Beware The Trap of Helicopter Micromanagement For Remote Teams

Micromanagers are often called Helicopter managers or Helicopter Bosses. The term of Helicopter Managers appeared in the late sixties when author Dr. Haim Giott employed the metaphor of helicopter parents to describe the parent relationship to a teenager who complained her mother hovers her like a helicopter. More often now it is used to portray parents who pay extreme attention to their children’s problems and behavior.

In the work environment being a helicopter boss means the manager needs to manage all the little details. The manager, constantly afraid of productivity drop, becomes extremely in contact with every employee, following and intervening in every employee move to ensure no time is being wasted and every employee is working. In Optometry, given that most practices have small teams directly related to the plans and strategies that optometrists and managers mount. There is a constant risk for optometrists acting/hiring helicopter managers to fall in the trap of micromanagement and lose trust of their customers.

In remote environments, the effect of helicopter bosses becomes less significant, and helicopter bosses start inviting employees over social media and conference sites to meet on regular basis. Not being aware that helicopter bosses would make everything possible to interrupt employees working from the comfort of their homes, employees often succumb to their boss’s requests to communicate more frequently through online conferencing. However, helicopter bosses can often lead employees to burn out instead of creating a collaborative remote environment. Teams with helicopter bosses tend to become less productive which leads bosses to continue hovering their team members while creating more stress instead of delegating to team members, not having to approve everything themselves, and distribute roles and provide enough trust to succeed in an online environment.

Bosses who trust their team members never fall into the helicopter boss trap, they let their people work on their own and judge on key performance indicators. For employees who constantly ask for guidance and mentorship, bosses can ask them about their needs and make them engage in conversations without to much hovering their works but rather put them in the right conditions to help them succeed.