What We're Reading Now
Are You a Micromanager?
18 November 2014
Allison read Signs That You’re a Micromanager on HBR.org and appreciated a short article that will help leaders to both assess their micromanagement tendencies and, if needed, take steps toward changing their behavior.
Tags: allison read, leadership, management and supervision
I tend to agree with author Bruce Tulgan that we have more of an under management problem than a micromanagement problem in the workplace. In my posts about his books, It’s Okay to Be the Boss and It’s Okay to Manage Your Boss, you can get an idea of why Bruce and I think under management is leading to employees who don’t feel engaged at work.
However, if you’ve ever been micromanaged, then you know it’s a sure path toward making you feel pretty dissatisfied at work, too. Muriel Maignan Wilkins opens her article, Signs That You're a Micromanager, with the assertion that one of the worst things about micromanagers is they usually don’t even know they’re doing it. In my experience, they even sometimes fancy themselves super attentive, detail oriented bosses and are quite proud of what their employees describe as painful micromanaging tendencies. Wilkins has a list of six things that will help you to figure out if you’re a culprit. Then she provides four compelling suggestions that will help you to start changing your behavior.
I’m looking forward to talking with my team in the coming days to see if I’m getting into micromanagement trouble. My instinct is that I fall into the under management trap when my life gets overwhelming, but it could be this is a blind spot for me so I’ll be looking to the team for some feedback. Perhaps you could use Wilkins’ article to open up an interesting dialogue with your team members.
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