SEVEN

Managing the Meddlesome Micromanager

“Don’t mind my hovering over you. I’m sure you’re doing a great job! By the way, can I get a status update every morning?”

SAMPLE WORKPLACE INTERACTION WITH “THE MEDDLESOME MICROMANAGER”

Ari knocks on Shaun’s door.

Ari (the Micromanager boss): Hey, Shaun, do you have a minute? I know we already talked about the Westside project, but we haven’t touched base today on the Henderson project. Do you have a few minutes to get me up to speed on where things stand?

Shaun: Sure, actually, I copied you on our most recent meeting minutes from yesterday’s meeting. Did you get those, by chance?

Ari: I did. That’s actually part of the reason why I stopped by. I know you’re working on the project schedule now, so I wanted to get an advance look at that to see what we’re projecting for a completion date.

Shaun: Well, yes, I’d be glad to share it with you—maybe later in the week? I’m still working on several follow-up items from yesterday’s meeting, and I haven’t completed the project schedule yet.

Ari: No rush. That sounds good. Why don’t we set up a meeting Thursday so you can just update me on where you are with it? That way I can provide you with my feedback so you can incorporate it into the schedule before you finalize anything. Let’s also discuss the agenda for your next project meeting before you send it out. I’d like to be sure we’re anticipating risks as much as possible. I keep thinking about the Anderson project fiasco from last year. We definitely don’t want a repeat of that!

Shaun couldn’t believe that Ari was breathing down his neck again! Why couldn’t she figure out that if he didn’t have to respond to ten questions a day and prepare a new status update every time he turned around, he could actually get some work done! He was very clear on the fact that she didn’t trust him to walk and chew gum, so why did she assign the project to him in the first place? At this point it seems like she should just take it over and do it herself.

Working for her felt exhausting for sure. Yes, there was a project disaster last year with another team member, Stacy, and it had unfortunately turned Ari into more of a Micromanager than she already was. These days she wanted to know every move he made, which not only created a ton of additional, unnecessary work for him (frequent email exchanges, hallway conversations, and meetings), it also undermined his credibility with his project team. Clearly, she was stalking him about his progress because she didn’t really trust him and thought she could do it better. He’d even started to notice that he was second-guessing himself all the time because he was constantly worried about what Ari was going to think or how she was going to react. He knows that she’ll scrutinize every decision he makes, every detail, every PowerPoint deck, every font … yikes! It’s a depressing way to work, for sure.

THE MEDDLESOME MICROMANAGER DEFINED

Virtually everyone hates dealing with a Micromanager boss. They “empower” on paper, but then they hover over you to watch and be sure you dot every “i” and cross every “t.” Or they might request a daily status update (or worse) or insist that you complete a task their way. They just make it very clear that they don’t trust you with the task and have every intention of taking it over and doing it themselves before you mess it up. Not only is it stressful to feel like you’re working under a microscope, it’s equally exhausting and time consuming to spend so much time preparing and delivering status updates that may not be necessary. The time wasted soothing their sense of anxiety becomes a significant opportunity cost robbing the subordinate of time that could be applied to actual tasks. In short, the Micromanager is too involved in the day-to-day activities and their insistence on being in the weeds can become problematic for the rest of the team.

TECHNIQUES FOR MANAGING THE MEDDLESOME MICROMANAGER BOSS

As with the other difficult manager types, there is no magic potion, but there are reliable techniques that you can employ to try to increase your likelihood of success. It’s important to always remember that the goal is not to try to change them. That’s oftentimes a futile effort for the simple reason that none of us can change anyone (nor should we try to). What we can do is use techniques and best practices that increase our likelihood for success working with them. Along the way some bosses may choose to make adjustments to their style, and that’s great, but always remember that we can’t make our boss change their personality any more than we can make our spouse, parent, or child change theirs. It’s always important to have clarity on the true goal/intention. That said, let’s review some techniques that are customized to help subordinates thrive when working with a Micromanager.

Work to Understand the True Source of Their Concern

As with any successful problem-solving effort, the first step is determining the root cause of the problem. It’s important to realize that the micromanaging behavior may be a symptom of a deeper issue, much like when a spouse nags, it’s likely the manifestation of a more fundamental root cause. It’s critical to take time to understand what is driving the behavior because that positions you to develop a more customized response. Figure 7.1 depicts some examples of potential causes and how you might approach them differently.

The next obvious question becomes: How do you determine what is causing the micromanaging behavior? Admittedly, that’s not so easy. It’s never advisable to try to psychologically analyze your boss (or anyone else, for that matter), but a subordinate can certainly try to better understand their boss and what drives them. It might sound something like this: “Ari, I’m sensing that you’re wanting to be very involved in the Henderson Project, and I just want to ensure that you’re getting what you need. Can I ask if you have a particular concern about this project or do you have concerns about my ability to complete the work successfully? Of course, I want you to be fully confident in my ability to be successful, and if you’re not, let’s discuss that a bit more.” This could be a great way to open up a more candid dialogue about what’s driving their requests for increased involvement in and influence over the task or project.

