Understanding Micromanagement
Some micromanagement is necessary. Some micromanagement is counterproductive. Understand the 4 types of micromanagement, when it makes sense to micromanage, and how to talk to a team member about it.
All micromanagement is not created equal.
I am actually a huge fan of micromanagement and I do it quite regularly.
As with many things in business and life, the problem isn’t in the idea itself, but in (a) how you apply the idea and (b) how you communicate as you do it.
So here’s some vocabulary1 to understand micromanagement, including which types of micromanagement to avoid, which types of micromanagement to welcome, and then socialize this vocabulary with your team.
The 4 types of micromanagement:
1) Mistrust-driven
When: you have low trust on your direct report’s ability (skill) or willingness (motivation) to do the task they have been assigned.
2) Insecurity-driven
When: you use micromanagement as a tactic to make up for your insecurity in your role as a manager - you micromanage so you can observe how you’d do a much better job (and so you are trying to prove to yourself that you really do deserve the job you are now in).
3) Complexity-based
When: the task at hand is extremely complex due to political / interpersonal reasons or technical reasons, and even though your direct report is well suited for the task, it would be impossible for them (or anyone really) to execute on it without a high degree of involvement from you.
4) Taste-based
When: the task at hand requires exercising a rare degree of taste, which only few people in the company (or perhaps even in your industry) possess and you are one of those few people.
Mistrust-driven and Insecurity-driven micromanagement cause a lot of stress and pain for your team members. Of the 2 of these though, Mistrust-driven micromanagement can actually be okay. There might be times when you have to do that.
The chief one to recognize in yourself (and then avoid) is Insecurity-driven micromanagement.
Complexity-based and Taste-based micromanagement are essential to do. Reason is that they help ensure a better overall outcome for your company, and by extension, for your team and for the individual on your team who owns said task.
But most managers don’t do this type of micromanagement properly. And most employees are led to believe that any kind of micromanagement is bad.
Remember, as a leader:
All your problems are messaging problems.
So if you need to micromanage, particularly micromanagement of types 4, 3, or 1, you must understand, practice, and master the art of messaging why you are micromanaging in this instance, how you will approach it, and why it is a feature not a bug that you will be highly involved2.
To summarize:
Of course, competent and experienced leaders already implicitly understand these types of micromanagement situations. The value here is that it gives you an explicit vocabulary for you to better understand your own instincts in your day to day work and gives you something super-concrete you can share with your directs (and even your own manager) to have more productive conversations.
Here’s a script for how to talk to a team member about micromanagement (of course, adapt it appropriately):
“I’d like to discuss my involvement in [PROJECT NAME].
As you know from our work together thus far, my default management style is not to micromanage.
As you also know, this is a [high risk | high leverage | high priority] project for the company because [reasons].
So for this project, I am going to ask for your help in deviating from my default style.
And I proactively wanted to let you know that this is not accidental, it is very intentional.
Concretely, this means that for this project I will want to engage with you on a more frequent basis and a more detailed basis than you’ve typically seen me do.
I am so glad that you’re running this project. And to state the obvious, I wouldn’t have given you this project if I did not have confidence in your skills and your leadership ability.
However as a responsible leader of this team, it is very important that I help ensure that the direction of this project and the quality at which we deliver it, right to the pixel level, is as good as we all want it to be.
So that’s why you will see me come across as micromanaging for this project. And I want to tell you that’s a feature, not a bug.
But you can also rest assured that, at the right time, when this project is on the right track, and we both feel comfortable that it’s going to great, I will be the first to suggest that I step back from it and go back to my default mode.
Is that okay with you?”
Note: As with all such things, this only works when it is done sincerely, not performatively, and is backed by truth, not by sinister motives. The approach here is non-apologetic, not sugarcoating, stating things like they are, with empathy for the other person.
Random fact: I learned this messaging technique from a manager of mine at Google, who did this with me, and at the end of it I felt myself being thankful that he was going to micromanage me for a high priority project, rather than feeling upset or insecure.
For even more on this topic:
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Micromanagement is management. What's never discussed is under-management, wherein managers strategically abdicate the responsibility of leading, being in the details, so they can pin it all on the subordinate when outcome doesn't play out well. In the name of giving more autonomy, there is rampant under-management.
Brilliant framework!
The distinction between mistrust-driven, insecurity-driven, complexity-based, and taste-based micromanagement is so valuable. What resonates most is the emphasis on messaging - the problem isn't always micromanagement itself, but how managers communicate the "why" behind it.
The insight that complexity-based and taste-based micromanagement are *essential* flips the narrative. Too often, we demonize all forms of oversight without recognizing when high involvement is actually what ensures better outcomes.
More leaders need this vocabulary to have productive conversations about their management style. This clarifies when to step back and when to step in.
PS: love the script given at the end.