Micromanagement Explained: 6 Signs of Micromanagement

Micromanagement is a management style that places nearly all decision-making in the hands of a team leader. When micromanagement shapes a workplace culture, the workflow inherently runs through the manager or team leader and individual team members may feel like they have very little agency.

The micromanager style has a negative connotation in most work environments. Micromanagers are frequently regarded as control freaks who overemphasize minor details and espouse a “my way or the highway” ethos to their employees. Over the long run, micromanaging can spur a vicious cycle of meddling, employee burnout, poor employee retention, the need to hire new workers, and a lack of trust in those workers. This triggers another round of meddling, and the cycle repeats itself.

There are several tell-tale signs of micromanagement among business leaders:

1. 1. Second-guessing your coworkers: You can easily suppress the spirit of teamwork if you constantly question the quality of others' work.
2. 2. A persistent dissatisfaction with results: If you constantly find yourself dissatisfied with the work output of others, it may have as much to do with your leadership skills as with their abilities.
3. 3. A constant need for status reports: If you demand frequent updates or an excessive stream of check-ins, you risk insulting coworkers and squashing employee engagement.
4. 4. Unchecked rigidity: Some micromanagers get overly attached to workflow templates they have personally designed. Effective managers often realize that team members can produce equally great end results by following slightly different workflows that feel more natural to them.
5. 5. A need to be included in all communications: If you’re demanding that you be cc’d on all company emails, you may be subsuming your team with your own insecurities.
6. 6. An emphasis on granular details instead of big-picture goals: Micromanagers get caught up in minutia and frequently lose track of big-picture goals as a result. You can counter this by stepping back and focusing on long-term goals more often than short-term process questions.

Given the negative effects of micromanagement, it’s worth examining the root causes of micromanaging.

1. 1. Lack of trust: One reason some micromanagers want constant updates from employees is that they may not trust those employees' instincts or overall competence. If employee turnover ensues and the micromanaging boss starts nitpicking new employees’ work, the problem may not be the employees but rather the manager’s lack of trust in them.
2. 2. Narcissism: Self-confidence is a positive attribute, but when that confidence drifts into narcissism, micromanagement often follows. Rather than seek a team full of their own clones, good managers understand that different people thrive under different workflows. As long as the end deliverables meet company standards, managers should avoid bogging their direct reports down in small details and demanding that everyone work the same way they would.
3. 3. Bullying tendencies: Micromanagement can be a form of workplace bullying. Some micromanagers insist on a steady stream of detailed reports and check-ins as a form of hazing. This is abusive behavior and must be nipped in the bud.
4. 4. Personal insecurity: Much like a bully, a micromanager’s behavior may be rooted in their own low self-regard. People who harshly judge themselves may be more likely to harshly judge others. This applies to work environments just as it applies to personal relationships.
5. 5. Myopic thinking: Some micromanagers struggle to see the big picture behind work initiatives, choosing to instead bog down in granular metrics and workflow details. By taking a broader, more holistic view of your team’s work, you can steer yourself away from some of the worst versions of micromanaging.

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