Have you ever lived, worked with a micro-manager or maybe behaved as one?
Micro-management comes from an urge of having the control of a situation. It is often perceived as heavy on people as they feel like it is never enough and never good enough.
Micro-management can be seen as some kind of perfectionism from others. It is really like involving oneself in every step & action delegated to others.
And as a micro-manager, if I tend to review every detail worked on by my employees or colleagues, it is perceived as a lack of trust.
What micro-managers don’t realise is that a lack of trust means that employees will feel they have no space to fail, which means no space to innovate either. If someone feels he risks a lot if he fails, he won’t dare to propose new ideas and do things differently.
But above all, what we don’t see from the outside is that micro-management is a sign of lack of trust towards oneself. Hence the clear need of controlling everything to avoid any risks of failure and lose control.
How can we free ourselves from such an urge need?
If you are the one micro-managing: release that need, which means letting go that fear of losing control and of wanting control. Learn to detach yourself from the experience and the action and you will see that it will create new relationships and a real space to fail and to create & innovate for others. And it will also help you feel lighter and more satisfied. There are different resources to do so (release negative emotions) that you can find on the web and if you don’t know how or need some support, then feel free to contact me. Have a clear discussion with your employees and define together the deadlines and level of quality you want. Clarify the musts and the wishes: what is required in term of process and where your employee have space to define his/her own steps/ actions to achieve the result.
If you are the one bearing the micro-management:
Here you will have to learn how to detach yourself from the criticisms and accept you may never get positive feedbacks and may never satisfy the one you feel micro-managed by. You may ask how to accept that? It means releasing the negative emotions of feeling judged and wanting for approval you are looking for (maybe without realising it).
Once you have released all these emotions and you feel this is possible, talk with your boss and express how you feel when he/ she behaved this way. Maybe your boss doesn’t even realise this and no one ever dared to tell him /her before. Depending on how he/she responds, you may have the possibility to grow together from this situation and learn to work with more trust and space, which doesn’t mean your boss won’t ask for reviews from time to time (which is fully normal), but the work requirements, the deadlines and the space needed will be discussed & agreed between you too (btw these are the original steps to implement while starting a delegation)
If ever you still want to leave this workplace, as this is too heavy on you and you still feel a strong lack of trust and don’t feel valued, it will be important to release any remaining negative emotions before looking for something new or you may find again what you just ran away from (remember the law of attraction!). Again there are many possible resources to release negative emotions, just check out on the web. If ever you need some help, you know where to contact me.
Micro-management is not something that has to occur in the workplace.
On the contrary, the more you release it, the more you will see innovation, trust and strong hence sustainable performance grow in your work environment.
And letting go this side is part of being a leader, being capable of trusting others and letting them feeling trusted.