David Carne, school business professional and executive coach, on how to avoid becoming a micromanager – and how to deal with a boss who is one
Read the full article below or on page 38 in our April magazine
At some point in most people’s careers, they will encounter a micromanager – according to data, at least 79% of the workforce have worked for a micromanager at some point in their career. Instead of providing a healthy balance between autonomy and accountability, the micromanager needs to control everything. In some specific situations this can be positive but, as a general style, it has the potential to seriously harm an organisation. Typical behaviours of a micromanager include:
Requiring all actions to be approved through them.
Dismissing the knowledge, skills, and experience others.
Believing others lack the competence to complete their work to an acceptable standard.
Requiring constant updates on trivial details.
An inability to move out of the operational into the strategic.
Focusing on mistakes, problems and weaknesses over achievements.
Failing to recognise improvements and efforts made by others.
Not listening to, or dismissing, ideas, suggestions or alternative courses of action without proper consideration.
Consequently, micromanagers often work long hours to fit in a stream of back-to-back meetings with subordinates, and complete work they don’t trust anyone else to do. They quickly become a log-jam, as nothing can proceed without their say so. Ironically, the micromanager will often interpret this inaction as evidence of incompetence, further boosting their view that their subordinates cannot be trusted. However, rather than coach, train and develop their team, the micromanager will usually become overly directive and hypercritical.
Micromanagement is usually a symptom of weak and insecure leadership, in the same way as styles like coercive leadership are. There is a wealth of research on micromanagement and, to summarise, in almost every situation over the long-term, micromanagement is highly destructive. Findings include reductions in employee engagement, motivation, trust, performance, creativity, collaboration, focus, staff morale, self-confidence, self-esteem and commitment, and an increase in stress, frustration, workplace conflict, risk-aversion, communication breakdowns and defiant behaviour including aggression, depression, anxiety, fatigue, sickness absence and staff turnover.
The lack of growth and development among employees, and the perception that their work lacks substance and is unfulfilling, usually leads to stagnation. So how do you avoid becoming a micromanager, or deal with a boss who is one?
Figure out why the micromanagement is occurring
Usually, the need to control things comes out of fear. This might be a fear of failure, fear of not delivering adequate quality, fear of not knowing what is happening, fear of not appearing to be the smartest person in the room, or a fear of loss of power. If you can identify the source of fear, you can begin to develop strategies to provide reassurance and reduce it.
Consider whether there is a way to build trust
Consider how you can develop your team/yourself to a point where you trust them/your boss trusts you with more autonomy. You might consider a coaching approach and provide or ask for coaching; in this way you could work on creating a shared understanding of what meeting expectations means. Start small by providing or asking for autonomy on something which is not mission critical and then, assuming that goes well, move on to something more significant.
Are there behaviours you are demonstrating which might be adding to the lack of trust or fear of sharing information with you? If subordinates fear they will be criticised, or if your boss fears they will be left uniformed, that may be contributing to the need to adopt a more micromanaging style. You may not be able to build the trust, but it is important to at least try.
Try a structured approach
It might be helpful to introduce a more systematic approach to managing tasks. Introducing a project management tool, or using software, might help keep track of progress, rather than requiring frequent updates. Personally, I like a good Gantt chart; at the very least, agreeing and sticking to deadlines at the outset should allay some fears.
Address real concerns
If you are micromanaging because those you have responsibility for are underperforming, put in place the support, training and encouragement needed so they can improve. Conversely, if you are experiencing a boss who micromanages, try asking for feedback on what they perceive to be the areas you need to address – that might be uncomfortable, but maybe they will respect the fact you are willing to address them.
Communicate clearly
Establish clear expectations and be clear about what is expected of you. Get clarification if you need to. If you have a concern about an individual, raise it in a supportive way and put together a plan to address it. If you are being micromanaged, consider tactfully saying you don’t feel your manager trusts you, and that you deserve the chance to complete your work and be judged on the outcome – you will know whether that conversation is likely to have impact; often a good way to tell is to see if there is anyone on the team they do trust and, if there is, you know it is at least possible to achieve that lofty status.
If you have tried everything else, walk away
Clearly you can’t walk away from yourself if you are a micromanager, but you can walk away from a role which causes you to be fearful and that is driving you to over-manage others. If you have tried every other strategy, and there is no improvement in your manager’s behaviour, it may be time to consider a change of role.
Both the decisions above require deep and careful consideration, weighing up the impact the situation is having against the potential risks of changing role. Deciding well may require professional advice, counselling or coaching. However, statistics show that around 30% of people have quit their roles because of being micromanaged.
I strongly encourage you, as a leader, to do what you can to avoid micromanaging others – and if you are the one being micromanaged, to work through the six steps above to try to tackle it.
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