Most of us have been micromanaged at some point in our careers: having to account for our time; being required to explain why, when and how to our line manager; not allowed to make decisions; and constantly being checked on.
“It’s one of those workplace scenarios that we all want to avoid,” says Alison Ibrahim, Senior Leadership and Management Trainer at Impellus. “It can be very demoralising and demotivating to be micromanaged, making employees feel undervalued and unnecessarily pressurised, often leading to a high turnover of staff.”
But while it’s easy to recognise that you are being micromanaged, it’s much harder for the micromanager to realise what they are doing and how they are making their staff feel. Micromanaging is often done with the best of intentions to ensure high-quality work, but it often has the opposite effect.
“It’s also useful to understand that there can be deep-seated psychological reasons for micromanaging behaviours,” says Alison. “For example, it may be learned behaviour from childhood or a reaction to a toxic hierarchy where the micromanager is under intense pressure from their line manager to deliver on impossible budgets and targets.”
“Some micromanagers will have a fear of losing control and respond by over-controlling their team in an effort to deal with their anxiety.”
Micromanaging: self-check list
Here’s a quick self-check you can do to find out if you may be a micromanager – and what to do about it:
- Do you find it difficult to delegate? This often happens when the micromanager thinks they are the only the person who knows the ‘right’ way to carry out particular tasks and how get things done. However, effective leaders and managers know that delegating is a highly effective and motivating way to develop their staff, offering opportunities for growth and advancement. Check out our one-day Delegation and Time Efficiency course and our blog post: Delegation or offloading? What’s the difference and does it matter?
- Do you get over-involved in checking and overseeing every detail of every task that your team is working on? “This is a hard one to step back from,” says Alison. “You will need to get into a different mindset. Set clear standards, expectations and deadlines, but allow your team to approach and complete tasks in their own way. If this is a really difficult sticking point for you, begin by letting go of smaller tasks and gradually build up to the more important ones.”
- Do you constantly request updates on how things are going so you can monitor the progress of even minor tasks? “You must learn to trust your team,” says Alison. “Make it clear you are available to offer help and support, but avoid constant interference.”
“Leadership is about creating and setting the right environment where we enable our staff to grow and develop,” says Alison. “To be effective leaders we must empower our staff to make their own decisions, learn from their mistakes, and ultimately trust them to deliver.”
