How To Recognize & Remedy Micromanagement

It’s a mistake to lead everyone in the same way.

When leading one person, more direction or follow-up may be perfectly appropriate and needed, but for another, it’s micromanagement.

If someone is new to the team, or learning a new skill, or perhaps slipping in commitment and does not seem to have their head and heart fully in the game, staying closer to them and their work is needed.

That is not micromanagement, it’s good leadership. The point however, is not to catch them messing up, it is to coach them so they improve.

On the other hand, if you have a proven leader who is skilled at their job, has a great attitude and gets their job done, monitoring their work too closely can indeed be micromanaging.

It’s a fine line, however, because you need to stay close enough to be in touch, encourage and offer guidance when needed. But don’t crowd them with too many questions, constant checking up and telling them how to do their job.

6 Cues to possible micromanagement:

1) You struggle with trust.

Perhaps someone close to you has let you down, consistently fallen short of meeting their responsibilities, or even hurt you.

It can be difficult to trust that person again, but it’s important to not ascribe that experience to other staff and leaders around you.

A good reflection question to ask yourself is what makes it difficult or prevents you from trusting others? That will give you insight to trusting others more easily.

Extend trust freely until it’s broken. If trust is broken, address it openly and honestly. Other than the exception of extreme situations, trust can be restored. It takes time, clear and agreed upon expectations and restored commitment.

2) You have perfectionistic tendencies.

There is a fine line of distinction between excellence and perfectionism. One makes things better and lifts people up, the other actually decreases productivity and places a burden on others.

Excellence involves high standards that increase productivity and positive outcomes. This is obviously a good thing, but it’s important to make sure that high standards aren’t pressed to a degree that stress relationships. High standards that operate in a healthy way actually motivate and encourage.

Perfectionism involves levels of detail that go beyond improvement of productivity or increased outcomes. In fact, if sustained, it begins to be counter-productive and productivity decreases. This can also affect relationships in a negative way by placing undue expectations on others.

3) You have a desire to know everything.

As a young executive pastor I felt responsible to have answers to any question about the church’s ministries and programs. That desire came from a good place, both from enthusiasm and I wanted to serve people well, but it’s not possible to keep up with that practice.

As the church grew it was important to let that desire go and trust my development and empowerment of the team, both staff and volunteers.

If you want to rise in your leadership, you simply can’t know everything there is to know in the organization. More importantly, you don’t need to carry all that information, there are plenty of capable people to handle what you don’t need to know or be responsible for.

If you are too hands on and in the weeds of the organization, you will slowdown progress and frustrate people. Learn to let go and focus on your best contributions to advance the vision.

4) You allow your passion to interfere with the healthy flow of work.

It’s easy to get so excited about something that you “check” on its progress way more often than is needed. This is innocent enough but can still have negative outcomes.

There’s nothing wrong with checking in. It’s certainly OK to ask about progress. But a better practice is to ask your staff (paid or volunteer) to let you know when a certain thing is accomplished rather than you repeatedly asking.

Once a team member has a track record of doing what they say they’ll do, there is often no reason to check in at all, except to thank and encourage them.

Let your team know you are there to solve problems and you are available to help, otherwise it’s best to give them space to do what they do.

5) You want to control beyond what is helpful.

Leaders carry the responsibility to control things like the big picture vision and direction, the overall budget, and the culture of the church.

The word control can have a slightly negative sound to it, but there is a big difference in exercising control and being controlling. The right kind of control serves the organization; being controlling suffocates the leaders.

If you are tempted to control things to the point of telling people how to do their job, making things go your way, or frequently changing things at the last minute regardless of the consequences, your influence will slowly diminish.

The team you serve will always do better under genuine trust and clear expectations rather than frequent change and high control.

6) You are more interested in compliance than progress.

I’m not a rule or policy lover by nature, but I understand their importance. They are needed for any organization to function well. They help communication and clarity.

However, if you place more emphasis on doing things right, rather than doing the right things, your leadership will suffer.

Rules and policies should help systems work smoothly and protect the organization from serious problems if at all possible, not create unnecessary red tape for the team.

None of these 6 cues alone is a sure sign of micromanaging. But the more you add to your list, the greater the likelihood you may be micromanaging.

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Three practices to help make sure you don’t micromanage:

1) Practice trust over skepticism.

If you can resolve yourself to consistently trust your team and believe the best unless trust is broken, you will find that for most people, trust is never broken.

If skepticism gets the best of you, it’s helpful to know the difference between distrust and mistrust.

• Distrust is more definitive and usually based on actual experience.
• Mistrust centers more on doubt based on a feeling often without solid reason.

• Distrust requires honest conversation and action.
• Mistrust requires self-reflection and determination to practice trust.

Mistrust never inspires the behavior you desire from those you lead.

2) Practice development over directives.

Training is crucial in avoiding micromanaging. The more you develop the person the less you need to direct them.

A new staff member, young leader or first-time volunteer needs more direction, so stay with them. But the more training and development they receive, if they are learning and growing, they become able to carry most of their leadership on their own.

Your conversations become more and more about coaching rather than directing.

3) Practice empowerment over control.

Once trust and development are in place, you are ready to empower.

Empowerment is not abandonment. It’s not cutting someone loose to do whatever they want. It involves clear direction, expectations and communication.

Empowerment trusts a person with enough authority and resources to get the job done without tight supervision.