You've encountered them before, the meddlers: clients who hire you to do a project for them, and then proceed to constantly second guess what you're doing to the point of frustration. You'd think they'd have better things to do than continually look over your shoulder and want to know what's happening on every front.
Perhaps it's a control issue or a lack of trust, but when clients can't let go and want to micro manage everything you do, it takes the fun out of any project, and often undermines the outcome as well as your relationship.
Michael Hyatt, in the "From Where I Sit" blog has some great suggestions for "How to get bosses off your back" that pertain to those pesky clients just as well. His advice? Take the initiative to let them know what's going on first, and breaks it into 3 steps:
- Tell him what you plan to do
- Do what you said you would do.
- If anything changes, be the first one to tell him.
Read his entire post here.
How do you deal with micro managing clients?
-Susan Martin, NYC Business Coach
I am a big fan of your blog and am very interested in your ideas about being an effective leader. I am a student studying I/O psychology and believe this aspect of leadership is very important.
I came across a book that I think ties into many of the points you make. It is called Squawk! How to Stop Making Noise and Start Getting Results. It is a very interesting perspective on "seagull managers" and how this destroys their ability lead effectively....Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
Regards,
Ashley
Posted by: Ashley | September 12, 2008 at 07:46 PM