mi·cro·man·age /ˈmīkrōmanij/
verb gerund or present participle: micro-managing
control every part, however small, of (an enterprise or activity).
Hey! It's been a bit and yeah we're in full-holiday insanity but something has been bugging me and it's gotta be addressed. MICRO-MANAGING. Now this phrase gets passed around a lot and can mean any number of things to any number of people. But I'm going to lay it out in the context of your relationship with your designer/writer/developer. Grab a coffee or beer and lets dive in!
When you hire a designer or any creative person for that matter, you're entering into an unspoken understanding, well it should be unspoken, and yet, here we are, speaking about it. Good thing it's not Fight Club, right? Shit.
This unspoken understanding is that you are hiring them to do something, presumably, you can't do. Whether it's a new logo, an ebook you can't seem to write, or that website you've been tooling with for years. Whatever the reason, YOU can't get it done. It may be time, it may be life, it may be that the feng shui in your house is off. Who cares? It's irrelevant. The fact is, you are hiring them to do something for you that you can't, and haven't, done already. You, hopefully, vetted them. Checked out their portfolio, looked at reviews, hired a private detective to see what they order at Chipotle. (Black bean jalapeno bowl here) So you've given them a good looking over. You like their style, their website, their writing. And you want all of that goodness to flow on over to your world. Yeah?
So, you get started. Mockups are shared. Phone calls are made. 3 am texts are sent. Zoom invites for days! And then... it starts. The "edits." The second guesses. The inane changes for the sake of your horoscope that week. "Capricorns: Avoid any and all creative offerings given to you. You must take charge and insist on changes that make no sense. Mercury prevails. Avoidance of avocados and Geminis recommended." At least, this is what it feels like to a creative person. More likely than not you actually used the words: "I have no idea what I'm doing" or "I just don't know what I need" during the phone calls with said hired pro. And yet... when the pedal hits the metal? You know best. And hey, I get it. We all want to have our say. We want things to be just what we want. We want our babies to get the best care possible.
And that. Is. Why. You. Hired. A. Professional.
But your incessant need to micro-manage is killing and I mean that literally, KILLING the vibe and the mojo that attracted you to the creative's prowess in the first place. Input is great. It's needed, it spurs new ideas and a fresh perspective. That's not micro-managing. That's just part of the creative process. An integral part to achieve the best outcome for everyone. Micro-managing, on the other hand, is another beast. Micro-managing a professional that you hired is a soul-draining, life-sucking, mojo-murdering thing that can only fortell a few guarantees: you will be put on the "only work with them at a complete last resort" list. Any of that magic you hired them to create will be so watered down by the end that you may as well have just hired someone off Fiverr. Or your cousin. And it may even result in the cancellation of the project. (This one is pretty dire as most creatives have bills and have become attuned to allowing their work to be diminished in order to not lose their house.)
If you're feeling a tightness right now? A little lump in your throat saying, "ruh roh... I kinda sorta do that." There is STILL HOPE. It won't come over night, and there may or may not be some naked moonlit cleanses in order, but your best bet is to simply have faith. You did your due diligence. You sought after this professional. Have faith in the fact that they are going to do the best for your business. Period. Like any other professional in any business, they want to give you the ultimate outcome because it's better for their business, too. You succeed, we succeed. It's the simple. There're your checks and balances. So have faith. It's that simple. There is no creator out there that is going to feel molested by being asked to change out the orange for green. Or the verbiage in a paragraph. But asking for new renditions based on napkin sketches? Using phrases like, "I just think it would make more sense if the menu was at the bottom of the screen hidden in an icon of a unicorn..." or asking for a completely rewritten e-book is unacceptable. And it only hurts both you and the creator. Let us do our thang, it's what you're paying for. And what you need.
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