Writing a piece about  humour in the office recently I pointed out that you should never assume that your manager knows what is going on. Most managers don’t know as much as they think they know.

I freelance now because it is so much pleasanter than being managed. I’ve worked for some intersting, smart and successful people in a career of more than 30 years. I have not worked for many good managers though, I can count them on the fingers of one hand. I have only worked for one inspirational, energetic manager from whom I learned more in a few years than I had learned from a dozen bosses many of whom, on paper, were better educated, qualified or successful. I still work for him though we both left the company where we met.

I don’t need to be managed. I don’t need to review my objectives every quarter with someone who doesn’t know me, doesn’t know what I do, doesn’t know how I do it or why I do it that way. It makes me cross, it makes me sad, it makes me feel I’m wasting time and energy. That’s a shame, because I love my work, love my job. I trotted to work happily, wanted to be there but I couldn’t stand being managed the way the new manager thought he ought to “manage”.

The Gallup Employee Engagement Index shows that 29% of people could be self-managing without being encouraged to do this. A further 52% will take charge and contribute if they work in the sort of environment that encourages participation. They don’t need to be micro-managed. They need managers they trust, whom they can talk to and know they will be heard. They need the resources to get on with doing what they do, so they can do it well. They need recognition too, from time to time, some more than others and in different forms.

43% of UK managers rate their line manager as ineffective. That’s a lot of poor managers. They are not, of course, deliberately failing to manage well, they presumably think they are doing it right. Most of them have probably had some training, mentoring or coaching around managing and leading. The CIPD call this ‘the reality gap’ whereby managers think they are better than they are. 

A colleague, also freelance, recently told me about a manager he was working with who had plainly been on a training course recently. At the end of each meeting the manager would provide feedback to his team members on their contribution during the meeting. Tiresome!

If you hire good people then you should leave them alone to get on with doing the job. As long as they know where to go for help, advice and resources then you should trust them to get on with it.