Micromanaging Director
Discussion
How does one deal with a micromanaging director who gets involved and sabotages everything he touches? I can't tell him stop as he's my boss's boss?
I am a project manager for a software company and when needed I work closely with my boss (operations manager) to ensure high risk projects are delivered satisfactorily, on time and under budget etc.
Unfortunately our department director feels the need to make himself PM, immerse himself in the work I have assigned to others, treats everyone like children, removes my ability to make decisions, make decisions without consulting anybody, demands frequent reports on irrelevant issues, pushes aside the experience of others and generally sends emails and skype messages that amount to nothing but white noise.
He really is most peculiar, but if I responded to his every email or need I would never have anytime to complete the actual work that needs doing.
This got me thinking, shouldn't he be directing his department rather than hijacking everyone's project? We have over 200 employees and 10 other project managers so he should have plenty of his own work.
I am a project manager for a software company and when needed I work closely with my boss (operations manager) to ensure high risk projects are delivered satisfactorily, on time and under budget etc.
Unfortunately our department director feels the need to make himself PM, immerse himself in the work I have assigned to others, treats everyone like children, removes my ability to make decisions, make decisions without consulting anybody, demands frequent reports on irrelevant issues, pushes aside the experience of others and generally sends emails and skype messages that amount to nothing but white noise.
He really is most peculiar, but if I responded to his every email or need I would never have anytime to complete the actual work that needs doing.
This got me thinking, shouldn't he be directing his department rather than hijacking everyone's project? We have over 200 employees and 10 other project managers so he should have plenty of his own work.
JC360 said:
I can't tell him stop as he's my boss's boss?
Try talking to your boss about it. Encourage him to tell the director to go via him and not directly so he can keep track on what you're all doing.If he can't / won't do anything you either need to tell him yourself, move on, or one then the other.
I wonder if he thinks you are not doing the job properly? Or there are pressures being put on him re targets etc that he feels he can only manage or inform upstream if he is hands on.
Whichever, you need to raise it with your line manager. It may also blow over of its own accord.
One of my Directors tends to micro manage when he is under pressure. I normally take him aside and point out his big picture roll or i give him a task of his own to focus on.
Whichever, you need to raise it with your line manager. It may also blow over of its own accord.
One of my Directors tends to micro manage when he is under pressure. I normally take him aside and point out his big picture roll or i give him a task of his own to focus on.
Perhaps it's your boss he has the problem with. Maybe he doesn't get feedback on how the projects are going from him, so feels like he needs to come directly to the guys doing the work.
Either that or he's out of his depth in his own role, and the only thing he knows how to do is micro manage you. It's his way of making himself look busy. Unfortunately he's out of his depth at that as well.
Either that or he's out of his depth in his own role, and the only thing he knows how to do is micro manage you. It's his way of making himself look busy. Unfortunately he's out of his depth at that as well.
He clearly has too much time on his hands. Roll with it. Keep him involved and delegate actions upwards to him. He will realise that whenever he buts in, he is given something to do. He will eventually be too busy to keep intervening.
If the above doesn't work, do what the others have suggested and leave.
If the above doesn't work, do what the others have suggested and leave.
Yes he is under pressure from our new CEO and CIO, if they had their way we would charge customers for the handshake and before we've even face to face - as it stands we only invoice at delivery/acceptance.
The guy is absolutely insane though and my manager is in the same boat as me, so much so we call each other donkey 1 and donkey 2.
As suspected the only reasonable option is to leave.
The guy is absolutely insane though and my manager is in the same boat as me, so much so we call each other donkey 1 and donkey 2.
As suspected the only reasonable option is to leave.
On reflection, maybe I was a bit harsh 
If the guy can be stopped by his superiors, possibly by them being quietly told what he's doing then all well and good. The problem is this requires a bit of office politics and playing the game, which I tend to have little patience for..
If he can't be controlled, it won't ever get better. In the most recent case I saw of this, the micromanager was the MD. He'd subvert his management chain and come and set next to an employee and ask to see progress on the project/product (which is fine). He'd then trot out the immortal line "Ok, well I wouldn't have done it like that..." and launches in to an explanation of why what you've done isn't any good - despite not knowing/understanding statutory requirements or having written any code in 20 years.
Meantime, the manager in the corner has just thrown the project plan in the bin, because the MD hadn't bothered to read it in the first place and has just rendered it obsolete anyway, as he's just pushed us in a different direction.
In the end he made his management (all of them!) redundant and took on day to day stuff himself, which revolved around him making decisions off the cuff as and when he thought of things.
Not exactly a fun place to work, hence my original suggestion!
If the guy can be stopped by his superiors, possibly by them being quietly told what he's doing then all well and good. The problem is this requires a bit of office politics and playing the game, which I tend to have little patience for..
If he can't be controlled, it won't ever get better. In the most recent case I saw of this, the micromanager was the MD. He'd subvert his management chain and come and set next to an employee and ask to see progress on the project/product (which is fine). He'd then trot out the immortal line "Ok, well I wouldn't have done it like that..." and launches in to an explanation of why what you've done isn't any good - despite not knowing/understanding statutory requirements or having written any code in 20 years.
Meantime, the manager in the corner has just thrown the project plan in the bin, because the MD hadn't bothered to read it in the first place and has just rendered it obsolete anyway, as he's just pushed us in a different direction.
In the end he made his management (all of them!) redundant and took on day to day stuff himself, which revolved around him making decisions off the cuff as and when he thought of things.
Not exactly a fun place to work, hence my original suggestion!
I've been trying to think of a strategy for you to deal (or at least cope) with this. I've come up with....
leave.
In the meantime, see if you can sit with him and ask him what reports he needs. He may be getting dumb ad hoc requests from above. Send him every revision of your project plans for comment. Invite him to a project review with you and your manager, daily if necessary, until he runs out of things to ask.
But you'll be leaving, I'm pretty sure of that.
leave.
In the meantime, see if you can sit with him and ask him what reports he needs. He may be getting dumb ad hoc requests from above. Send him every revision of your project plans for comment. Invite him to a project review with you and your manager, daily if necessary, until he runs out of things to ask.
But you'll be leaving, I'm pretty sure of that.
JC360 said:
How does one deal with a micromanaging director who gets involved and sabotages everything he touches? I can't tell him stop as he's my boss's boss?
Yes you can, its called managing upwards and is a great skill if you can master it.http://www.jobsite.co.uk/insider/managing-your-bos...
Foliage said:
Yes you can, its called managing upwards and is a great skill if you can master it.
http://www.jobsite.co.uk/insider/managing-your-bos...
While it may be a good skill it's probably very easy to phttp://www.jobsite.co.uk/insider/managing-your-bos...
s off your superior. Many managers don't like that...xjay1337 said:
Foliage said:
Yes you can, its called managing upwards and is a great skill if you can master it.
http://www.jobsite.co.uk/insider/managing-your-bos...
While it may be a good skill it's probably very easy to phttp://www.jobsite.co.uk/insider/managing-your-bos...
s off your superior. Many managers don't like that...s off your manager as it is to ps off your own reports. A friend in a similar situation started creating reports which answered (thus removing a need) for all the typical questions asked by his Director. Scheduled it and placed on his desk so that the questions came to him and not his team under him directly. Could be worth a shot but I don't know your field so could be irrelevant.
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