Please Give Me Space: 11 Signs That You Are A Merciless Micromanager

Read Time: 3 minutes.

I’m on the road today for a speaking gig at YPO Kansas. My 3-hour layover is your 3-minute playbook.

I got this email from a reader:

“My team had an ‘intervention’ last week. They said that I’m ‘ruining the team’ because of my ‘unrealistic expectations and constant micromanagement.’

How do I know if I’m a micromanager?”

For you, dear reader, the answer is simple:

You are.

If your team:

• Got frustrated enough to vent to their colleagues

• Connected multiple dots to determine there’s a pattern

• And then mustered enough collective courage to tell you

There isn’t much to do except say ‘Thank you’ and start fixing it. Fast.

But it’s not usually quite so easy to spot.

Micromanagement is subjective. Its brutality is in the eye of the beholder. One person’s clear direction is another’s stifling oversight.

But some signs are universal. Others are more subtle.

Use this quick diagnostic to get a sense if you’re managing from a healthy distance or if you’d benefit from taking a few steps back.

You can also print it out and accidentally drop it on your boss’ desk. Assuming, of course, that they’re not standing right over your shoulder.

11 Signs You’re a Micromanager

This diagnostic is easy. The higher the number of these ‘signs’ that sound like your team, the higher the chances that you’re being more harmful than helpful.

1. You can’t go on vacation.

If you are the glue that holds everything together, that’s not managing. That’s doing. You should be able to step away for a week and only be required to engage for emergencies.

Worse, this dependency will keep you from getting promoted. You can’t step up if you can’t step out without things breaking.

2. You only hear “Yes.”

The chance that you’re always right is zero. It’s impossible. So if you’re only hearing ‘Yes,’ you have one of two problems:

• Your team no longer cares

• Your team knows you’ll overrule them anyway

In either case, there’s a good chance you’ve earned this apathy.

3. You can’t think of the last question you asked.

People want to feel valued, like their opinions and expertise matter. The easiest way for them to feel this way is to actually value their opinion and expertise. And the easiest way to show them is by asking them to share their opinion and expertise. And being genuinely interested in their response.

If your question-to-direction ratio isn’t at least 1:1, humble yourself and fix it.

4. You burned out weeks ago.

You’re exhausted, and we’ve already noted you can’t take a break without creating more work for yourself. And leaders burnout for the same reasons they’re employees do:

• You’re not growing

• You’re not having an impact

• You’re not able to get it all done

The root cause is almost always because you’re slipping down to do your team’s job instead of stepping up to do yours.

5. You protect your boss.

You should want your team to talk to your boss.

Will they tell her things are imperfect under your leadership? Of course.

Will they feel more valued and empowered because they know her? Definitely.

Plus, she’ll be able to use their insights to make connections and offer coaching to help you that would have otherwise been missed.

That protection story you tell yourself? You’re really protecting yourself, not your manager. And if you’re that worried about mistakes, chances are you’re stopping them.

Speaking of…