You can have all the needed capital, the right people, the right customers, and the opportunity to grow; however, if you micromanage your business, all the above will be for naught. One of the greatest problem areas that prevent most micro-trucking operations from growing to become a small carrier and then on up the line to a larger carrier is the ability of the owner(s) to delegate and let go.
What causes an owner to micromanage his/her operation?
- Being a perfectionist. In your mind, there’s only one way to accomplish any task—and that’s your way. But that’s not true. The best example I can present is from my own experience. Having been in household moving for over 20 years, I 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, and fill to the rear of each tier of furniture. While there are many ways to incorrectly load the furniture, there are also many different ways to load it correctly.
- Not trusting employees and contractors. If you don’t trust an employee, then there are several problems. First, you need to work on your hiring and interviewing procedures to help you weed out those untrustworthy types. Second, you are creating a work environment that fosters mistrust.
If you think your employees are so incompetent or untrustworthy that they cannot perform without constant supervision, you need to ask yourself why you hired them in the first place. And if you discovered their alleged incompetence after having hired them, then why are they still working for you?
How can you escape the micromanagement trap?
Your employees and contractors look to you for direction. Your job is to provide guidance and lead them with well-defined goals. Set the parameters of what you expect from them and the job they provide, then empower them to make decisions to accomplish those goals. Train them and trust them.
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 is micromanaging. If you’re constantly struggling with the desire to supervise every small detail of your employees’ work, you need to ask yourself if your employees know what’s expected of them. Have you conveyed this to them in clear and unambiguous terms?
Learn to delegate authority. Create teams with team captains and hold the entire team accountable for results.
Take your company to the next level by delegating rather than micromanaging.
Contact Tim Brady at 731-749-8567 or at www.timothybrady.com
