I once worked with a manager who expected me to report progress thrice a day. And send a detailed report end of the day. I wasn’t a rookie; I had 15 + years’ experience and was managing a team.
Here’s are the 6 faces of micromanagement:
- Seek frequent updates: either you send the updates or you will have the manager breathing down your neck.
- Over-involvement: insist on being involved in trivial aspects of the job, provide detailed instructions on how a task should be done, what tools or methods to use. Once my manager dictated what needed to be written in a document!!
- Shift priorities: and approach every day? If changing often, it can lead to confusion and lack of direction.
- Frequent Interruptions: calling impromptu meetings either for ideation or progress update creates havoc.
- Overturn decisions: I stopped taking any decisions while working with this manager, I knew that he would overturn it. Or make changes to my work without consulting me.
- Dismiss suggestions: or ideas from the team members as useless or irrelevant.
How else have you experienced micromanagement?
Perspectives 