I'm sure we've all met someone like this before. The "Micromanager"

They are the person who has to know every little detail of every project and they want that status report yesterday. They find it hard to delegate and when they do, they end up doing the task themselves. To put it bluntly, they are extremely hard to work with.

So what are we to do as VAs when we sign up a client who didn't appear to be a micromanager but ends up being one?

Tell me your story and how you dealt with it. I'm sure we can all take something from it back to our own businesses.

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Kylie Short
Tilda Virtual Services - Making virtual personal

Although I don't have a Virtual story, I do have an in-person story. I had a hard time understanding how a Sr. VP at a top consulting firm even had time to micromanage, but my gawd did he ever.

So what I started doing was sending him an email the second I finished a task. I basically took the email request that he sent me and responded to it with the word. "DONE." He never complained about getting too many email and that shut him up.

Prior to that one, I had another one who just always always always wanted follow up. So at the end of the day, I would send him one email with everything I had done for him that day. That shut him up too .. good luck.. its very annoying.

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Tamika R. Johnson, MBA, Principal
administrative partners, llc
www.administrativepartners.net | http://adminpartners.blogspot.com

It's times like these that I pull out the 'it's not you, it's me' line and fire them as a client.

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Kylie Short
Tilda Virtual Services - Making virtual personal

Maybe try being honest first, something along the lines of "I plan to meet your deadline and deliver you quality work, but in order to do so I need to manage my time autonomously. I am happy to send you daily/biweekly/whatever updates."

If one still wants full involvement with the project, I might consider explaining that outsourcing is probably not the best solution for them, due to the differing styles. Really if they want to stand over someone's shoulder criticizing every keystroke or something, they need an employee.

I can relate as I have a client who is exactly like this at the moment! I think the key is to keep them as updated as possible (yet it takes up time that could be spent doing something else!!). For this particular client, I bcc him copies of all emails regarding research etc, so he knows when I'm waiting to hear back from people - yet the very same afternoon it'll be "where are we on this?"....."uhhm, exactly where we were this morning"!!!

It is frustrating and it actually takes more of your time to respond to them than if they just left you alone to get on with the task!!!

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"Instead of looking for things that have gone wrong and trying to fix them...Look for things that went right and try to build on them" Tom Peters

My boss is definitely not a micromanager and I love him to death, but sometimes he bugs me just to bug me, I think...lol

He'll come in when I'm busting my butt and pulling my hair out to get something done for him (like itemizing everything we spent on supplies in the past year right down to how many staples we bought so he can turn it into SBA for a draw down report) and ask me, "Are ya done yet?" every hour or so. Finally, I just give him that look and he just says, "Guess not" and leaves. I guess it's kind of hard to do that virtually, huh?

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Stephanie
New VA in the research phase :daisy:

I honestly don't mind when a client needs regular feedback (I send weekly 'reports' to a few clients - some just want to know how many hours they're at..But for every client I do send an individual emailed reply for each of their individual emailed requests [unless they can be combined] to either let them know something has been done or to follow up with questions/suggestions/details etc.) - unless a client's requests for this kind of info starts to encroach on the way I prefer to manage my time and daily projects, etc. There is a line where this kind of request goes from being at least semi-reasonable to downright bothersome.

In those cases where it starts to feel like the client can't 'let go' - I try to open up dialogue and find out just where the trust issues are and work on those.

However, when it gets to the point where it's obvious the client is truly micromanaging and we're finding that we're 'live online' with the client via email in a back and forth (this happens once in a while with one client in particular who will get us into a big project and then literally SIT on the project step by step as we move forward) we just send along a note that says basically 'Please let us finish the initial project request and THEN send your tweaks and revisions' because often the client can't imagine the end result and will start to mentally edit his initial request. This puts a strain on our day because we can't ever really effectively move forward with whatever else needs to be done (for this client or for others).

I've sent emails with notes on how many hours that week were spent on the back-and-forth and how many hours were spent on the actual project. That usually gets the clients attention, when he realized he's paying $XXX to pick apart his own requests and that he's impeding the progress. This is especially effective when the client is picking at the initial request while still in concept (before there's anything for him to physically look at or work with) AND he's nervous about his own mental deadlines.

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I have weekly "check ins" with my clients. Sometimes they last 5 minutes, sometimes 1/2 hour or more - depending on what's going on, how much is going on, and if there are any problems that need to be resolved. The longest I've ever spent on a check in is 45 minutes, but that was because we were going over annual reviews of the employees of the company & determining bonus structure.

I love your check in strategy Dana as I do this too. It's when clients are overbearing that I start to look around and find them an alternative.

My very first client wasn't a micromanager as such but someone who'd put ASAP on everything. I'd be working in a frenzy to get it done ASAP only to realise that for this document ASAP is tomorrow. Another document ASAP is next Tuesday. Having a client like this made me realise that I truely am a business owner and I get to choose.

Everyone's mentioned some great strategies. I guess I'm referring to micromanagers as people who despite your best efforts, weekly check ins and other strategies, still cause you stress and impede the progress of a project or task. Does anyone disagree?

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Kylie Short
Tilda Virtual Services - Making virtual personal

Micromanagers can be a pain, but I tend to get the opposite. People that can't find their files, it takes them forever to get stuff to me, I'm constantly stalled. Honestly I don't know which is worse. At least with the micromanagers, stuff is getting done.

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Rebecka Melson ~ Virtual Business Services