What Micromanaging Reveals About a Leader’s Insecurities

People are more motivated when they have autonomy than when they have a leader who constantly watches over them asking for updates on what they are doing. A micromanager can stifle a person’s creativity and innovation, and stifle their development.

In my experience, leaders who micromanage often have insecurities about their own capabilities as a leader. Because of their insecurities, they don’t trust individuals to get on with what they are doing, thinking that they won’t do the job right.

A good leader will ensure that those they lead are clear about what they need to do and where they are not, give them the necessary support to bring them up to speed. Where the person’s performance is a cause for concern, an effective leader will address this promptly, rather than brushing it under the carpet and burying their head under the sand.

Signs that you are micromanaging

As a leader you may not even realise that you micromanage, and therefore may be unaware of your own insecurities. Or you may be aware of your insecurities, but not realise that you micromanage as a result.

If you are constantly asking your direct reports for updates on what they are doing, you are micromanaging. If you send emails to your direct reports and copy in the world and his mother as a way of affirming your status, you are micromanaging. If you regularly check up on your direct reports from the beach when you are on holiday, you are most definitely micromanaging.

The effects of micromanaging on your team

Over time, constantly being micromanaged will frustrate and annoy members of your team. Not only is it frustrating and annoying, it can also be stressful having you constantly looking over their shoulders, knowing that you don’t trust them enough to let them get on with it. 

This in turn could start to affect their performance and productivity levels because they are not given the autonomy to think and act for themselves. So, it is no surprise that organisations that have a high level of micromanaging also have lower employee engagement and a high turnover of staff. This is not only costly from a financial perspective, it is also costly from a labour intensive perspective, negatively impacts morale, and puts added pressure on you as the leader.

The effects of micromanaging on you as a leader

Whilst you may think that micromanaging is giving you satisfaction that work is being done how it needs to be done, you are actually adding to your own workload and increasing the pressure that you put on yourself.

Not only that, you are not addressing the root cause underpinning why you micromanage, and are failing to address the insecurities you have about yourself as a leader.

Micromanaging and imposter syndrome

If you experience imposter syndrome and believe that you will get found out that you shouldn’t be in the role because you’re not good enough, you may feel the need to constantly make sure your teams are doing what they need to do, otherwise it will just affirm that you shouldn’t be there if they are not.

If you can relate to this, remember, you went through a fair and competitive selection process and were deemed the best fit for the role. Others believe in you, what will it take for you to believe in yourself?

Micromanaging and perfectionism

If you are an outward perfectionist, i.e. other people don’t live up to your standard of perfectionism, not only are you putting pressure on yourself, you are putting pressure on other people because what they do is never good enough for you.

As a result, you may find it difficult to build relationships with your team members because they feel as if they are walking on egg shells whenever they are around you. As such, they avoid you as much as possible, and only engage with you when it is absolutely necessary.

Raise your tolerance levels and recognise that not everyone sees the world through the same lens of perfection as you. Strive for excellence from your team, but expecting perfection from them is adding to the pressure of their already heavy workload.

Micromanaging and self doubt

If you experience self doubt, you may find yourself micromanaging due to fear that your team members may outshine you. You may have team members who could probably do your job better than what you do, and as such, don’t want them to come under the radar of those more senior in the organisation. Your micromanaging is a form of control, letting them know that you are boss.

This isn’t healthy for you or the individual concerned and can chip away at their self esteem. If you have talent in your team, let that talent shine through. It is better to have someone who is engaged, motivated and empowered working for you, even if after a while they go on to better things, than someone who is disempowered, demotivated and disengaged. After all, you can’t keep a caterpillar as a caterpillar forever. It must go through metamorphosis to become a butterfly and soar.

Address poor performance

If you micromanage because you think it is easier than addressing someone’s poor performance, you are only fooling yourself in the long run. If you don’t address the situation, you will lose your credibility as a leader as other team members see the issue not being dealt with.

Identify the reasons why their performance is not up to par and put the appropriate measures in place. Be sure that you have communicated clearly what is expected and that their under performance is not as a result of your poor leadership.

Whilst addressing poor performance may require a lot of time invested in the short term, it will give long term gains both for you and the individual concerned.

“Very few people, whether you've been in that job before or not, get into the seat and believe today that they are now qualified to be the CEO. They're not going to tell you that, but it's true…”

Howard Schultz, former CEO and Chairman of Starbucks (New York Times 2010)

If you are someone who micromanages, reflect and ask yourself what is the reason why. If you do have insecurities that are impacting your effectiveness as a leader, don’t worry, you are not alone. Many leaders have the sorts of insecurities I have described, in fact, a reported 78% of people (this includes men and women) experience Imposter Syndrome at some time.  

Having an awareness of your insecurities, makes it easier for you to address them. If you are unable to address it on your own, get the support of someone who can work with you to do so.

What is your experience of micromanaging, either as the one doing it or the one receiving it? Please share your comments below.

ABOUT ME:

I am The Coach for High Achieving Introverted Women, an Executive, Career, Business Coach, Writer, Speaker, LinkedIn Top Voice UK 2017 and 2018, and the founder of Abounding Solutions . With over 25 years coaching and leadership experience, I help women (with a particular emphasis on introverted women) to be great leaders.

I also help organisations develop the talent pipeline of female employees so that more women make it to senior management roles.

Are you a high achieving introverted woman who wants to thrive as a leader and learn how to deal with the challenges that introverted women face as leaders, and want to become your best possible self? If so, join my Facebook community for high achieving introverted women here.

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