Moving Words – Micromanagement

Timothy Brady

“Invariably, micromanaging results in four problems: deceit, disloyalty, conflict, and communication problems.” – John Rosemond

Here’s something to discuss with your van operators.

One can have all the needed capital, the right people, the right customers and the opportunity to grow … however, if one micromanages their business, all of the above will be for naught.

One of the greatest problem areas that holds some van operators from growing to a top household mover is the ability to delegate and let go.

What causes a van operator to micromanage his/her operation?

Being the perfectionist – There’s only one way to carry out any task and that is ‘his’ way. Not true. The best example I can present is from my own experience. Having been in household moving for over 20 years, l can tell you loading a trailer with a family’s valued possessions is an art; a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle of epic proportions. However, if you took 10 identical houses, with exactly the same furniture inside each of them, and had 10 top movers’ inventory and load each house full of furniture – not one of them would place the furniture in the trailer the same way. (But you can be assured they would follow some basic rules: Heavy on the bottom, lighter as you load higher, square to the front, fill to the rear of each tier of furniture.)

While there are many ways to do it wrong, there are also several different ways to do it correctly.

Not trusting their employees and contractors – If they don’t trust their help, then there are two problems: one is their hiring procedures need some work so they can weed out the untrustworthy types. The second problem is creating a work environment that fosters mistrust. If a van operator thinks his/her help is so incompetent or untrustworthy that they cannot perform without constant supervision, they need to ask themselves why they hired them in the first place. And in case their alleged incompetence is discovered after having hired them, why are they still working for the van operator?

How can they escape the micromanagement trap?

The van operators’ helpers need to look to him/her for direction. The van operator’s job is to provide guidance and lead them with well-defined goals. It’s important the moving companies provide all helpers with the training to know the basics of both the company’s and the van operator’s expectations (as in the example above: Load heavy on the bottom, etc.) Once trained, the moving help need to develop their own style from the basics they were taught. Train them, assign them the task, tell them the results you want and – let them go. Instructing them on how to perform every single step the first couple of times is called teaching. Standing over them every time they do the task in the future is micromanaging. If one is constantly struggling with the desire to supervise every small detail of their helps’ work, then one needs to ask, does my help know what’s expected of them? Have the moving company and van operators conveyed this to their help in clear and unambiguous terms?

Learn to delegate authority. Create teams with team captains, holding the entire team accountable for results.

Take your van operators to the next level teaching them to delegate, rather than micromanage.

“Generally, looking forward is great management; looking backward is micromanagement.” – Verne Harnish