How Can Leaders Develop Their Skills Beyond Titles and Avoid Micromanagement?
Leadership is not just a title; it’s a set of skills. Being a manager does not automatically make you a great leader.
Developing these skills takes time and effort, starting long before you are promoted.
Take your time in a leadership role to build your abilities. The journey to becoming a great leader is ongoing. It requires dedication and commitment.
The good news is that anyone can learn to be a leader, regardless of their job title. You don’t need authority over others to lead.
Avoid engineering management from day one.
If the work is so complex that it needs someone solely for coordination, it needs clarification and revision.
Teams interact based on mutual benefits.
There is no leadership hierarchy; the structure is flat. There are *tasks* and *workers*.
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Asynchronous communication is essential; written communication is mandatory.
Send an email summarizing weekly work and stakeholder communications. Each team should provide a non-exhaustive summary that includes:
Highlights of the week
Any blockers
Next actions
The Dangers of Micromanagement
Micromanagement often stems from a manager's perfectionism. Unfortunately, it can make employees feel insecure and untrusted.
Common examples of micromanagement include:
Requesting to be CC'd on every email
Excessively monitoring daily tasks
Demanding constant status updates before deadlines
Criticizing employees’ work or performance
Being consistently unsatisfied with employee deliverables
Not allowing employees to manage their own time
Managers who struggle to delegate tasks because they believe they can do them better are also guilty of micromanagement.
Managing a team is challenging; becoming a great leader requires continuous learning.
One common challenge is micromanagement, which makes 79% of employees feel micromanaged at work.
The main issue with micromanagement is that managers often have good intentions but fail to recognize its adverse effects on morale, productivity, and employee satisfaction.
A micromanager overly controls their employees. In contrast, macro management represents a hands-off leadership style.
Micromanaging harms both the manager and the team. It strains relationships, making team members feel undervalued and mistrusted. Additionally, it places excessive pressure on managers who may take on too much, believing they are the only ones capable of completing tasks successfully. This lack of trust can reduce productivity and lead to resentment.
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Other consequences include unrealistic expectations, poor team morale, and increased stress from closely supervising multiple employees.
Learning to Trust Your Team
The first step in avoiding micromanagement is learning to trust your team. However, this can be difficult for perfectionists or those who struggle to delegate because they fear their employees won’t succeed.
Today’s work culture often values busyness and perfectionism. However, high levels of workplace stress and burnout, especially for managers, reveal a darker side to this narrative.
According to a survey:
71.4% of managers feel stressed because they lack time.
61.7% report feeling completely burnt out—2.7% higher than individual contributors.
Being busy does not equal productivity. Managers spend only 3.6 hours daily on tasks despite working an average of 47.1 hours weekly. Therefore, managers should focus on tasks only they can do while delegating or deprioritizing others.
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To ensure team success, managers should share clear project goals and expectations so employees understand how to complete their tasks effectively.
Employees generally dislike micromanaging, which can create friction in the workplace. Moreover, this management style can harm the manager's productivity and career trajectory in the long run.