What is micromanagement?

While the intent may be to ensure quality or meet high standards, micromanagement can stifle creativity, reduce morale, and lead to burnout among team members. Micromanagement also directs time and resources to reporting and explaining rather than to important work. It often creates a work environment where employees feel distrusted or undervalued. Effective leadership generally involves empowering employees rather than overly controlling their actions.

Managers often micromanage due to a combination of different factors, such as a lack of trust in their team members, a desire for control, a fear of failure, or a lack of management experience. They may believe that overseeing every detail ensures quality and timely completion of tasks. Sometimes, managers may have perfectionist tendencies and feel that their way is the only correct approach, leading them to intervene frequently. Additionally, a lack of confidence in the team's abilities or their own may push managers to take a hands-on approach. In some cases, managers micromanage because they have not been trained to delegate or empower others effectively.

Micromanagement can provide short-term results by ensuring tasks are completed according to the manager's expectations. However, in the long run, it is generally not effective. It can lead to several issues, such as:

• Decreased employee morale and motivation
• Burnout
• A deterioration of trust within teams
• Stifled creativity and initiative
• Inefficient use of resources

Empowering team members through trust and delegation tends to be more effective in fostering innovation, improving job satisfaction, and achieving sustained success.

Enji removes several of the causes of micromanagement by providing concise reports on team activity and automating routine tasks and reminders through the use of bots. With automation, managers and other stakeholders can receive updates on projects and team activities without organizing unnecessary calls or constantly asking employees for information. Enji includes several features that do this:

• Copilot: The AI project assistant that can answer any question about individual and team activity and project progress.
• Summarizer: Creates concise text reports that show what a team or individual has done during the specific period of time.
• Alerts and bots: Keep teams on track when tasks remain unchanged or when team members forget to log their time or submit stand-ups.
• Asynchronous stand-ups: Team members submit text reports that include what they have done, their plans, and any challenges they face. No calls needed.

Enji aims to empower employees and managers to focus their resources on important tasks while delegating routine and other items to AI. With information available 24/7, managers will receive signals that highlight high performance or potential issues.