(This guest post was written by Patrick Iselin, sales strategist)

That’s right, I said it.

Few would agree right off the bat – but I still maintain that it is the truth.  The more somebody is micromanaged, the less accountability they have, the less pressure to perform.  They also no longer need to think for themselves once their manager is making every  decision for them.  People are fundamentally lazy and thus they get comfortable, or even worse complacent.  So what starts off as an annoyance to the employee (while the manager is asserting himself), soon develops into a sort of Pavlovian response whereby when decisions are required they need not use their own initiative but instead simply wander into the manager’s office and ask what to do.

Micromanaging starts you on a vicious cycle resulting in a grinding halt to productivity, and here is why.

The snowball effect manifests – soon nobody is really doing anything except the (now perilously overworked) micromanager who is making every decision on everyone’s behalf.  In the start-up environment this is near fatal.  The manager has his own responsibilities that need to be addressed – his team has to be hand picked to consist of only the best and the brightest so that it will operate with the least supervision necessary.  In an emerging business of any kind everyone has to be pulling the weight of two if not three – imagine how this translates once micromanagement is put into play.  It’s exponential.

So hire the right guys – have faith in them. Give them responsibility and hold them accountable. Treat them well and ultimately reward them well for showing the initiative and wherewithal that attracted you to them in the first place. If you don’t you will find yourself either completely buried under minutiae or on a hamster wheel of daily activity that is earning you no forward progress. Dead in the water.  Leave the micromanaging to those that can suffer the bloat that it breeds.  Remain streamlined and surgical. We’re not in it for the weekly paycheck, we are in it for the big score.  Eyes front.