanaging. Let the staff members flourish as individuals and they will become stronger and more motivated employees.