Saying no to micromanaging

Welcome to The Inbox Coach nudge, a small nudge to help you stay on track with your career development. There are many kinds of bad manager but this week I want to focus on one particular type, the micromanager.

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“If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, then you are an excellent leader.” - Dolly Parton

The micromanager can be found telling their entire team exactly what to do, criticising their work for not being correct and doing lots of the work themselves because “it’s just quicker and easier that way.” They are a very demoralising person to work for. They rarely offer praise, instead focusing on what is going wrong, and they don’t encourage and nurture people to grow. The lack of autonomy for people to do their job can feel stifling and there is a constant atmosphere of fear where people are scared of getting anything wrong because they don’t want to be judged. So what do you do about it?

A detailed look

The irony of a micromanager is that the one detail they haven’t noticed is the impact that they have on their team. Most of them probably think they are doing the right thing as they strive for success, wanting their team to get everything right, but they miss a crucial part of development. We learn through experience and part of that is learning from our mistakes. A good manager will create the conditions for their team to get the experiences they need to develop and allow them to make mistakes. That doesn’t mean they tolerate sub-standard work, but rather there are opportunities for people to attempt things, with checks in place to ensure what they do is up to standard.

This is where the skills of teaching and time management are important. You as the manager might be able to do something in 10 minutes but allowing someone more novice to have a go might take a bit longer. It may seem inefficient in the short term, you could just do it yourself, but once your team member has the skill you have another person who can do that task.

Some people will micromanage to gain control over people and use it as a tactic to manipulate and bully. If you are worried that your micromanaging boss is using it to bully you, then please do speak to someone in confidence to seek advice about your situation.?

Pushing back

Last week I encouraged you to put yourself into the shoes of a bad boss, so this is what I think is going on with a micromanager. There is a desire for control, a lack of trust, an inability to teach and encourage people to learn, and probably time management issues thrown in for good measure. I would also guess that they have high standards and are self-critical if they make any mistakes, in fact they would say that they don’t make mistakes.

Managing a micromanager is not easy. As frustrating as it might be, complaining about them won’t fix it so you may as well try a few things. ?If you can identify what is driving your manager to micromanage you, then you can pre-empt some of their interventions. When you are assigned tasks, ask more questions about the things you know they will pull you up on later. Be mindful that the reason they are so involved might be that it is a skill you are still learning. Maybe the reason they are getting too involved in your work is because you are making mistakes. As I said before, mistakes are part of the learning process, so you need to make them, but perhaps showing your manager that you are aware of what you are working on will help them to trust that you won’t send out substandard work but that you want the opportunity to learn.

The final suggestion is a tough one, but if your manager gets overly involved in your work ask them for feedback about what you could do next time. "I noticed you had a lot of comments about my last report, can we put some time in to go through what I could do to avoid that next time.” It is hard to be positive towards someone who makes your day-to-day work world feel rubbish, but if their shortfall is due to incompetence rather than malice, then finding a way to reduce the micromanaging may help your relationship in the longer term.

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“If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, then you are an excellent leader.” —Dolly Parton?

What does great leadership look like? If you are trying to answer that question, then looking at Dolly Parton and her legacy would be a great place to start. Not only has she had one of the most successful country music careers of all time, but Dolly Parton has used her fame and wealth to lift up the lives of others. She started Dolly Parton's Imagination Library inspired by the fact that her father never learned to read or write. At the time of writing this, the foundation has gifted 264,181,752 books to children all over the world. Not only does she champion literacy, but she has also contributed to saving the bald eagle, supported a variety of charities and in 2020 she donated $1 million to support the development of the Covid-19 vaccine.

When people become managers and leaders in their organisation it can be so easy for them to forget what is at the heart of those roles. Leaders are there to support, inspire and lead their teams. If you can set out to create the atmosphere that Dolly Parton talks about in this quote, then you are halfway there to being a great manager. If your manager isn’t helping you to feel this way, then think about where else you can get this inspiration from and try to be your best self at work despite their shortcomings.

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Being a manager is a tough job. You are responsible for a team of people who are all unique, you must answer to those above you in the hierarchy and you have your own work to do and insecurities to overcome. And most people get very limited training or good role models to look up to. So if your boss isn’t living up to your expectations spare them a thought because what they are doing is hard work. That said, being on the receiving end of a micromanager doesn’t feel good, so I wish you luck in trying to influence your relationship with them.

I’ll be back next week with more thoughts on bad managers

See you then,

Laura

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