Micromanager Chronicles - 01/17/2006
We had a meeting today with our department to go over my project. Sounds great, right? I'm the project lead and I called meeting during a previous meeting last week. I'm getting the department people together to work as a team, etc, etc.
Well, that's how it seemed if you were on the outside looking in. But you know, because everyone knows that I'm not actually running the show, and that my boss is running the show, it doesn't really matter if I call a meeting. I'm not the one in charge. My boss is the one in charge.
My boss didn't show up for the meeting when it started. She really didn't have anything to contribute anyway so she didn't need to be there. We were gathered to ferret out the timelines for the schedule and each contributor in our department needed to come up with their own work breakdowns and we would make one big project timeline from each of the contributors' tasks.
One comment heard before the meeting started: "MM-Boss isn't here? Well I guess I don't need to be here either." That might sound benign, but what this person was pointing out for everyone in the room was that MM-Boss was the one that mattered and the one that was actually running the show, not me, the project lead. On top of that, NOBODY came prepared. NOBODY had reviewed the project requirements. NOBODY brought a breakdown of their contribution.
Why? I'll tell you why.
I called the meeting.
But because I'm not running the show, nobody cared. Nobody thought the meeting was important enough to actually prepare for or do work for.
See what micromanagement does? It removes the impetus for the department.
Well, that's how it seemed if you were on the outside looking in. But you know, because everyone knows that I'm not actually running the show, and that my boss is running the show, it doesn't really matter if I call a meeting. I'm not the one in charge. My boss is the one in charge.
My boss didn't show up for the meeting when it started. She really didn't have anything to contribute anyway so she didn't need to be there. We were gathered to ferret out the timelines for the schedule and each contributor in our department needed to come up with their own work breakdowns and we would make one big project timeline from each of the contributors' tasks.
One comment heard before the meeting started: "MM-Boss isn't here? Well I guess I don't need to be here either." That might sound benign, but what this person was pointing out for everyone in the room was that MM-Boss was the one that mattered and the one that was actually running the show, not me, the project lead. On top of that, NOBODY came prepared. NOBODY had reviewed the project requirements. NOBODY brought a breakdown of their contribution.
Why? I'll tell you why.
I called the meeting.
But because I'm not running the show, nobody cared. Nobody thought the meeting was important enough to actually prepare for or do work for.
See what micromanagement does? It removes the impetus for the department.
posted by Tyler at 10:10 PM
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