A Guide to Micromanagement

7 steps to escape micromanagement

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

As a manager at PK, you have a responsibility to avoid micromanagement because, as this guide will explain, it is the root of many negative outcomes within teams.

We’ll explain precisely what micromanagement is and how it can manifest itself within teams, then move on to tips for identifying it and, importantly, escaping it.

In true anti-micromanagement fashion, no one will be checking in on whether you are following the below advice. However, I strongly suggest that you do. By getting out of the way and giving freedom to grow, you give yourself and your team the best foundation to grow into a fulfilling career at PK.

What is micromanaging?

There are three levels of management.

1. You have people who don’t manage on one end of the spectrum. These people let their teams get on with whatever they want, whenever they want, and without any oversight or involvement. This way works well very rarely.
2. Next are managers who tell their teams precisely what, when, and how to do their work. These are micromanagers. Again, this can sometimes work. But never in groups with ambitious and talented people motivated by growth. You should therefore avoid it at all costs at Prospect Knight.
3. In between these two extremes sit great managers. And like a football manager who successfully leads their team to success without ever being able to touch the ball, they direct their teams with just the right amount of instruction and support.

It’s the third group of managers that we look for at Prospect knight. They generate the most successful results for their clients and see the most rewarding growth in their people.

What’s wrong with micromanaging?

It’s rare to find people who enjoy working with a micromanager. Someone who looms over you to check and often criticise every detail of your work. If you’ve never worked with someone like this, it shouldn’t be difficult to imagine how annoying it would be. And that’s just the start of the negative impact. It will slow you down, damage your motivation, and stop you from having any freedom to figure things out yourself. Far from ideal conditions to thrive.

Now, I know that the image of an overcontrolling boss leaning over someone’s shoulder to take control of their keyboard is the extreme end of micromanagement, but even when the undermining displays are subtle, the damaging effects are all the same.

Whether that’s checking on progress too much, giving too detailed instructions, or discouraging decisions without your input — micromanagement comes down to showing a lack of trust in your team. And when a manager doesn’t show faith in their team, it will be pretty hard for them to have any belief in themselves.

Freedom is the better option.

Truly great management comes down to setting others up for success. And this is rarely achieved by keeping your nose firmly inside someone’s to-do list.

Here are a few reasons why freedom is the better option:

1. Your people have to be motivated to achieve their goals. As discussed in my guide to empowering teams, being autonomous is a critical element of motivation, and people will work much harder when they have the freedom to work in their way.
2. We have painted a bleak picture of micromanagement so far, but it usually comes from a good place, for example, the desire to avoid mistakes. Although this is understandable, it is through the events and consequences of mistakes that people learn, grow and improve, so you have to give people the freedom to make them.
3. Lastly, you have to be there for your team in many other capacities. If you fill your head with the micro details of everyone’s to-do list, you will have no room for the bigger picture thinking and strategic decision-making that will help you be a truly great manager.

Are you a micromanager?

Although I’ve painted micromanagement in black and white, it is worth acknowledging that there are many more shades. Whilst you may never take it to the extreme of snatching someone’s mouse and making them watch you complete the task, you will likely slip into micromanagement behaviour at some point. This guide aims to help you spot those moments and avoid them wherever possible.

Here are some of the most common subtle micromanagement behaviours:

• Checking in on progress too regularly
• Taking back delegated work after finding an error
• Correcting tiny details instead of looking at the big picture
• Discouraging others from making decisions without asking you
• Deciding not to delegate because it will be faster to do it yourself
• Completing a task for someone rather than showing them how to do it

As mentioned earlier, a lot of micromanagement comes from positive attributes. You can see how some of the actions above link to things like having high attention to detail, being hands-on with your team, and wanting to avoid mistakes. These are all great personal traits, but moderation is essential, like all good things in life.

Steps to escape micromanagement

1. Reflect on your behaviour

The first step here is some self-reflection. Think of your management methods. Are you doing anything that may be limiting your team’s growth? Are you giving them enough room to breathe? Look at the list of common behaviours above and pick out the ones you do most. After identifying them, ask yourself what reasons you give for justifying the behaviour and then critique them. For example, if you’re trying to save time, make it clear that failing to delegate will cost you a lot more time in the long run. If you’re trying to make everything perfect, make it clear that the quality of your teams’ work will only improve through practice.

2. Talk to your team

The word management can be misleading because it suggests everything flows from you onto your team, but that’s not right. The most effective managers know that management is a two-way street, and they work hard to gain their teams’ input on ways of working. If you want to change your management style, talk to your team openly about your self-reflection and why you want to change. Ask them what they want from you as their manager. Ask them how often they would like to be in contact with you, and be explicit with the level of detail you would like to receive from them. Not everyone will have the same preferences, so it will be important you listen to the answers if you want this to work.

3. Build trust

Showing vulnerability and building trust are two keys to empowering your team and building their confidence. Talking to them and acknowledging where you want to improve will show your vulnerability. The act of asking how they would like you to manage them will show you respect their opinion and will build trust. If these conversations don’t work to build trust immediately, you may need to be more direct about it. In this case, you can firstly TELL them openly that you fully trust them to make decisions on their own. After doing this, it is crucial to SHOW them that you trust them by getting out of their way, stopping overly controlling behaviour, and giving them opportunities to shine on their own.

4. Delegating

Whether you’ve implicitly or explicitly shown your team that you want to give them more freedom, you must get good at delegating. This complete guide can pretty much come down to this point. If you aren’t delegating, you won’t be growing, and neither will your team. And this will inevitably lead you to start micromanaging. Not good.

Like most things, it takes practice to get good at delegating. At first, you will have all the same fears as everyone else — it’ll take too long, they won’t do it as good as you, it needs to be perfect — but as we’ve discussed previously in this guide, you need to challenge these beliefs and acknowledge the solution to them is not to do the work yourself. This mindset shift needs to come first.

Once you are in a delegating mindset, it’s essential to schedule the time to explain tasks effectively. Otherwise, your fears of lower quality work will likely come true, and it will be even harder to get in the right mindset in the future. Don’t rush. Explain carefully. Give time for questions.

You should also be careful to assign tasks that play to your teams’ strengths. For example, don’t go in with highly technical tasks if they are just starting. There is a delicate balance between stretching people with work slightly out of their reach and not going too far that you are setting them up to fail.

5. Step back slowly

If you’re making an effort to start delegating more, whether to one person or your whole team, it’s essential not to go too quickly. Both you and your team should get comfortable with this, and if you put too much on them, it’ll be uncomfortable for both of you.

6. Let mistakes happen

The sooner you get comfortable with mistakes, the easier it will be to escape micromanaging. There are acceptable levels of errors, but if your team wants to experiment with a new approach or a new strategy, you should allow them the room to explore it and reach conclusions on their own. You should openly discuss these learnings with your team — if it hasn’t gone to plan, you will ideally let them reach their conclusions about why and what should be done differently next time. Of course, you should use your experience to help this conversation, but you want to avoid just telling them what to do next time, as you will miss out on a critical learning opportunity.

7. Understand your team

You must understand your team’s strengths and weaknesses and what they enjoy and dislike doing. This will allow you to more effectively manage from a distance and give the most appropriate support to each member of your team. To reach this point, you should be monitoring your team daily and building up your level of understanding. You can also ask them outrightly in your monthly one to ones (a guide to running them effectively here).

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