One leadership habit that can destroy both individual and team resilience is micromanaging. Instead of setting a goal and letting the team figure out how to get there, micromanagers cannot resist getting into the weeds. They dictate every step that must be taken and get angry when employees don't follow their instructions. They take pride in finding and correcting mistakes.
This behavior undermines the leader's resilience since it leads to overwork. They need to control everything, which means they rarely delegate effectively and quickly have too much on their plate. The more senior the leader, the more overwhelmed they become.
These leaders also never check out. They work on the weekends and during vacations, never taking a break to re-energize. They rarely delegate tasks or empower someone to act in their place.
Even worse, micromanagement erodes team resilience since it devalues team members. Dictating to staff how something should be done is not respectful; it treats skilled individuals as robots who should simply take orders. Micromanagers signal to their employees that they do not trust them to do a good job. If you don’t trust an employee to do a task correctly, regular feedback and other performance management actions are more effective than micromanaging.
Micromanagers are usually so overworked they don't demonstrate their commitment to the team by showing up to events or mentoring colleagues. They also don't take the time to make connections with others. When a crisis hits, their teams are often not empowered to act, and can easily fracture.
The good news is that micromanagers can change. The first step is acknowledging that micromanagement is lousy management and corrosive. It's a bad habit that must be stopped. To see if you are micromanaging, next time you ask staff to do some work on your behalf, ask them how much guidance they want. If no one asks for more guidance, you've been giving too much.
If the work product isn't exactly what you had in mind, ask yourself why you don’t think it’s acceptable. Ask, "what could be the worst thing to happen if you implemented the plan as presented?" Try hard not to reject your staff's work and play a less intrusive role. If you want it done your way and are not open to other perspectives, you are micromanaging.
If you are micromanaging your team, hire a coach or find a mentor who can help you find alternative approaches. Have colleagues point out your micromanagement behavior. Ask your staff to remind you when they are being micromanaged.
Have you ever micromanaged? How did you stop?
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