Introduction: When management becomes a shackle and restricts the vitality of the enterprise, excessive management becomes the biggest waste.
In this era where efficiency is king, business managers often fall into the misconception that the more they manage, the success of the business will follow.
However, the opposite is often true.
Over-management, like an invisible shackle, restricts the vitality and creativity of an enterprise, and becomes a heavy burden on its way forward.
Some companies go bankrupt and die from over-management, which can be said to be more terrible than no management!
As management guru Jack Welch puts it:"The less management, the better the company. ”
This sentence profoundly points out the dangers of overmanagement and the importance of minimalist management.
In order to prevent employees from reducing their production efficiency due to going to the toilet, a company specially stipulates the time and frequency of female workers going to the toilet, and if they exceed the "regulations", they will be severely deducted.
And before going out to the toilet, you should sign at the front desk and write down the time when you went out; When you come back, sign it again and write down the time you came back.
This kind of "standardized management" is the most superficial and intuitive manifestation of excessive management.
Negative effects of over-management
Over-management, like a poison, is quietly eroding the health and vitality of enterprises.
It not only increases the management cost of the enterprise and affects the trust relationship between employees, but also promotes formalism and stifles the innovative spirit of the team.
Next, let's look at the specific negative effects it brings to businesses.
1.Increase management costs: Wenshan will meet the sea
Have you ever been stuck in a sea of meetings, tired of dealing with endless meetings and reports?
Over-management often leads to enterprises falling into the dilemma of being in a sea of letters.
Managers are keen to hold meetings and develop complicated reporting systems, but they ignore the huge costs that come with these activities.
Employees have to spend a lot of time preparing and participating in these meetings and presentations, rather than the real work.
This not only reduces work efficiency, but also increases the management cost of the enterprise.
In addition, in a manufacturing company, any purchase requisition needs to go through up to five levels of approval.
Even small, routine purchases can take days or even weeks to complete.
Let's ask, is this kind of management really what enterprises need?
The more you manage, the higher the cost.
Those seemingly sound systems, complex processes and mature management may not be helpful to the efficiency of the enterprise, and are likely to be counterproductive.
2.Influencing the relationship of trust: centrifugal detachment
As the saying goes, because of trust, it's simple.
Conversely, overmanagement is often accompanied by distrust of employees.
When businesses place too much emphasis on monitoring and control, employees can feel untrusted, creating a sense of centrifugation.
For example, an internet company installed monitoring software to track employees' computer usage to ensure that employees focused on their work during working hours.
However, this excessive monitoring has left employees feeling distrusted, sparking widespread resentment and backlash.
This climate of mistrust can also undermine team cohesion and lead to estrangement between employees and between employees and management.
In the long run, the trust relationship will be seriously damaged, and employees may become passive or even choose to leave.
If it leads to mutual distrust in order to strengthen management, such management is meaningless.
3.Breeding Formalism: Superficial Articles
In an over-managed environment, companies tend to focus too much on formality and superficiality.
Employees are forced to spend a lot of time on a variety of reports, reports, and processes, often just to meet management's formal requirements, and not to generate real value.
This formalism not only wastes resources, but also fosters bureaucracy and unhealthy practices.
Employees superficially try to cope with inspections, ignoring the real content and quality of their work. Such an environment is obviously not conducive to the long-term development of enterprises.
4.Stifling team innovation: Playing by the rules
Innovation is the source of enterprise development, but overmanagement often becomes a stumbling block to innovation.
Under the constraints of strict systems and processes, employees' creativity and spirit of exploration are inhibited.
They don't dare to try new things lightly for fear of being punished for breaking the rules.
This conformist atmosphere stifles the spirit of innovation and makes it difficult for companies to adapt to a rapidly changing market environment.
How to avoid over-management
In the face of the loss caused by over-management, how should enterprises deal with it? Here are some suggestions:
1.Business first, management supplemented
Enterprises need to be clear about what their core goals are.
Management is for the business, not for the business.
Therefore, enterprises should design and adjust the management system based on business needs to ensure that management activities can truly support the development of the business.
At the same time, management should always remind themselves not to let management become an obstacle to business development.
As management guru Peter Drucker said:
Management is practice, and its essence lies not in knowing, but in doing; Its validation lies not in logic, but in results. ”
2.Accurate selection and focus on human efficiency
The key to avoiding over-management is to select and develop people with self-management skills and a high sense of responsibility.
Companies should use a precise recruitment and selection mechanism to find those talents who can adapt and drive the company's culture and development.
At the same time, enterprises should pay attention to improving the work efficiency and teamwork ability of employees, so that employees can give full play to their potential in a relaxed management environment.
3.Elite soldiers reduce government and optimize processes
Many enterprises have not yet started to work, and have formulated a basket of institutional systems.
Including strategic management, procurement management, production management, safety management, quality management, financial management, marketing management, corporate culture management and so on.
However, in the vast majority of small and medium-sized enterprises, very little can be used, and almost everything else is furnishings.
The system is too complex and too theoretical, but it will become a key factor that restricts the development of the company and the growth of the team.
Here's a word of advice, but if there are no more than 100 million enterprises, try not to make the system too complicated. It is better to put more thought and energy into running and making money than anything else.
Therefore, streamlining the organizational structure and optimizing processes is an effective means to avoid over-management.
Enterprises should regularly review their organizational structure and process settings to remove those redundant and inefficient parts to ensure that the management system is simple and efficient.
At the same time, enterprises should actively adopt new technologies and tools to assist in the optimization and simplification of management processes and improve work efficiency.
As Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, said:
Simple is harder than complex, and you have to work hard to make your idea clear and straightforward, to make it simple. ”
This tells us that in business management, simple is often more effective than complex.
4.Decentralization, grasping the big and letting go of the small
Too much, too fine, is essentially distrust of employees.
This is to assume that employees do not obey management, will be lazy, and are not self-driven, so they want to supervise employees through management constraints in order to make employees obedient.
Decentralization is an important way to avoid over-management.
Management should learn to trust and empower employees to make decisions and actions within their area of responsibility.
Managers need to learn to delegate power, don't let employees dance in "shackles", and let employees give full play to their talents, but at the same time avoid "overfunctioning".
This not only increases employee motivation and accountability, but also reduces the cost of management intervention and monitoring.
Of course, decentralization does not mean laissez-faire, and management still needs to control and guide key matters.
Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, once said:
Before you become a leader, success is only about your own growth. When you become a leader, success is all about the growth of others. ”
This quote reminds us that as managers, it is our duty to nurture and develop our employees, not to bind and limit them.
Write at the end
To sum up, over-management will not only increase the management cost of the enterprise, affect the trust relationship, breed formalism, but also stifle the innovative spirit of the team.
Therefore, while pursuing management efficiency, enterprises must always be vigilant against the risk of over-management.
Always keep in mind that management is not an end, but a means; Not control, but coordination; Not to bond, but to excite.
More management is not always better, and over-management can become the biggest waste of the enterprise.