What is a micromanager, and why do people micromanage? This sinister way of managing employees can infiltrate any workplace or organizational culture.
Micromanagement is one of the worst, most damaging and morale-sapping ways of managing people. It can seriously affect productivity, employee retention and ultimately, damage people’s health. A manager’s job is to provide guidance and support. Their role is to facilitate a healthy environment where employees can perform at their best – reaching their potential by having true autonomy in their roles and building their confidence. Unfortunately micromanagers achieve exactly the opposite.
What is micromanagement?
Micromanagement is where managers feel the need to control aspects of their employee’s work & decision-making to an extreme degree – more than is necessary or healthy for a usual working relationship.
Many people have experienced micromanagement at some point in their careers. Being micromanaged can reduce an employee’s confidence, extinguish autonomy and severely impact creativity – and believe it or not, that’s the best-case scenario. At worst, being micromanaged can lead to employees seeking work elsewhere, or even lead to long-term anxiety, stress & depression.
Are you being micromanaged?
If you’re reading this and in a dark place as a result of being micromanaged, please seek help as soon as you can. When you’re being micromanaged – and we’ll cover the signs and symptoms shortly – one of the worst things is the drain in self-confidence. It can be incredibly difficult to put your hand up and ask for help.
Why do people micromanage?
According to the Harvard Business Review, the two main reasons managers micromanage are:
1.) They want to feel more connected with lower-level workers
2.) They feel more comfortable doing their old job, rather than overseeing employees who now do that job7 signs of micromanagement
So, let’s get stuck in to the 7 ways you can identify a micromanager – then we’ll provide some tips on how to deal with one…
- Not seeing the wood for the trees
Micromanagers have a tendency to become bogged down in the minutiae of individual project strands, losing the ability to see the bigger picture. - Every task needs approval
For many micromanagers, the idea of giving their team members control is unthinkable. They often believe that they are the only one capable of effective decision-making. People find themselves having to request approval about everything, rapidly diminishing self-confidence. - An obsession with constant updates–This can result in people spending more time producing detailed updates than focusing on what they are employed to do. With people feeling the constant need to justify themselves comes the feeling that they are not trusted to do their jobs.
- Difficulty delegating— This causes two big problems. Firstly, a micromanager’s team members wonder whether they are actually allowed to do to the work for which they were originally employed to do. This can lead to a steep decline in confidence. In turn, the micromanager becomes so overloaded with another person’s work that they fail to do their own.
- They need to be copied into every email— The need to have visibility of every strand of communication at all times. This indicates a fear of being left out of the loop and obsession that people are discussing details and making decisions outside of their control.
- They over-complicate instruction— An obsession with even minor details means that even straight-forward projects can quickly become ridiculously over-complicated. Instructions are so detailed and convoluted that they end up becoming incomprehensible. This can often be to retain a feeling of control, so employees are left confused and overly-reliant on the micromanager for even small decisions. This also knocks employees’ confidence, which is another sinister by-product of micromanagement.
- The belief that no one else is capable
Micromanagers often believe that they are in a management position over lesser talented people because only they can be trusted to work as effectively. As we mentioned earlier, this is often why they get involved in everything (and make sure that their team run every single decision past them for approval before moving forward).
Once a micromanager has been identified, it’s time to take immediate steps to deal with them in order to mitigate the damage they’re doing to people, their productivity & confidence – and ultimately the company itself.
Try to understand
Thinking about the reasons for why the micromanagement might be happening is always useful – as mentioned earlier in this blog, is it that they’re uncomfortable in a leadership role, or insecure and anxious that their team will reflect badly on them? Trying to view the situation from another perspective can help.
Have an honest conversation
Speaking as honestly (and professionally) as you can about how you’re feeling is always a good start – start gently, by highlighting certain words or actions that make you feel demoralized or not trusted. (Starting off with “I feel micromanaged” is highly likely to produce a defensive, knee-jerk reaction and be unproductive, so tread carefully.)
Try and get ahead
For example, if you know your manager asks for constant updates, try and update them on important topics before they have a chance to ask. This will help to build trust, and show that you’re a reliable employee who’s capable of fulfilling tasks. It’s all about finding balance, of course, and no one has time to be updating their manager with every single task they’re completing – so why not try and agree a communication plan that you’re both happy with?
Escalating the issue
If these steps don’t change the level of micromanagement you’re feeling, it’s probably time to speak to HR about how you’re feeling and the impact on your wellbeing & work.