Figure 7.1 Analyzing Different Causes of Micromanaging Behavior

Involve Them in Project or Task Kickoff Activities and Propose a Reasonable Update Schedule

A key with the Micromanager boss is to get ahead of them, so to speak. Instead of waiting for them to start asking for tons of status updates or inserting themselves into the process, engage them early on to clarify the plan, solicit their general feedback, and propose a reasonable update schedule. The goal here is to be proactive by taking the initiative to engage them at the outset. This provides a great opportunity for you to establish a sense of leadership over the effort and assuage their sense of anxiety about the tasks by providing reassurance that the project/task is progressing appropriately. If the manager is getting information proactively and has offered their feedback, they’re much less likely to feel the need to micromanage.

As part of these initial conversations, it’s important to share some sort of risk analysis—whether you’ve conducted formal risk analysis that you can share with them or you’re informally sharing your thoughts around what could go wrong and how you plan to mitigate those risks. This is a great opportunity to not just share your thoughts but also solicit their concerns. Oftentimes, instead of proactively being open about their concerns, managers will unconsciously devolve into micromanaging because they’re anxious about the work effort. If the subordinate takes the time to draw out those concerns, it provides a valuable opportunity for the subordinate and manager to work together to develop a risk management plan. That plan might be as simple as a list of potential risks and defined mitigation strategies that will be implemented to avoid these risks. (See chapter 9 for more details on conducting risk analysis.) Developing this plan together will often reduce the manager’s anxiety tremendously and enable them to pull back and let the team do their work. This distinction is so important. The goal here isn’t to stop them from micromanaging but instead remove the anxiety that may be causing them to feel the need to micromanage.

It’s important to realize that having anxiety around what could go wrong is a very natural reaction. One of the frustrating realities of ascending hierarchically is that you’re moving further away from the day-to-day work and therefore have less direct control over deliverables, outputs, minor choices and decisions, and so on. Since managers are often further removed from this information, they can easily fall into the trap of micromanaging to try to soothe that sense of anxiety. It doesn’t mean they are horrible people or they don’t trust their team. It may just be a natural reaction to their somewhat inherent lack of real time information.

I’m reminded of a few summers ago when I registered my daughter for a circus camp. I thought she’d love it, but to my surprise she seemed really anxious about it, cried constantly when I mentioned it, and proceeded to ask me a million questions about every little detail … daily. Worn out by the constant requests and questions about the new camp, I decided to take her there for a visit to see for herself. Once there, I showed her where I’d be dropping her off (addressing some of her concerns around drop-off). We watched for a few minutes, then I asked her future counselor to come chat with her. After about fifteen minutes, I told her we needed to leave, and she insisted on staying! I let her stay a bit longer, and her counselor even let her try out the balance beam, juggling, and the hula hoops. In stark contrast to her previous fears, she saw that she could do it, the apparatus was not going to kill her, and there were plenty of staff there to help. She was now officially a huge fan, and the only question I got about the circus camp after that was “When can I go?” Giving her that early insight into the plan didn’t just completely alleviate her anxiety, it also proved to her that she could trust my judgment in general with selecting new camps. I often referred back to that experience when she started to obsess with questioning or trying to control other areas where I proposed that she try something new. Spending that additional time up front was so worthwhile.

Another key element of proactively reducing anxiety is providing a reasonable update schedule. Instead of allowing the boss to get into the habit of randomly nagging you for constant updates, try proposing a reasonable schedule and soliciting their buy-in. It might sound like this:

“Ari, I realize that this project is high profile, and I’m sure you want to stay up-to-date as much as possible. I’d like to propose that I send you weekly Monday morning updates, alternating between email and in person–one week by email, the next week in person. If anything critical comes up between status updates, I’ll plan to call you or stop by your office to discuss. Would that status update plan work for you?”

The proposed weekly updates could contain the following information:

• Current vs. planned schedule (are we ahead of or behind schedule and by how much?)

• Current vs. planned budget (are we on or over budget and by how much?)

• Recent achievements

• Upcoming major tasks and milestones

• Known concerns and risks

• What I need from you

My general experience has been that the more a manager receives information proactively, the less they feel the need to micromanage. They’ll likely second-guess that Friday afternoon nagging email if they know they’ll be getting the weekly update on Monday morning anyway. Also, proactively demonstrating that you’ve carefully thought through an update plan projects your confidence and competence, which can be very reassuring for the Micromanager boss and of course serves as a bit of an antidote to the compulsion to micromanage the effort.

