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How are micro leadership and macro leadership different?

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Question added by Sashikanta Mohapatra , Manager - Business Development/Sales Process Deployment , Vodafone Spacetel Limited
Date Posted: 2016/03/10
Vaiyapuri Gopalakrishnan
by Vaiyapuri Gopalakrishnan , Manager - After Sales , M/s Saud Bahwan Automotive llc

Micro Management: learn to seek responsibility. This has two meanings. First, be on the lookout for responsibility higher than your own. In today’s environment, with shrinking staffs and budgets, many organizations need people who can take on further responsibility without looking for higher pay, more prestige, or even a higher position. This doesn’t mean that you should “sell out” or take on so much that your other duties will suffer. But it does mean that you should look for areas or subjects of interest and volunteer for projects or duties in those areas.

  • What are the deadlines for a particular project?
  • How do we measure progress (and are we making progress)?
  • Is there sufficient feedback exchange?
  • A boss or supervisor who lets employees do their jobs with minimal supervision. Macro managers are thought of by some employees as superiors who do not give them enough support or feedback to do their jobs effectively, while others may be glad to be trusted and left alone. A macro manager is the opposite of a micro manager, a supervisor who constantly looks over employees' shoulders and is often perceived as controlling and overly critical.
  • What skills does each employee want/need to develop?
  • What are each person’s career aspirations?
  • How will each person’s role develop over the coming years?
  • Does each member of the team feel happy and fully utilized?
  • How do we promote more accountability within the team?

TARIG BABIKER AL AMIN
by TARIG BABIKER AL AMIN , Head of Planning and Studies Unit , Sudanese Free Zones and Markets Co.

Macro leadership, "the leader’s role in creating a successful organization is fulfilled in two ways, path-finding and culture-building... Path-finding can be summed up as finding the way to a successful future. Culture-building can be viewed as drawing people into purposeful organization - one which is capable of traveling along the path that is found or of fully exploiting current opportunities...Macro leadership activity can influence individuals by linking them to the entity - be it the whole organization or just a division, department or group. The leader influences the individual by supplying the subordinates with answers to such questions as: what is this organization all about? where do I fit in? How am I valued and judged? what is expected of me? why should I commit myself? In the process, the leader creates committed members of the organization

Micro leadership, "focuses on the choice of leadership style to create an efficient working atmosphere and obtain willing cooperation in getting the job done by adjusting one’s style on the twin dimensions of task and relationship behavior. Choice of leadership style depends on the particular subordinates and the job/task being done, it is, thus, situational and contingent...the leader directs people in organizations in the accomplishment of a specific job or task. If the leadership style is correctly attuned, people perform willingly in an efficient working atmosphere

Ahmad Alhusainy
by Ahmad Alhusainy , consulting , Self-employed

Exactly part I want to write, Mohammed Ashraf has explained it

Gayasuddin Mohammed
by Gayasuddin Mohammed , Advocate , Practicing Law before High Court at Hyderabad

I can't differentiate Micro/Macro Leadership as I feel it is the leading by front in pursuance of some goal as the fullest rather partial or like so. thanks.

Mohammed  Ashraf
by Mohammed Ashraf , Director of International Business , Saqr Al-Khayala Group

The study of leadership suffers from too many definitions, not too few. Much of this confusion springs from the fact that there are two fundamentally different perspectives on leadership. From these arise three common usages of the word. This article suggests that we recognise this diversity and abandon the search for a unique definition.

The first perspective views leadership as “influence on individuals” without using power or authority. This “meta” leadership relates individuals to their environment through “visioning” — a complex interaction of perception, articulation, conviction and empathy (PACE).

The second perspective views leadership as the “shaking and moving” of an organisation to face the future, cope with change and achieve results. It includes both the creation of a successful organisation, through “macro” leadership, and the accomplishment of specific jobs or tasks, through “micro” leadership.

These three types of leadership — meta, macro and micro — are examined from the two perspectives. It is suggested that all three should be exercised by managers at all levels - no matter how junior.

Every creative leader faces the challenge of building and managing a team. Finding the right folks is half the battle. After you find them, it is your responsibility to manage the team. Great management happens on both a “micro” level and a “macro” level. Micro-management – not the notoriously negative “micromanagement,” but rather what I call the MICRO aspect of management – is all about the day-to-day management that keeps the team on track.

A great MICRO Leader asks questions like:

·         What are the deadlines for a particular project?

·         How do we measure progress (and are we making progress)?

·         Is there sufficient feedback exchange?

·         How do we promote more accountability within the team?

But what about the MACRO part of Leadership ? Beyond your day-to-day role as a manager, you must also consider each person’s career trajectory.

A great MACRO Leader asks questions like:

·         What skills does each employee want/need to develop?

·         What are each person’s career aspirations?

·         How will each person’s role develop over the coming years?

·         Does each member of the team feel happy and fully utilized?

As you can see, the MICRO and MACRO perspectives of Leasership are quite different. But they are equally important.

Our challenge as Leaders are that we have an inherent bias for the MICRO side. Our operational obsession with near-term progress and great performance at any given moment often inhibits our MACRO perspective. As a result, we may lose people or fail to push our colleagues to their greatest potential.

So what are the differences  to great MACRO Leadership?

“Success factors” are the specific attributes for each person to be successful in his/her job. For example, a great “Office Manager” is (1) extremely organized, (2) has a great attention to detail, (3) understands the operations of the business, and (4) is comfortable working with different personalities. These four attributes are success factors.

A great MACRO manager states these success factors up front to someone hired for such a job. And then, over time, would consistently reinforce them – and support their development – going forward.

Everyone on your team should know (and agree) on the “success factors” for their role. When you check in periodically with folks on your team, you should restate the success factors and discuss what each person is doing to develop them over time. Industry conferences, workshops, and continuing education all lend themselves to addressing one’s success factors.

Rather than obsess over day-to-day performance, consider your team’s success factors on a consistent basis. By doing so, you will develop one of your own success factors – your capacity to MACRO manage!

Khalid Ghaffar
by Khalid Ghaffar , Consultant for Business Development , Waters Corporation USA

Micro Leadership lack personal leadership and tend to Resist delegating work, Immerse themselves in the work assigned to others, Look at the detail instead of the big picture, Discourage others from making decisions, Get involved in the work of others without consulting them, Monitor what’s least important and expect regular reports on miscellany, Push aside the experience and knowledge of colleagues and Focus on the wrong priorities. This is indeed a bad news for business and bad news for employees. They dis-empower staff, stifle opportunity and innovation, and give rise to poor performance.

 

Macro Leader it’s a true leader who lets employees do their jobs with minimal supervision. Macro managers are thought of by some employees as superiors who do not give them enough support or feedback to do their jobs effectively, while others may be glad to be trusted and left alone. A macro Leader is the opposite of a micro leader,  who constantly looks over employees' shoulders and is often perceived as controlling and overly critical.

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