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The Micromanagee’s Handbook
Breaking the cycle when you’re being micromanaged
This article is something of an apology for everyone who read The Micromanager’s Handbook and had PTSD. Instead of a snarky rant about micromanagement I’m writing from the perspective of the person on the receiving end of this set of behaviours to help you understand what motivates them and what you can do about them.
In many cases the person in question is not even aware of what they’re doing and the impact it’s having. Very few people consciously set out to micromanage and, for many people, the default behaviour upon becoming a manager for the first time is to want a high degree of control over what’s happening. This is human nature. We don’t realise that our roles have changed upon donning the manager’s hat and our previous ability to be on top of everything to do with our job can turn into a liability overnight when running a team.
For the person on the receiving end of a strenuous dose of micromanagement it’s hard to know how to give feedback. The hardest conversation we experience is when we go to our managers and ask them to stop doing something or give them feedback they may not be receptive to. This is because we are in an asymmetric relationship with them. They hold all the cards so the risk we’re taking with our own future is considerable relative to theirs which is negligible.
