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In today's podcast episode, host Aoife O'Brien dives into the fascinating topic of autonomy at work. Autonomy refers to the sense of choice and control we have over what we do and how we do it. It's amazing how the sudden shift to remote work during the pandemic gave many of us a greater sense of autonomy – the ability to control our own time and work in a way that suits us best.

But is more autonomy always better? Aoife challenges this assumption and offers insights on finding the right balance. Too much autonomy without guidance can leave us feeling lost and directionless, while too little autonomy under the watchful eye of a micromanager can be demoralising and demotivating.

Key points covered in this episode:

- Our psychological needs at work

- Dealing with a micromanager

- Setting clear expectations

- Finding the balance of autonomy

She also highlights the three core psychological needs we all have at work: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Autonomy fosters job satisfaction, engagement, and trust within the organisation – ultimately leading to better business results. However, it's essential to adapt our need for autonomy as our careers progress and our roles change.

If you've ever dealt with a micromanager, Aoife offers practical advice on addressing the issue by managing upwards. Communication is key, and expressing your preferences for greater independence can lead to a more balanced relationship.

Remember, it's important to understand the needs and expectations of both yourself and your manager. Finding proactive ways to contribute and offer information in advance can help alleviate some of the micromanagement tendencies.

Ultimately, we all deserve to work in an environment that nurtures autonomy while providing the necessary guidance and support to thrive. So, let's embrace autonomy at work, strive for competence, foster relatedness, and find the perfect balance that leads to greater happiness in our professional lives.

If you'd like to explore more about the three core psychological needs at work and discover your unique needs, and learn how to manage a bad boss, check out these previous episodes mentioned in today’s episode:

https://happieratwork.ie/113-how-to-handle-a-bad-boss-with-aoife-obrien/

https://happieratwork.ie/79-unlocking-true-happiness-at-work-with-aoife-obrien/

Connect with Happier at Work host Aoife O’Brien:

Website: https://happieratwork.ie

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aoifemobrien/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HappierAtWorkHQ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happieratwork.ie/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/happieratwork.ie

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm0FKS19I5qSlFFmkx1YGqA

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Happier at Work podcast. And I'm so thrilled that you decided to tune in today. A special shout out to those who have left reviews, who've reached out to me directly to thank me for the podcast. It can be a lonely game at times, especially when I'm doing solo episodes like this. It feels like I'm speaking into the abyss. So it really, really means a lot when people reach out to let me know the impact and the changes that they have made as a result of listening to the podcast. So I really, really appreciate that. Back to today's subject, which is all about autonomy at work.

And this is a subject that is particularly close to my heart because it formed a huge part of the research that I did for my masters, which is looking back three years ago now, kind of hard to believe that it's so long ago, but it's a topic I'm still hugely interested in. And I suppose we'll start off by reminding us, like, what exactly is autonomy? What does it mean? So autonomy to me at its simplest sense is a sense of choice and control over what you do and how you do it. And if you cast your minds back to the pandemic, which I think is over now, it's kind of hard to tell sometimes, but if you think about the first thing that most people got when they were mandated to work from home, was a greater sense of autonomy. Now I can control my own time, I can work in a way that I want to, or that works especially well for me, a lot of reduced hours because people were no longer commuting and things like that. So suddenly we were faced with a great deal of autonomy, which I think the general assumption is that more autonomy is really good. And I want to challenge that assumption today. I want to challenge our thinking around this idea of autonomy and give you some practical steps to take to make sure that you have the balance right. And let me explain a little bit more about what that balance looks like.

So on the one hand, you can have tons and tons of autonomy, but maybe you're lacking direction, you don't know which way to go. You actually have too much choice and you need a bit of guidance as to how to get to where it is that you need to go. You need a little bit more support in that area. On the other end of the scale, then there is too little choice and control. And that's when you have a micromanager and anyone who has ever had a micromanager and I think most people have have some sort of experience of being micromanaged at some point in their careers. I certainly have. And when you have so little choice and control over what you do, you feel like you are just being absolutely controlled by someone else, that it's very demoralizing. It's very demotivating as well.

And so when someone is telling you exactly what to do, when someone is telling you how you should be doing it, and when you should be doing it, then we lose this sense of autonomy. Now, broadly speaking, autonomy is one of our core psychological needs at work. So there are three psychological needs that we all have, and that's the need for autonomy, which I've already mentioned, the need for competence, which is a sense that we are capable of doing our jobs correctly, that we're doing them well. And with that you need a sense of challenge. So something that's not too easy, but also something that's not too difficult as well. And then the third need is relatedness. So that's feeling like you have a strong relationship with other people that you're working with, but also that you can relate what you're doing on a day to day basis to the overall picture of what the team is trying to achieve, what the organization is trying to achieve. And so that you can see the impact that your work is having on the results of the organization, which gives a great sense of pride.

