No one prefers a manager who is constantly breathing down their necks. Anyone who has ever worked with a micromanager knows exactly how the habit to micromanage can stifle creativity, kill productivity, leave everyone emotionally drained, and be demoralizing.

It is often difficult to pull out of the habit of micromanagement unless you get straight at the roots of how, why, and when this habit got developed in the first place.

Signs That You’re A Micromanager

Here are some of the obvious signs that you have a habit of micromanagement:

• You jump on calls that you don’t need to be on in the first place.
• You take members of your team off of some tasks fearing they would not be able to complete them.
• You ask for materials repeatedly before the deadline of a project.
• You send replies to emails before your team can reply.
• You believe you can save hours by doing everything on your own.
• You are of the view that too much is at stake to afford a single mistake on a project.
• You don’t trust the abilities of your team members.
• You believe that your subordinates may do something wrong deliberately just to ruin your reputation.

How To Avoid Micromanagement?

• Manage Expectations, Not Tasks: A big majority of a manager’s role is to communicate to the subordinates what needs to be done and not how it needs to be done. At times, what is expected and what needs to be done are different. A good leader always ensures that every individual team member is aware of their individual and collective goals. Once everyone is on the same page as far as work expectations are concerned, there is no need to micromanage.
• Step back slowly: Like every habit, micromanagement doesn’t go away in one day. However, pulling back one step at a time can surely help. To get started, you can get going with a low-priority project and give full accountability to your team and see how things go. Remember, the true trust of leadership is how good the team performs when the leader is away. Give the reigns to your team and watch things happening from the sidelines.
• Get feedback: Generally, the biggest hurdle at the workplace is the absence of understanding about what leaders intend and what the team members are experiencing. You can conduct a cross-evaluation assessment to gather data from employees and aggregate those results.
• Prioritize what matters and what doesn’t: It doesn’t make sense to wear all the hats yourself because you have a strong opinion that you can things better. Skim your to-do list to ascertain which low-hanging fruits can be passed on to team members while keeping the big-ticket items for yourself.

Find out how you can improve the profitability of your organization by reaching out to Dana Sacco now.