- Managers driven by self-doubt to interfere with their teams’ work can render it futile
- Micromanagement can manifest in any situation where a leader or manager is present
- Many individuals are/have been micromanagers or micromanaged themselves
- Adopt a style of ‘servant leadership’ to avoid micromanagement and get the best out of your team
Merriam-Webster defines micromanaging as “to manage especially with excessive control or attention to details”. This definition does not do the substantive reality of this style of management justice. I propose we examine micromanaging for what it actually is: fear and self-doubt, manifesting at productivity.
I propose we examine micromanaging for what it actually is: fear and self-doubt, manifesting as productivity.
What Does Micromanaging Mean to You?
Imagine a micromanager. Or better still, recall your last experience with a micromanager. What was it like? Our expectations of a typical micromanager are usually of some heinously overbearing boss, chronically involved with every aspect of your role, often with itchy feet or lively keyboard fingers, commenting, complaining, and controlling every second of the day. Perhaps you think of someone who is a bit of a bully, or a know-it-all. The hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and you may feel emotionally reactive to such a person.
Our expectations of what a micromanager is, or should be, can shape our experiences in the workplace. We think of a micromanager in extreme terms, and silently award one or two suitable candidates in the office with the title of ‘Micromanaging Maniac’. The issue with this is that we very rarely imagine ourselves as a micromanager, or deserving of such an undesirable title.
However, micromanagement can be seen in all sorts of interactions, from inside the office, to personal situations at home, and even in professional sports. In any given situation where someone emerges as—or is designated—manager, there is a risk that micromanagement may occur. And it only takes a small amount of anxiety, fear of failure, mistrust, or self-doubt, to bring out micromanaging habits. Managers who lead with the fear of failure will walk a dangerous line between trust and insecurity.
What Does Micromanaging Actually Look Like?
Aside from the typical traits outlined above—the obvious overbearing, itchy feet, and keyboard fingers stereotypes—many other ways micromanaging presents itself. I find it useful to use anecdotes to highlight to someone that they are in a situation that they perhaps couldn’t see, or didn’t want to believe, before. Here are two examples, one from the perspective of the micromanager, and, the other, the micromanaged.
Meet the Micromanager
You’re the manager of a team. You’ve had a meeting at the beginning of the week to set targets and you have a plan in place to achieve success. It’s now Wednesday, two days into the project, the marketing team are preparing content for the new release, the engineering team are building the new features, the operations team are sourcing the suppliers required, and everyone is head down in their laptop and you are watching them. You’ve had the morning stand-up and everyone is on track. Despite having lots on your to-do list, you’re suddenly conscious that you look a little… underproductive. You look around your office. Everyone is probably doing the right thing but you should probably do something to show people you’re not just sitting around. You feel like you’re not in control, you need to assert yourself. Naturally, it’s your job to know what everyone is doing and it’s your job to make sure they hit their targets, right? You should do something to show people you’re doing your job, to show yourself you’re doing your job and make yourself feel better.
You get up and look around, then wander over to one of the team; “what are you working on?” you ask the employee now looking up at you. Before the individual even has time to finish their sentence you adjust your stance to demonstrate you’re thinking hard, narrow your eyes, cock your head slightly, and begin: “I think you should do it better, make it bigger/smaller/greener/lefter/higher/lower…”. The obedient employee bends to your will and after 20 minutes or so of this, you proclaim a job well done and return to your desk. Look at you! You’re managing stuff. The employee has seen your leadership ability and knows that you’re not just a pretty face, a big scary boss, or completely out of touch with the picture. You feel better because you have contributed something to the project today.
