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
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By Susan Martin
NYC based Business Coach, Consultant and Strategist Susan Martin is no stranger to entrepreneurship, as she spent the first 25 years of her career running her own successful companies before deciding to dedicate her work to helping others achieve "Business Sanity."
A professionally trained business coach, Susan is a popular business workshop facilitator and speaker at events and professional groups in and around New York City. She helps business owners, executives, managers, salespeople and independent professionals stop struggling and learn how to run their businesses easily and effectively so that they can make more money, have less stress and more quality time to enjoy life.
Susan's clients want to increase sales and profits, boost productivity, manage their time, motivate their employees, increase performance and leadership skills, plan strategically and have balance in their lives. She provides the guidance, support, encouragement and accountability needed to achieve their goals.
If running your business is a struggle, contact Susan to find out how she can help.
View all of Susan Martin's posts.
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