Micromanagement: Killing Employee Morale

Employee morale is something that no business can ignore.
It is something that greatly impacts employee performance,
especially in a sales environment. Sales environments can,
by their very nature, be very stressful and it falls to the
managers to ensure that morale is kept up and performance
optimized. Many managers are aware of this and create
performance related incentives to their sales staff,
including bonuses, nights out or even weekends away. While
this can be a very positive way of improving employee
morale, many managers are unaware how their day to day
behaviour impacts their sales staff, thereby effectively
nullifying the positive boost the incentives create.

The reason for this is that many sales managers still use
micromanagement as what they perceive to be an effective
management tool. This is a method that just does not work.
Contrary to what the managers are attempting to do, their
micromanagement results in poor morale and disheartened
employees.

It is all too common for sales staff to be faced with
managers who will lean over their shoulder every morning to
pick apart their daily activities, frequently commenting
and criticising on the lack of sales made before bombarding
the salesperson with phrases like, "You need to make more
calls". Following this, salespeople are confronted with
requests for hourly updates on their activities and
criticism when they have not completed certain tasks.

Micromanaging employees in this way leaves them feeling
pressured and demotivated, causing them to become less
involved in their work and distance themselves from their
manager. In the worst case this leads to staff solely
working for their pay check, leaving their enthusiasm at
the door resulting in little or no productivity.

To avoid this situation, managers need to change their
attitudes and rethink their techniques. Setting goals for
your sales staff and encouraging them to work under their
own initiative should help make your staff feel empowered
and more positive in their work. Providing positive
reinforcement and encouraging them to come to you for
advice rather than just bombarding them with it will make
your staff feel more confident in your abilities as a
manager. With this confidence they will be more inclined to
approach you with any problems they may be facing rather
than stay silent and become more demoralized.

By feeling less restricted and more empowered, staff will
be less stressed and employee morale should remain high. In
this situation, the incentives you originally put forward
will have their desired effect and your sales staff should
become a more productive, cohesive team.

----------------------------------------------------
Mandy Leonard is a co-founder of Enabled IT, which
specializes in working in partnership with clients to
provide a customer centric recruitment solution. With
experience in both the recruitment and technical sector,
she has specialized in sales and management training to
optimize the abilities of sales forces.
For more information please visit
http://www.mandyleonard.com or e-mail
contact@mandyleonard.com