Now, there is a longer podcast episode where I go into more detail on these three psychological needs and they're not the only needs that we have, but they're the only needs that are universal across everyone. We have some unique needs as well. And I do cover some of those unique needs in that longer podcast episode and I will put a link in the show notes to that episode as well. And back to autonomy. Again, another thing worth calling out is that our need for autonomy can change as our career progresses. So our need for autonomy increases as we get more proficient in our careers, and the same within individual roles as well. So if you're new to a role, maybe you need a bit more guidance, you need a little bit more handholding. If it's your first time to manage people, maybe you need a little bit more guidance from your manager.

So there's loads of factors to contribute to how much autonomy you feel you need. The other thing worth noting is that autonomy across different people can be quite different as well. So some people need more of that handholding where other people prefer to figure things out on their own and to kind of try things out and try and solve their own problems without necessarily needing input. So again, another thing to bear in mind, since you're listening to the half Year at Work podcast, I don't think I need to remind you of the reasons why autonomy is so important at work, but I'm going to do so anyway, I'm going to do it anyway. And really it's about fostering a greater sense of job satisfaction at work. So people enjoy work more, they are happier at work. There's a greater degree of engagement in the work that people are doing and it fosters a sense of trust with the organization among peers and all of those really brilliant things that at the end of the day, lead to fantastic business results. And what does this mean for individuals? So for individuals who are, let's say, let's start at the kind of the poorer end of the spectrum, let's say.

So from the research that I did, it is bad to be at either side of that. So either being micromanaged or having that lack of direction, but it's worse to be micromanaged than to have that lack of direction. So we'll start with the micromanagement. If you are being micromanaged, how do you handle that? I do have a previous episode all about how to manage upwards. So how to manage conversations with your boss, how to manage upwards, the relationship with them, rather than always relying on being on the receiving end of the relationship, because it takes two people to be in a relationship. There are some ways that you can address this so you can address it head on and maybe someone who is micromanaging you doesn't realize that they're micromanaging you and you can let them know either using those words that you don't like to be micromanagement. Now, there's some people who have really shocked and offended to realize that they are micromanaging you. And that's enough of a jolt to make them stop and kind of check themselves and realize, actually, yeah, I'm taking too much control here, and I'm making too many demands and I'm explaining too much and I'm kind of telling people how the job should be done rather than leaving them to their devices to figure out the best way that they can do it.

So that's kind of scenario number one. If you think this person is just naturally like that and they need to have that sense of control, then you can think about ways to be more proactive, to be more on top of the work and offering up information in advance of them, checking with you. And I, more than anyone knows the frustration of working under a micromanager and having my diary checked all the time and having work dumped on me because I've been told I'm not doing enough work, even though I was the one who was staying behind, working longer hours. So I do know the frustration. And it can be really easy to get lost and blinded in that scenario where you don't see a way out, but try and think and put yourself in that other person's position. What is it that they need from you and how can you proactively manage that situation? How can you proactively manage the conversation so that you're not reacting all the time to them being micromanagey and telling you what to do and how to do it. The other end of the spectrum then, is being left to your own devices. And again, I've had a manager who was very less a fair, not really getting involved in the client relationships, not really giving me much guidance, much direction on what it is I need to do, whether to progress my career or to build better relationships with my clients or really any sort of involvement at all.

He sort of almost washed his hands of the whole situation as if he wasn't my manager at all. So I have been in that situation as well. And it's very easy to look back and think what could I have done differently? But when you're in that situation, it's harder. And sometimes it's really great because you feel like you have a great level of freedom, that you make your own hours, that you can make your own decisions. But sometimes it can also be quite derailing for your career if you don't have a clear direction that you're going in or clear guidance on how to get to that next level, how to get to that next step. So just a watch out. And I know certainly I have friends and clients who rave about their bosses because they very rarely get involved in their day to day. But again, I think that's actually signs of a poor boss, it's not signs of a really strong boss who is a great leader and who can advise you and who can guide you on which direction to take.

