The gift and the curse of being creative [Part 1.1 of 2: the Curse]
So after my last blog post I spoke to a friend who read it. She found some parts could be a bit negative. Instead of changing the previous blog post to hide things I might not be proud of in the future, I'd rather show growth.
It had me thinking: "Am I being too negative about micro-managers?" So here's how I tried to put it in perspective.
Manager or micro-manager?
When I'm talking about micro-managers, I'm not talking about the 'good' managers. What's a good manager? Simply put: a facilitator, an inspirator and an advocate. Luckily there are many of these great personalities.
What's a micro-manager? Someone who wants to have full control over employees. Because of lack of trust or personal uncertainty, the micro-manager wants to have total control over ALL details in a certain project.
Reaching out to micro-managers
I sincerely hope micro-managers will gain the skills needed to stay relevant in this new dynamic period. So what changed this period?
A lot of tech became faster and more convenient. Instead of building stuff yourself, you can use 'pre-fab' plugins or components to build a modern solution. You can do this very fast without a middleman. As a 35 year old I see a lot of kids making a name for themselves on YouTube. They don't need an expensive middleman or the 'older generation' (my generation even) to become successful. The middleman can only stagnate the whole creative process and become a big obstacle.
It's true: young people have more access to tech and are more fluent in tech. They're the so called screenagers. In my time you had to build stuff from scratch. The next generation just combines existing tech to 'hack' something useful. I would be very jealous if I didn't learn from them. I try to keep an open mind. I'm lucky to have a job where I can observe how real people behave with software. I'm lucky to see young nieces and nephew who are so at ease with all this new tech. It helps me realise that things have changed. That helps me to be open minded and curious enough to understand what people want in these technological modern times.
My concern with micro-managers is that they try to be a middleman between the creative and his/her work. They're not trying to be the middleman that facilitates, inspires and upholds the creative's values. Instead, they try to control all the activities of a creative. That way, they don't only undermine the creative's life energy, they also obstruct their OWN position. The creative that has a solution (because he/she knows what works in this day and age) is 'punished' for trying by the micro-manager. They're punished because their solution is too new. It's not something the micro-manager is used to, so the micro-manager tries to fix it the old way: by controlling and constraining the creative that has ideas that disrupt the companies comfortable ways of operating.
Why I feel this should be talked about
I see a lot of creative people struggling with their jobs. With creative people I also mean psychologists, doctors, other managers, etc. A creative is anyone who has to think of something new and create a solution for a non-trivial situation.
I remember that a few years ago there was a child psychologist who got fired. She was blamed for not helping her young patient enough. She then said: "as a social worker, you're spending more time on administrative tasks than on actually helping people". For me, that is a very important point! I'm just seeing too many people suffer under mismanagement.
As a manager, please spend your time helping the people that work for you. They're the ones that will make you successful. Please leave the small-minded focus on administrative tasks. Please trust your employees and give them the freedom to spend time actually making a difference. They can handle responsibilities if you show you trust them.
All tech and creative new ideas can help the world change. Don't be a micro-manager and obstruct all these new and helpful ideas.
Let's enjoy building great stuff together. You'll also enjoy the fruit of these changed times. Creative and open minded people will gladly reach for the stars for you. Just give them the opportunity