Are You a Micromanager?

Few things are worse than having a supervisor who’s always (unnecessarily) breathing down your neck – but that’s the life for folks who work with micromanagers.

Most of the time, employees end up reading articles like this. They want to confirm they’re not overreacting and that their own bosses’ behaviour isn’t a one-off issue. They want to know they’re not alone. Well, we’re flipping the switch and want to do a little exercise of introspection. 

This one’s for you, the bosses themselves. While you may think you’re running your team with the discipline and order of a naval ship, you may actually be causing everyone more stress than it’s worth.

We’re going to go through the telltale signs of micromanaging, give you a few reasons you might have a tight hold on your team, and offer a few ways to ease up and give them the trust they desire.

Take a few minutes and get an answer to a question you might not otherwise ask yourself: are you a micromanager?

What Does It Mean to Micromanage?

By the textbook definition, micromanaging is “a pattern of behaviour marked by excessive supervision and control of employees’ work and policies.” Minus the use of the word excessive, that doesn’t seem too terrible, right? It just means you’re involved in your team’s day-to-day work. While a bit of involvement is alright, micromanaging takes it to a new level.

In reality, by micromanaging your team, you make them feel like you’re always watching what they’re doing, making sure they do things your way. You make them feel like you don’t trust them to do their jobs effectively. While you may have good intentions with your management style, your actions add a lot of frustration and self-doubt to your team.

You Might Be a Micromanager If…

Here’s where you need to be honest. If you check any of the boxes below, you could be guilty of overly inserting yourself into your team’s responsibilities.

You Have to Know Everything

Every task needs your approval. You need to be copied on all emails or task updates, no matter how small. You insist on attending meetings with your smaller teams instead of reviewing the meeting recap notes.

Of course, as a manager, you’re ultimately responsible for what your team puts out. However, this doesn’t mean you need to know every minute detail of what’s going on behind the scenes. 

You Refuse to Delegate

You maintain a “if you want something done right, do it yourself” mindset. You don’t want to trust anyone else to get tasks done. You obsess over lower-level tasks rather than high-level priorities.

It can be difficult to hand over certain responsibilities, especially if you just moved on from a role or someone brand new just took over. But without delegating projects and tasks to the rest of your team, you inadvertently show them you don’t trust their abilities and overwhelm yourself in the process.

You Ask for Constant Updates

You fire off a “When is this task getting done” email minutes after your employee gets a project brief. You send a dozen daily check-in messages to your team. You make your employees report how they spend their time every day or week.

Yes, you need to know what’s going on with your team so you can effectively manage time and provide updates to other teams and C-Suite. Even so, constantly requiring minor updates takes away time that your team could spend actually completing tasks. It can also make them feel like they have to justify their jobs to you.

You’re Obsessed with (Your) Process

You set up processes for the sake of process. It’s your way or the highway. Even the slightest deviation or suggestion for improvement bothers you.

Establishing the right processes for your team is key to ensuring things run smoothly. Overly complicated or inefficient processes with no room for change? Not so much. Everyone works differently, so clinging to a specific process just because you like it can frustrate your team more than you realise.

You Find Faults in Everything

You’re always looking for mistakes or flaws. Your criticism is not constructive or educational and is very subjective. Nothing is ever good enough until you get involved.

It’s entirely fine to have high standards for your team. In fact, you should. But high and impossible standards are two very different things. If you’re finding problems, especially over the smallest details, with your team’s work, they can feel discouraged and feel like they’re wasting their efforts.

You Limit Independent Decision-Making

Your opinion is the only one that matters. You need to have the final say. Your team doesn’t feel comfortable sharing their ideas to get things done. The best teams share ideas and feedback and compromise to produce the best work. If you don’t allow your reports to be heard, they can become stunted in their roles and made to feel like their opinions and expertise don’t matter.

Rarely do these behaviours come about on their own. There’s usually an underlying reason why you tend to micromanage. 

Why You Might Struggle to Let Go

You Miss the Familiar

Moving into a management position requires you to leave behind your old roles and responsibilities. Especially if you’re feeling overwhelmed with a new role, it may give you comfort to try to insert yourself back into the old one. 