If you do find yourself in that situation, the best thing you can do is speak up and let your manager know that you need more guidance, that you need more direction, that you would love to know how your work is impacting on the organization. You would love to know what you could do differently to improve, that you would love to get some guidance on what you need to do to get to the next level. Any sort of support and guidance that your manager can offer is so, so valuable. Now, there could also be an issue that they don't know, that they're not getting that level of guidance from their manager. And again, that can be a huge organizational challenge, that the information trickles down, but it's not queried enough to really understand what the expectations are in the role and to provide enough guidance around what the priorities are. Or maybe the priorities are changing and they're changing at such a pace that people can't necessarily keep up, or they're working on one project and then the priority has changed and it's no longer the project that you should be working on, but it hasn't been communicated. So I'm aware that there's all these sorts of moving parts in organizations as well that make it very, very difficult for these kinds of things. But make sure if you as an individual listening today, don't know what it is that you should be working on, what the priorities are and the direction that you should be going in then ask the question.

And it's not a silly question because I'm sure there's so many other people who don't know. If you're not getting that guidance from that manager, there's so many people who will thank you for asking that question to begin with. There are also some other hurdles that get in the way when trying to build a great sense of autonomy and give people the autonomy that they need at work. One of the biggest hurdles I'm seeing at the moment is a lack of trust in organizations. So when I see mandates for people to come back into the office because it's much easier to see whether people are working, it's not really, let's face it, but managers and leaders often believe it's much easier to manage people when they are in the same room as them, essentially. And you and I both know that that is not the case. It's presenteeism, it's just being in the room for the sake of being in the room, and it doesn't make it any different. And it's really just the bad managers who can only manage people when they're in the same room as them.

Another hurdle is micromanagers. Now, I mentioned micromanagement earlier in the episode, but if you have a team of micromanagers or if you have people who have come up through an organization and who've been micromanaged themselves and they don't know any better, then it can be quite hard to implement a greater deal of autonomy to other people who are in that organization as well. And this ties in with the idea of command and control, which is an old style of leadership where people tell you what to do, essentially and you just get on and do it. And thankfully, I was going to say it doesn't exist at all anymore. But I'm sure there are some organizations who still have that style of leadership and some individuals who still have that style of leadership as well. But for the most part, people are moving into a different style of leadership, like transformational leadership, authentic leadership, and a coaching style of leadership as well. It could be the case that there's someone who's just very controlling, that they don't like to delegate tasks. Again, it ties in with not trusting people to get the work done, or they have exceptionally high standards and they don't trust other people to meet those high standards.

Or they've tried delegation in the past and it hasn't really worked well for them. Again, is it because they have these exceptionally high standards, which I'll admit myself, I do have those exceptionally high standards and I do hold other people to high standards as well. It's through my value of excellence, and I make no apologies for that. If I set clear expectations to someone, then I will expect them to meet those expectations as well. What does all of this mean if you are a manager of people? So again, let's come back to the idea of the scales and the two ends of the scale, you want to give people enough autonomy so that they don't feel like they're being micromanaged, but give them enough clear direction and guidance so that they know exactly what the expectations are. So if you can set really clear expectations, if you can have some very solid outcomes that you are expecting. And when I talk about outcomes, I often talk about quality and time taken. So what is the quality of output and what is the amount of time that is required to get something done and then let someone go and figure out how to do it their best way because people work in different ways.

Something else that's really important as a manager is feedback. And this ties in with this idea of autonomy and it also ties in with our need for competence. So people need to feel like they're capable of doing a job and doing it really well and have sufficient challenge. So on either side of that scale do feel free to give that feedback. You're doing a good job. Here's the areas that you need to improve. Here's my really clear expectations and here's where maybe you need to brush up a little bit on meeting those expectations, but also feedback if you're not getting enough guidance, if you are not being challenged enough at work as well. Another thing to bear in mind when people are working autonomously is that you give them enough time for planning their work and to have a plan in place and flexibility within that plan as well.

And something that we often talked about when I was still working at corporate that we never were able to quite do was having time for thinking. So thinking is such an important time. And that thinking time can even be when you're taking breaks, when you just get inspiration, because you're not sat in front of your desk and trying to come up with some inspiration, but you actually have some downtime to give your brain a rest. And then the ideas kind of come flowing and come through that way. So that episode is a little bit longer than I thought it would be when I first started talking about autonomy. But it's an area I'm hugely passionate about. It's something I really enjoy talking about. I love helping my clients with those specific areas around need satisfaction at work.

So I guess you can't shut me up once I get started talking about it. But I would love to know from you if there's one thing that you're going to do differently. If there's one thing that you're going to take away from today's episode, I'd absolutely love to know what that is. Feel free to reach out to me directly. All of my details are on the website Happier at Work ie. You can also interact with me on whatever platform that you're using to listen to today's podcast episode. So I'd absolutely love to hear from you. That's it for today's episode, and I'll be back again next week with another interview episode, and I'll speak to you then.

Bye.