What is micromanagement?Recognise it and deal with it
"From now on, CC me on all your emails."
Sound familiar? Perhaps it came from a manager who then proceeded to reply to every email in the thread, as if you couldn’t handle it yourself. It might have been frustrating, undermining, and left you feeling like you’d done something wrong.
This is a classic example of what micromanagement can look like in real life. But it can also take many different forms — it could be insisting you come into the office despite a hybrid working policy, or nitpicking your choice of font or colour on a document every single time.
Micromanagement can be subtle and often hard to spot, but its impact on morale and productivity can have a massive impact on your team. Without the guidance of an experienced HR team, it can also be difficult to identify or resolve, leaving you unsure how to proceed, sometimes letting the situation fester until your employees end up leaving.
But micromanagement doesn't have to always have a dramatic outcome. As Charlie’s Senior People & Talent Partner, micromanagement is something I like to keep a close eye on, mainly because it doesn't align with Charlie's values at all. In this blog, I’ll use some of my experience to break down what micromanagement really is, its effects, and how to address it effectively in your workplace
What is micromanagement?
Micromanagement is a negative style of management where the manager is excessively controlling and critical.
If someone is being micromanaged it’s likely that:
- Supervision feels more like scrutiny
- There is little or no delegation
- Instructions are unclear, conflicting and overly detailed
- They don’t feel trusted to do their job.
The impact of micromanagement is considerable. Initially, an employee might feel confused and frustrated, but these feelings can easily turn into anger and resentment if left unchecked.
Micromanagement is likely to negatively affect an employee’s confidence, engagement, and overall performance, and may ultimately lead to them becoming so unhappy that they resign from their job.
Signs of micromanagement
Recognising the signs of micromanagement is the best first step if you want to keep it out of your small business.
These signs of micromanagement are particularly common:
- Excessive oversight - micromanagers tend to require approval for every minor decision
- Reluctance to delegate - micromanagers take on tasks themselves rather than trusting anyone else to do them
- Too detail focused - micromanagers get lost in the minutia and don’t see the big picture
- Constant updates - micromanagers expect real-time status updates on trivial tasks
- Final sign off - nothing goes ahead unless the micromanager agrees.
Micromanagement effects
While micromanagement may initially produce some results, overall it’s very damaging for a small business. Excessive supervision and lack of trust makes employees feel undervalued and disempowered — and demoralised and dissatisfied employees are not going to stay around for long.
Ultimately, the effects of micromanagement on your team, your managers, and your business are overwhelmingly negative:
- Employee burnout - micromanaged employees experience low morale and a loss of motivation, which can ultimately lead to burnout
- Manager overload - overinvolvement in their team’s work means that a micromanager will also be stressed and inefficient
- Stifled business growth - micromanagement inhibits people (they stop proposing new ideas or taking creative risks) and decreases productivity (they spend more time seeking approval than actually doing their job), and this lack of innovation and performance is seriously bad for business.
And even if it’s ‘just one manager’, micromanagement has the power to foster a work environment that’s characterised by distrust, stress, and resentment. Basically, micromanagement is something you really want to avoid.
How to avoid micromanagement
Knowing how to stop micromanaging is a challenge, especially if you’ve never had to deal with it before.
As a fellow small business, we’ve developed practices at CharlieHR to help us avoid negative workplace behaviour, including micromanagement. These reflect our values, are built into our day-to-day, and are actionable strategies that we believe can be applied to other small businesses.
So to help you avoid micromanagement and foster a positive and productive workplace culture, I’m going to share them with you now.
Encourage autonomy
Micromanagement is going to be difficult at a workplace that encourages autonomy, so start with that.
Our aim at Charlie is to build one of the most inspiring and fulfilling work cultures out there, so we allow our team to set their own goals. They know they can always rely on manager support, but it’s also clear that we trust them to do the jobs they were employed to do.
What does this look like in practice? Giving our team the opportunity to set their own set of goals every week, trusting that they'll adjust their workload efficiently and aim to accomplish all of their tasks.
How does the manager intervene? We're leaving our team members the freedom to set their own goals, but a manager can intervene if they feel like the goals are not ambitious enough or won't be realistically accomplished in the timeframe set for them.
Deliver manager training
Everyone benefits from training and knowledge has a ripple effect.
At Charlie, we support our managers to take up leadership training so that they can grow and improve, and understand the difference between micromanagement vs. delegation.
What does this look like in practice? We send our managers on high-quality training courses so they have an emotional, psychological and operational understanding of what it is to work with people, without just focusing on people's outputs, but as to how they can enable them to deliver their best work.
Use coaching techniques
Traditional management methods are out of date and out of tune with the modern workplace.
Coaching your managers on how to delegate and how to build trust encourages better people skills and helps to avoid micromanagement.
What does this look like in practice? If someone is struggling with an issue, for example not being able to figure out the result of an AB testing experimentation, the manager won't jump in to try and solve the problem for them, or take it away from their hands. Instead, they'll lead them towards tools to find the solution, and work together towards a common goal.
How does the manager intervene? As we explained, our managers don't intervene directly in the work their team member is doing unless 100% necessary. They act more as a coach, and they know they can't take on the work people are meant to be doing as it would mean not trusting them to be able to solve the issue.