Ask for Clarity on Roles and Responsibilities

One of the problems with the Micromanager boss is that they may assign a task to you while continuing to work on it themselves. This can be particularly frustrating if you give direction to others or interact with others only to realize that your boss may have given them contrary direction related to your work! If you’re experiencing this type of micromanaging, it can be helpful to ask your manager for clarity on roles and responsibilities to avoid role overlap or role underlap. Your request might sound like this:

“Ari, I just received a call from Jack in procurement indicating that you wanted to consider some additional vendors for the Milam project, but I’d previously told him we were planning to only use our three preferred vendors so he was a bit confused. I know this is a fast-paced project, and it can be easy to send mixed signals by mistake if we’re not crystal clear on who is focusing on which tasks. Do you think it would be helpful to set aside a few minutes to just review roles and responsibilities related to the project to ensure we avoid any potential redundancy?”

During the roles and responsibilities discussion, it’s important to not just review key elements of the project plan or task and clarify who should do what. It’s also important to clarify your specific level of responsibility and empowerment. Use this discussion to clarify these types of questions:

• Who makes interim decisions that might impact milestones, schedule, deliverables, resources, budget, etc.?

• What is the scope of your decision making authority? Which type of decisions can you make? Which require management approval or consultation?

• Who represents the project outside the organization?

• Can you work directly with customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders, or should those discussions include your manager?

• What level of involvement will the manager have in project meetings and communications?

Don’t make the mistake of having a casual conversation and finding yourself in the same predicament days or weeks later. Document the specific roles and responsibilities for future reference in case you encounter additional problems. Figure 7.2 provides an example of what your document might look like.

The documentation is helpful to encourage specificity in the discussion and of course provide a documented history as needed after the discussion. Consider using a project plan, project schedule, and task list or other relevant documentation to serve as a starting point for generating elements for the first column. Don’t stop there, though. Try to brainstorm any task areas that might present potential areas of confusion, overlap, or redundancy. Indeed, this conversation/table is yet another tool that can be useful for anyone or everyone on the team to help clarify role boundaries.

Figure 7.2 Sample Roles and Responsibilities Clarification Document

Highlight the Opportunity Cost of Unnecessary Updates

Sometimes managers forget that responding to their questions, conducting “quick” impromptu meetings, researching answers to questions, even entertaining hallway conversations takes valuable time away from a subordinate’s ability to actually get work done! It not only costs the actual time spent; it can also disrupt the subordinate’s train of thought, take them off task, and ultimately cause them to lose momentum with other work or produce lower quality work. Depending on how much additional work time the Micromanager is consuming, this opportunity cost can be significant. Opportunity cost is typically defined as the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen. From a time perspective, it’s the time/productivity lost working on other tasks when you’re focusing on the selected task.

When a subordinate is tracking down information that the Micromanager boss just asked for, they’re understandably focused on the task at hand and trying to complete it. What the boss often doesn’t think about is the opportunity cost of taking the time to track down that information. The additional time required for that task may cost the subordinate the time needed to send three important emails or attend an important meeting, or it might cause another due date to slip. Managing up with a Micromanager boss sometimes means reminding them of the opportunity cost associated with some of their requests (particularly ones that may seem redundant or extreme). It’s particularly helpful to mention the opportunity cost when they make the initial request to confirm they are consciously choosing to absorb that cost. It might sound like this:

“Ari, I’m happy to track down those numbers for you, but it will probably require three or four hours of phone calls and other research, which would mean that I won’t get to start scheduling interviews until tomorrow. Are you comfortable with that shift in the interview scheduling timeline?”

This shouldn’t be a threat; instead, it should be intended (and hopefully perceived) as proactive information sharing in the spirit of effective collaboration. Managers don’t always understand the implications of their requests—what’s required, how much time it will take, and what may not get done as a result. Don’t hesitate to point that out to them so they can make an informed decision. It will likely cause them to pause and give their requests more consideration.

Push Back if Necessary

One of the worst types of Micromanagers is the one who gets overly involved in the details of your work and constantly provides unnecessary input and/or wants to overrule decisions on minor details or other areas that should be within your purview. As a management consultant, I experienced this with my favorite manager, Phil. Phil was great; we had an amazing relationship. He was also something of a PowerPoint wiz and just a bit OCD. One evening he asked me to make edits to a PowerPoint deck that we would need to present to the client later in the week. It was a very typical request, and I proceeded to make the edits that evening. The next morning, he reviewed the new deck and called me over to discuss the edits.

Phil: Dana, I wanted to request a few more changes on this PowerPoint deck.

Dana: Sure, let’s go through them.