However, what can start as offering help to the new person in that role can quickly escalate to overstepping. 

You Like Control

If you’re someone who prefers to have a handle on everything around you, letting go and trusting other people to get things done can be difficult. The thing is, that desire for control can manifest as commands rather than requests and display a lack of trust in your team—and even yourself. 

You Have Baggage From Old Managers

It’s not uncommon for new managers to mimic the habits of those they used to report to. If a former boss micromanaged you, you can copy those habits into your own managerial style and continue the cycle of over-involvement. 

You Want to Feel Connected with Your Team

Especially if you’re new to a company, it’s normal to want to bond with the people that you’re leading and show them you understand their roles. Unfortunately, your efforts to connect with your team may come as overbearing and have the opposite effect. 

It may not feel great seeing your behaviour viewed in a negative light, but it’s so important to open your eyes – because all of this really takes a toll on your team.

The Harm of Micromanaging

Micromanaging does more harm than stressing out your employees. Over time, your team feels the pressure – and so do you. 

Your Team Loses Trust in You

If someone always made you second-guess your abilities, found flaws in your work, and refused to let you take on new tasks, you wouldn’t want to put your faith in them as a leader, would you?

As long as you micromanage your team, in their eyes, they’ll never do enough to have you accept their work or their ability to do things on their own. It’s impossible to build a sense of trust with them.

You Increase Employee Turnover

No one wants to go to work every day only to be questioned or harassed via Slack and their email – so they won’t. As employees get fed up with being micromanaged, they’ll leave your company for greener pastures.

Not only does this mean you’ll repeatedly have to fill those positions – and dole out the higher salaries that come with them – but, depending on your role, it can ultimately have upper management question your abilities as a leader.

You Make Your Team Dependent on You

After so many instances of requiring your team to get your input on smaller tasks, they’ll eventually not bother doing anything without your approval first. Over time, this will make them entirely dependent on you, slow down projects, and bog down your day-to-day.

You Burnout…Fast

You have your own job. Micromanaging makes you feel like you’re doing multiple roles. It’s not sustainable, and you’ll feel burnt out pretty soon. In the end, you won’t be able to handle your responsibilities or manage your team effectively at all. 

Your Team Can’t Grow

The only way your team can grow, both in their specific roles and in their careers, is by taking on projects and gaining new skills. If you’re not willing to delegate these tasks, they can’t build their skillset or confidence, and they end up staying in the same mental and career space.

Now, all of this said, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. By actively taking a few steps to correct micromanaging behaviour, you can adjust your style to become the boss your team deserves.

How to Take a Step Back

Habits can be hard to break, but it’s not impossible. It’s going to take some work to change your micromanaging tendencies, but it’s so worth it.

Be Honest with Yourself

Acceptance is the first step toward any life change. Consider why you might tend to micromanage your team. If it’s because you were micromanaged yourself, remind yourself how that felt, and channel that energy into improving your habits. If you want to be more connected to your team, consider how you can adjust processes to have a healthy level of involvement.

Speak to Your Team

If you’re going to address the specific micromanaging behaviours that cause your team stress, you need to get their direct feedback. From there, ask about their preferred management style and get a better understanding of their specific duties. 

You can begin to practise delegating specific tasks so that, eventually, they’ll handle things entirely on their own.

Learn from Other Managers

Especially if it’s your first time in a leadership role, it can be difficult to get a good handle on balancing preferred management styles and your own habits. 

Speak to other managers—both in your company and externally—and learn how they lead their teams. Get advice for building trust with your employees and leverage their experiences to inform your own.

Keep Up Communication

Have your team help hold you accountable as you move away from micromanaging. Once you’ve built up trust with them, check in regularly to make sure you’re not falling into old habits. 

If some of your habits stem from a need for more knowledge about who joined your team, speak with your Human Resources or People Operations team to be more involved in hiring and ease those feelings.

Did you learn anything about yourself? On the contrary, do you wish you could send this to someone else who could learn something about themselves? Tell us in the comments!