Q. How do you avoid micromanaging?
You have to trust their capabilities and their expertise. Second, you have to have confidence in them. And third, most importantly, is the employee or the manager himself has to have confidence that you are supporting him 100 percent.
You can appreciate as you try to go global how important it is that you get out of this micromanagement and let your managers run it. I would say the challenge is not even whether I should micromanage or not. That’s not even the question. The question is: It’s important for me to teach my managers that they shouldn’t be micromanaging. Otherwise, our growth will stop at a certain level.
Q. How do you make sure empowered employees stay on track?
When I’m in India, I’m in constant touch with my team in the U.S. They know that if they’re doing something, they have full authority to go ahead and do it because they know what my views are, my vision is and what the company interests are.
Managers report to me on a formal basis. Every week we’ll take stock of what we’re anticipating to do, what are the challenges and so on.
But on an informal level, it happens every second. Anytime you’re working on something, you will see whether they are on the track or not on the track.
A lot of times, the results themselves speak of it. That could be your closure whether you’re on the track or not. If, for example, the results are not what you are expecting, then you know there is something wrong. You need to intervene. You need to take a look at them or maybe the expectations were not right. Either way, there needs to be some change that has to come in.
How to reach: UBICS Inc., (724) 746-6001 or www.ubics.com
