Mike Melton argues managers are glorified babysitters and companies should eliminate unnecessary oversight instead. He contrasts a crew chief who does hands-on work while his crew operates independently with micromanagers who tell people what to do. The real solution is self-leadership at all levels.
So a lot of your guys, you just have managers. So what a manager is, is a glorified babysitter. If you need a babysitter in your company, you're doing something all wrong. Look, I'll take you around my shop right now. Here we go. No, no, nobody here needs a babysitter. They don't need a manager. They don't need a micromanager. See what you got. Do you need a manager or are you a self-leader? Self-leader. There you go. It's that easy. It's that easy, brother. Y'all are just running your shops all wrong. Let's ask this guy. Do you need a manager, or you can— are you self-led? You can self-lead? Yeah. What's wrong with a lot of these shops? Their workers can't self-lead. They need somebody to tell them what to do. They need a damn babysitter. I don't need no boss. I am the boss. That's right. Now you got this guy over here. You know, this guy here works harder trying to get out of work than he does working. Look, that's his truck. He's mounting his tires, but he's the crew chief. But look, he's still doing that, and the crew is still running without him. What is that called? That's called a leader. He don't have to micromanage his team.