Create feedback loops
The importance of honest, constructive feedback cannot be overexaggerated — even (or perhaps especially) when it’s difficult.
So start the dialogue and listen to your team, because a culture of open communication is one of your best defences against micromanagement.
What does this look like in practice? If one of our team members fell short of expectation on their involvement in a project, it's better to address the issue early on rather than to let it carry on. This might be easier if you and your team members have weekly catchups like we do at Charlie.
How does the manager intervene? The manager will point out the issue to the team member, and discuss together as to what went wrong. The goal is to raise more self-awareness, and ensure they hear the team member's point of view as well to find solutions together for the next time around.
Why do managers micromanage?
More often than not, micromanagement is based on previous experience or comes from a place of fear.
Just like any behaviour, micromanagement can be learnt. So if someone has only ever been micromanaged in the past, they may emulate this and pass it off as their own management style.
Equally, a new or inexperienced manager may worry they’re not ‘management material’ and lack confidence in their own ability to lead a team. Instead of trusting their team and working with them to solve problems, this insecurity causes them to micromanage their line reports.
How does micromanagement differ from supportive leadership?
Micromanagement is pretty much the polar opposite of supportive leadership.
When supported, employees feel empowered, motivated and entrusted to do their jobs as individuals with their own unique knowledge and creativity.
But when micromanaged, employees are likely to feel that they are not trusted to do their own jobs, and are demotivated, confused and resentful.
Supportive managers encourage autonomy where micromanagers want to retain full control.
Can micromanagement ever be beneficial?
Hands-on, close management may be necessary from time-to-time, but it should never become an ingrained management style.
Occasions where a manager may need to provide more direction and supervision include when someone first starts in a role and they’re being onboarded, during critical tasks where they may lack the knowledge or experience, or if someone is on a performance improvement plan. In all of these cases though, the manager should be providing guidance and support rather than micromanaging.
I spoke with someone who was micromanaged in their marketing role at a small business and they allowed me to share their own experience with micromanagement as an example:
“Being micromanaged really knocked my confidence.
Initially, I was confused about what was happening. I assumed my manager’s behaviour was because I was on probation, but it actually got worse after I’d passed.
She’d go through my work with a fine tooth comb, pick it apart, and criticise everything I did. She seemed to have no faith in my experience or knowledge, and I wasn't able to do anything without her sign off — and even then it felt like it was her work, not mine. I started to dread meetings and conversations with her, and became increasingly frustrated.
I did as much as I could to try and make the relationship work, but in the end had to raise it with our team lead. He couldn't (or didn’t want to) see what was happening and dismissed it as a ‘personality clash’, which was even more demoralising.
After 18 months, I handed in my notice. I really enjoyed working with the other members of our team, but I felt my role there had become completely untenable.”
How to deal with micromanagement in the workplace
Dealing with micromanagement is always going to involve some form of action, and the sooner you act the more likely you are to resolve it.
But knowing how to act can be the challenge, especially if you’re a startup or small business, so here are some simple steps you can take:
Listen to your team — if someone comes to you with a report of micromanagement, be sure to give them space and time, and take them seriously. It’s likely they’ve gone through a lot of confusion and anxiety before plucking up the courage to talk to you, and their confidence will be at a really low ebb.
Put your own impressions aside — how a manager comes across to you as their superior might be very different to how they present to their team.
Start the dialogue — don’t hope that a case of micromanagement will just sort itself out, or assume it’s a case of clashing personalities. Micromanagement is toxic and can affect entire teams and your overall workplace culture if left unchecked. It needs to be dealt with swiftly and properly.
Remember the micromanager — they’re probably struggling too. Micromanagers frequently lack confidence in their role as line managers, and this insecurity or lack of experience manifests itself as micromanagement. Offer training and additional support to help them develop better people management skills, or look at the possibility of moving them away from line management responsibilities altogether. You can, as a start, use our one to one meetings template for guidance on how to communicate.
Create a culture free of micromanagement — as the founder or CEO, the culture of your workplace starts with you, so you need to actively be invested in it.
How to create a workplace culture free of micromanagement
Creating a workplace culture free of micromanagement is not about doing one specific thing, but doing many things simultaneously that nurture a positive culture where all of your employees feel supported.
At Charlie, for example, we have a flexible working culture to encourage positive working habits and discourage negative ones like micromanagement.
Working flexibly means that we expect our people to take ownership of their work and organise their days as they see fit. This applies to everyone who works at Charlie, not just our managers or those in leadership roles. So there is no room for micromanagement, as it would stand out like a sore thumb and be called out.
We trust everyone to do their jobs at Charlie, and believe that good people management is characterised by trust, support and advocacy. We want to build people up, not break them down.
Our transparent four step hiring process is the first rung on our ladder of flexible working, as we’re confident that we’ve employed the right people for the job. We also encourage our managers to have regular weekly sessions with their team, and hold daily ‘standups’ to share what everyone is working on.
Hopefully this helped you understand a bit more about how to tackle micromanagement at your business, and if you're thinking about tackling HR at your business – start a free trial with us.
