What would you do

[BobM]

Okay so I am going to open up a can of worms and see if I get some good advice. There are two things happening first off is that our Tech director is a control freak in a lot of ways and just won't let the team advance their skills he always has to know how to operate everything, also he can't be out of the picture at all last week we were having our VBS wrap up night, his daughter was in it and all through the night he was texting those of us who were on tech that night how he wanted things. For me that's rather frustrating.
Second thing I'm the lighting guy and recently put in a proposal to go to a conference so that I could get some training as our console's software is going to be upgraded in the near future. Anyways I got a no for a reply which means I will be struggling along to figure things out on my own which I don't enjoy doing, I guess what bothers me the most were my tech directors "solutions" #1 we might be able to arrange training for the entire lighting crew and himself next spring although none of them have any programming experience so I would sit around for a lot of this not gaining any benefit or #2 this is the one I really liked(sarcasm intended) we could put in a proposal for next year to go to the same conference but it would be the two of us attending. He said that might have a better chance of getting approved. To add to the frustration is that other areas of our tech dept are getting 10's of thousands of dollars in upgrades to equipment that's only 2 years old while total spending on lighting has been maybe 5 grand over the last 2 years total.
So how would you approach the situation? Right now I'm rather frustrated and ready to leave lighting completely.
Sorry for the long winded post

[KeckCreative]

Control freak = Micro Manager.

As a recovering Micro Manager, let me just give a little insight at least from my experience and what I have and continue to work on to decrease my Micro Managing tendencies. It's not so much that I wanted to do everything, but that others must demonstrate the willingness to go the extra step. Just doing "enough to get by" isn't going to cut it. And just because nobody noticed or said anything about it doesn't mean the quality of work is meeting expectations. I never had a problem with mistakes that happened during shows (live theatre) or now during church services, but what did/does still drive me crazy is when lack of preparation or cutting corners. The tendency for a micro manager is that if nobody is going to make the effort then it is easier for me to do it myself than "fix" the half-hearted effort. The problem with that thought process is that sometimes people really are giving more than 100% effort, his/her abilities may just not be at the same level yet. It's not that they aren't talented, just some things take experience and practice. Somebody allowed the micro manager to make mistakes, learn and get better. The micro manager has to acknowledge that they were afforded that opportunity and now must extended to others. You can't really change a micro manager, they sort of have to come to that realization on their own. Then they are in a life long self imposed "recovery" program. Meaning, it is real easy to slip into old habits and they must constantly work on trust and acceptance of others work.

So having said that. What if the micro manager doesn't want to go through that self discovery and you're stuck with their micro managing. It may not seem fair at first, but this is one way to over come it in steps:

Step 1) Do whatever they want exactly as they want it no questioned asked and give them praise for when it works. Stay silent (for now) when it doesn't. Don't ever say "See, I told you so." If you do you'll never get out of step #1.

Step 2) Proactively before a decision is being made, make a suggestion on how it should be done following the history of what the micro manager would have done. The micro manager will probably agree with the decision (because it mirrors their own approach) and you start cultivating the micro manager's trust.

Step 3) After a while of repeating step 2. Proactively before a decision is being made, make two suggestions, the one the micro manager probably would have gone with and the one you would like to try if different. But don't debate the merits of going with your suggestion over the micro-manager's approach.

Step 4) After a while of repeating step 3. Proactively before a decision is being made, make only one suggestion... yours. But do not resist the micro-manager's approach if your suggestion is not initially accepted. If you do get to go with your idea and it is successful, be gracious in giving the micro-manager kudos for going with it. You may even give them "top billing" if you will in the credit department when talking with others. If it goes wrong, accept the full blame. If your suggestion/approach is shot down, ask nicely why your suggestion wouldn't work and listen to the response. Do not argue your position.

Step 5) After a while of repeating step 4. Proactively before a decision is being made, make only one suggestion... yours. Without being insubordinate, fight for your idea or approach by explaining its benefits over the micro-manager's historical way. Hopefully by this time you will have established a level of trust, that the micro-manager is not concerned that you are trying to displace them. Plus hopefully you have clearly demonstrated you are a team player and looking for way to make the project even better. Hopefully the micro-manager will see by this point that this is not something they have to worry about and relinquish detail control and now only have to focus on the fact that it gets done on scheduled not how it gets done.

If you've gone through all that and still getting micro-managed on everything, time to go to the next level of authority over the micro manager.

[Paris MkVI]

My namesake brother Jon has spoken wisdom. God wants us to demonstrate patience and perseverance with those around us. We are called to submit to those placed in authority.

2 Peter 1:5-8 speaks well into this area of our lives and relationships with others.

When people frustrate me, I try (don't always succeed, mind you!) to connect with God about it and determine what He wishes to teach me.

Jon's suggestions are an excellent approach to consider. Even your micro-manager is on a journey to become more Christ-like. Trust God's plan, co-operate and co-labor with Him. Hold fast to the Vision He gives, that mental image of a preferred future!

Persevere with love and patience, brother warrior in Christ!

[petereit]

Jon shared some great wisdom. The only way to really see what someone is made of is by putting them in a difficult situation and see how they respond. It could be that you are currently being "groomed" for a higher position in life. How you respond to your current situation may very well determine whether you get your "promotion".

It's what I regularly teach my children regarding ministry: #1 Identify your authority, #2 honor and obey your authority, #3 the beauty of obedience is that it makes fault flow uphill, #4 attitude is EVERYTHING.

[rcourtney]

One of the hardest things to face is are YOU prepared to be a servant for eternity?
I hope I will in the 70-80 years on Earth learn to be a good servant.

Being a good manager does include delegating. Pray for your director to
learn this skill.

When I do post editing I have full control of timing of scenes.
During a live event we have a director that tells when to "take" a camera
or "change" graphics. I don't always agree with the speed of the director,
but if I don't follow then everything will fall apart.

Be a good servant and perhaps you will take the lead in the future.