Meet the Micromanaged Employee
You’re an obedient employee in a great team. You enjoy your work and you’ve spent a great deal of effort and time planning this latest project. It’s been signed off by your manager and it’s a great feeling to be working on a team project where everyone is adding a valuable part to the greater picture. Your manager was happy this morning at the stand-up meeting, but for some reason, they’ve been staring at you since lunchtime with a weird look on their face. You can’t figure out why. Eventually, they get up and walk over to you… “what are you working on?” they ask. You dutifully repeat what you told them in the stand-up this morning. They start making suggestions about how you can “improve” the work. What follows is a barrage of information, pointers, queries, and input. You sit through 20 minutes of requests and suggestions, adjusting your work on the screen obligingly. You now feel like all your work is being questioned and a part of you wonders why you bothered to do any planning if you’re not going to be trusted to do the work at hand. Eventually, they seem satisfied and leave you alone. You’re now left with some changes to the plan you had made, had signed-off, and been following which is a new obstacle to achieving your goals. You’ll now have to spend the rest of the afternoon communicating these changes to all the other teams and expect at least one of them to push back on them. You feel frustrated and wonder why your boss just doesn’t trust you. This is not the first time this interruption has happened and your gut tells you it won’t be the last. Why do they continue to have these random moments of interference that don’t move the project forward? Why can’t they see that their input just shunts things sideways and sometimes even backwards? You resign yourself to feeling a little put-out and spend much of the rest of the day trying not to feel irritated and frustrated.
Are You the Micromanager or the Micromanaged Employee?
I’m guessing most people who’ve worked in an office have experienced being both the micromanager and micromanaged, at some point in their career. You may have felt like the manager who feels that they’re not in control and gets satisfaction from “adding value” here and thereby involving themselves in the minutiae of people’s work. More likely, you may have been the employee who feels that their boss doesn’t trust them and is constantly breathing down their neck. You may have felt infuriated by the fact that, every so often, you are interrupted and lose all momentum with your work.
If you’re reading this and can relate to the employee’s feelings, know this: the manager in this example is leading from a place of fear; fear of failure and fear of being “found out”.
If you’re reading this and can relate to those feelings of self-doubt, fear of failure, and other sensations of anxiety, you’ve probably been a micromanager at some point in your career.
The reality is that you will be doing a better job as a manager by taking a step back and making the team feel trusted. You are not the star of the show, your team are the stars. As an unashamed Arsenal fan, I watched the great football manager Arsène Wenger show exceptional management skill as a servant leader and we can follow from his example. Arsène Wenger may have been an excellent football manager but he never himself delivered the ball up the pitch or scored the goals. He just made sure that his team had everything they needed to play an excellent game.
Choose Macromanagement and Servant Leadership
A great manager is one who follows the principles of a servant leader. They offer guidance when asked and are the advocate of team-based decision-making. They remove obstacles from the path of the experts, who make up the foundations of the team. This is typically a more ‘hands-off’ approach, allowing individuals more freedom to get on with their work.
Management in an office space is much like the management of a sports team. I find comparing the two to be quite helpful in understanding the role of a manager. Let’s use football in this example.
As a football manager, it’s about knowing that your role is on the sidelines, not on the pitch. You pick the team, you train with the players, you plan a strategy with them, but on matchday, you must stand on the sidelines and observe. Sure, offer encouragement, even reminders of what was previously discussed, where possible and where it is actually helpful. But, at no point have we seen Arsène Wenger start discussing a new strategy mid-play. At no point does he try to divert, change, challenge, or control his team’s play. Until his team has the chance to play for the first half of the match, it’s pretty difficult to tell if the plan should be altered at all. Making changes early in the game is a huge blow to the confidence of the players who lose faith in their own ability as they are hauled off the pitch without having a chance to succeed or fail on their own.
Equally, Arsène Wenger doesn’t whip out a flip chart of goal scoring patterns, nor does he start showing Thierry Henry how to dribble the ball. The manager of any football team steps out on to the pitch only in situations where they are needed; perhaps there is a player injury, or perhaps the strategy isn’t going to plan. At this point, the football manager directs the team on the best recourse. The manager doesn’t steal the ball and think “to hell with it, I’ll score a goal myself”.
What Makes A Great Manager?
Being a great manager in this context is about letting people succeed and fail by their own hand and not trying to take credit, fully or partially, for their work and achievements. Instead, a great manager makes the effort to genuinely praise their players, their team, when they have succeeded and are there to support them when they have failed.
Publicly praise your players for the wins, publicly hold yourself responsible for the losses and privately hold individuals accountable for both success and failures.
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This article first appeared on Medium as Fear and Loathing in Micromanagement
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