Phil: Here on slide 6, you indented the bullets three tick marks over. I usually indent them two tick marks over. And here on slide 8, you used a darker blue for this image, and I prefer a lighter blue. Over here on slide 15, there’s the same issue with the bullets being indented a little farther over than I like. Overall, I noticed that you used the font Georgia, but I prefer Century Gothic. Also, I noticed the headlines are size 24 font, but I prefer 22. I generally try to keep bullet points to a single line, and there are a few places where your bulleted comments wrap to two lines. Also, I noticed that your tables are the standard table format, but I prefer to add a shadow to tables, a shadow to the right...

Dana: Phil, thanks a lot for the feedback, but I have to be honest. I’m struggling a bit with how we’re defining “edits.” Since we work with so many PowerPoint decks, I think it might be helpful for us to talk through general expectations a bit more to ensure we’re on the same page. Do I have permission to be really honest?

Phil: Of course! Yes, tell me what you think.

Dana: I think there’s a difference between asking me to edit something that is incorrect—factually incorrect, poor wording, inconsistent style, unprofessional appearance, etc.—versus asking me to edit each slide exactly the way you would have edited it. To me there’s a difference between matching personal preference (like the bullet indentation distance) and fixing errors. The truth is that we all have minor personal preferences, and it’s a bit of a game of cat and mouse for me to try to read your mind and edit a PowerPoint deck exactly the way you would or someone else on the team would, for that matter. Since I’m not you, I’d never edit a deck exactly the way you would unless you sat down and told me every single edit—which seems like a really time-consuming, inefficient way to make edits. Now, hear me loud and clear, if that’s what you really want, I’ll do it, but I just wanted to press pause for a second to reconsider these edit requests in general. I know how lean we are on time, and this editing time obviously takes me off other tasks that might require my attention (like designing facilitation plans for the upcoming strategy sessions). Again, it’s your call, but I just wanted you to realize that if we go down this road of editing for personal preference (not just for completion or quality), we’re probably looking at doubling or tripling the time to prepare every slide deck. What’s your preference? Again, I’m happy to oblige.

Phil: You’re right… you’re right! Thanks so much for pushing back. I needed that reality check. We can’t take the extra time to obsess over every slide, and I need to empower you to have a bit of creative license with the slides if you’re doing the edits. As long as the content is accurate, the style and formatting are consistent throughout, and they look professional, let’s consider the deck final. I’ll only ask you to make additional edits if I see something that is truly an error or looks bad. But I need you to keep me honest, so if you feel like I’m getting in the weeds again, let me know!

Now, I’m not suggesting you necessarily use this wording (or be that direct) with your boss, but I was able to have this candid conversation with my boss in part because we had a really strong relationship already. In general, I tend to gauge my level of candor based in part on how strong a relationship I have with the senior leader. It’s also important to note that I clearly indicated that I would be happy to execute his wishes, so I wasn’t refusing to comply. I just wanted to step back for a moment to revisit the edit process in general. This approach minimizes the focus on the boss and their behavior and tries to refocus it more specifically on the efficiency of the process and whether that process should be reconsidered.

There are times to question, push back, or make alternate suggestions if you’re being asked to do something that you disagree with or think is a poor use of time or resources. If you feel like the Micromanager is wasting a bunch of time with unrealistic requests and other techniques haven’t worked, consider pushing back. There’s no guarantee that they’ll see things the way you do, but it can open a very important dialogue that at least creates awareness of the problem.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE THE MEDDLESOME MICROMANAGER BOSS

The reality is that oftentimes it’s the type A, detail-oriented, perfectionist types that become superstars in the organization and are promoted into higher levels of management. The downside is that this can become a prescription for a higher prevalence of bosses with tendencies toward micromanagement. The good news is that while micromanagement may not be uncommon, the behavior can be successfully minimized once identified.

Take the quick quiz in Figure 7.3 to see if you might fall into this difficult boss behavior style.

Figure 7.3 The Meddlesome Micromanager Self-Reflection Opportunity

Note: This is a nonscientific assessment tool.

Scoring

IMPROVEMENT STRATEGIES FOR THE MEDDLESOME MICROMANAGER BOSS

Lose your Micromanager boss reputation by using these best

• Ask team members to let you know if/when they feel micromanaged.

• Ask team members to propose a status update schedule when assigning tasks/projects. Avoid proposing or demanding your own.

• Ask team members their preferred communication mode and try to use that mode as much as possible.

• Avoid volunteering to participate in others’ meetings (without being asked/invited) unless there are serious concerns.

• Proactively ask team members to give you general feedback on what type of support they’d like from you. Remember that what constitutes micromanagement varies by person so take the time to check in with team members individually to determine the level of support they’d like.

• Allow team members to make mistakes and use them as developmental learning opportunities.

• Don’t delegate anything that will prevent you from sleeping well if it’s not done just as you would have liked. Instead, start small when delegating and build confidence over time.

• Remind yourself that different isn’t necessarily better or worse. Reward innovative, creative approaches to tasks as long as the fundamental desired result is achieved.