Nobody likes a micro-manager — we’ve almost all had a negative experience with a boss who insisted on overseeing our tasks, listening in our client calls, and even proofreading our emails. Okay, maybe not that last one.
But does that mean that managers should just delegate everything to their employees and turn a blind eye? Not at all. There’s a third way, and it’s called taking a birds eye view. If you’re not sold already, how about knowing that none other than Amazon uses this strategy?
The bird’s eye view
Modern companies are adopting a more specialized structure than ever before, with most workers performing extremely specific roles within an organization and having little understanding of anything else.
The world has gone this way for a reason: it’s more efficient for one person to perform a role they understand inside out than to do a mediocre job of a thousand different things.
Yet it also has some unwelcome consequences — especially when it comes to management.
That’s where a birds eye view approach comes in, which means managers have a comprehensive understanding of the roles everyone they are performing, but they don’t intervene directly with each and every task.
How Amazon implements this approach
You’d struggle to find a better example of this strategy than Amazon. The company appreciates that managers are hardly in a good position to tell their lower-level employees what to do if they don’t even understand what their jobs involve.
So, it came up with a unique yet effective solution — for every employee to work at the customer service desk for two days a year. Yes, that includes the CEO.
This might sound bizarre at first, but the logic behind it is flawless. At the customer service desk, employees become exposed to real problems Amazon customers encounter every day, allowing them to gain a greater understanding of the whole business and not just their niche specialism. Genius, right?
Make sure no job is too big or too small for you
Using the exact solution of Amazon might not be feasible for every organization, but why not adopt something with the same spirit? If all your employees understand the rest of the team’s role and feel a greater connection to the wider company, you might just manage to unlock something magical.
Trust us, we’ve seen it first hand after helping multiple companies hone their business operations and management styles. Don’t believe us? Schedule your call with Gema Consult to find out how we can help you.
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Author
World-Class Banking and Big Four Expert – National Press Columnist
Tiffany is at the forefront of her industry as a Regulatory Compliance, Business Operation Technical Advisor, Finance & Accounting Process Designer for pre-opening and improvements. She has followed this up with a distinguished ten years of consulting track record.
Not one to be satisfied with resting on her laurels, Tiffany took her years of experience and love for finance and channeled it into a rewarding career in the hospitality and tourism industry. This change of environment breathed new life into her career and is what brought about the beginnings of Gema Consult.