You’ve assigned an important task to a talented employee, and given him a deadline. Now, do you let him do his work and simply touch base with him at pre-defined points along the way – or do you keep dropping by his desk and sending e-mails to check his progress? According to Arthur F Carmazzi, founder of the Directive Communication Psychology, the latter would be Need Sucking!

If it’s the latter, you might be a micromanager or Need Sucker. Or, if you’re the harried worker trying to make a deadline with a boss hovering at your shoulder, you might have a micromanager  or need sucker on your hands – someone who just can’t let go of the control of tiny details. Are you a need sucker ?

Micromanagers or need suckers take perfectly positive attributes – for example an attention to detail and a hands-on attitude – to the absolute extreme. Either because they’re control-obsessed, or because they feel driven to push everyone around them to success, micromanagers risk need-sucking their colleagues. They ruin their colleagues' confidence, hurt their performance, and frustrate them to the point where they quit.

Luckily, though, there are ways to identify these overzealous tendencies in yourself – and get rid of them before they do more damage. And if you work for a micromanager or need sucker, there are strategies you can use to convince him or her to accept your independence.

First, though, how do you spot the signs of micromanagement or need sucking? Where is the line between being an involved manager, and an over-involved manager who’s driving his team mad?
 
Signs of micromanagement and Need Sucking
What follows are some signs that you might be a micromanager – or have one on your hands. In general, micromanagers or need suckers:

What’s wrong with micromanaging or need sucking?
If you are getting results by micromanaging or need sucking and keeping your nose in everyone’s business, why not carry on?

Micromanagers or need suckers often affirm the value of their approach with a simple experiment: They give an employee an assignment, and then disappear until the deadline. Is this employee likely to excel when given free rein?

Possibly – if the worker has exceptional confidence in his abilities. Under micromanagement or need sucking, however, most workers become timid and tentative – possibly even paralyzed. “No matter what I do,” such a worker might think to himself, “It won’t be good enough.” Then one of two things will happen: Either the worker will ask the manager for guidance before the deadline, or he will forge ahead, but come up with an inadequate result.

In either case, the micromanager or need sucker will interpret the result of his experiment as proof that, without his constant intervention, his people will flounder or fail.

But do these results verify the value of micromanagement or need sucking – or condemn it? A truly effective manager sets up those around him to succeed. Micromanagers or need suckers, on the other hand, prevent employees from making – and taking responsibility for – their own decisions. But it’s precisely the process of making decisions, and living with the consequences, that causes people to grow and improve.

Good managers empower their employees to do well by giving opportunities to excel; Bad managers need suck their employees by hoarding those opportunities. And a need sucked employee is an ineffective one – one who requires a lot of time and energy from his supervisor.

It's that time and energy, multiplied across a whole team of timid, cowed workers, that amounts to a serious and self-defeating drain on a manager’s time. It’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to keep up with analysis, planning, communication with other teams, and the other “big-picture” tasks of managing, when you are sweating the details of the next sales presentation.

Escaping Micromanagement & Need Sucking
So now you’ve identified micro-managerial or need sucking tendencies and seen why they’re bad. What can you do if you know you’re exhibiting such behaviors – or are being subjected to them by a supervisor?

From the micromanager’s perspective, the best way to build healthier relationships with employees may be the most direct: Talk to them.

It might take several conversations to convince them that you’re serious about change. Getting frank feedback from employees is the hard part. This means giving your employees the leeway – and encouragement – to succeed. Focus first on the ones with the most potential, and learn to delegate effectively to them.

And if you’re not sure what you should be doing with all the free time, once you stop micromanaging or need sucking.

As for the micromanaged, well, things are a bit more complicated. Likely as not, you’re being held back in your professional development – and probably not making the progress in your career that you could be if you enjoyed workplace independence.

But there’s a certain amount that you can do to improve the situation:

Key points:
Micromanagement or need sucking restricts the ability of micromanaged people to develop and grow, and it also limits what the micromanager’s or need sucker’s team can achieve, because everything has to go through him or her. Need sucking is not an effective method and will frustrate.

When a boss is reluctant to delegate, focuses on details ahead of the big picture and discourages his staff from taking the initiative, there’s every chance that he’s sliding towards micromanagement or need sucking.

The first step in avoiding the micromanagement trap (or getting out of it once you’re there) is to recognize the danger signs by talking to your staff or boss. If you’re micromanaged or need sucked, help your boss see there is a better way of working. And if you are a micromanager or need sucker, work hard on those delegation skills and learn to trust your staff to develop and deliver.
Micromanagement and Need Sucking is definitely something to avoid if you want to get on in your life and career.

I recommend anyone to learn the skills of delegation, and also to be on the look out for those signs of micromanagement and need sucking. However experienced you are as a manager or team leader, there will be situations and people that might lead you astray. So keep hold of that thought. Look out for the symptoms from time to time, and hopefully you'll avoid it