Bernadette BoasExecutive Leadership Coach, Trainer and Speaker, Ball of Fire Coaching · Become the Leader Everyone Wants to Follow and No One Can Overlook.

Can Micromanagement Derail Workplace Trust?

11 Dec 2024 · 1 min

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1:26

In this single‑speaker discussion, the presenter examines how micromanagement contributes to toxic work environments. They distinguish genuine accountability from micromanagement, arguing that micromanagement stems from a lack of trust in employees. The speaker emphasizes that leaders must relinquish some control, focusing on outcomes—timeliness and high quality—rather than dictating the exact method. By insisting on doing tasks exactly their own way, managers hinder employee growth and fail to teach people to become their best versions. The talk concludes that trusting employees and allowing flexibility in execution are essential for a healthy, high‑performing workplace.

Chapters

So a toxic work environment, what somebody says is, isn't necessarily, and maybe there are toxic work environments that people don't realize are toxic. So micromanaging is very similar. So sometimes people will say, oh, you're micromanaging me, but really they're just being held accountable, which is very different. Whereas sometimes people will be told they're micromanaging and they really are. So when I think about micromanaging, I think about really not trusting the person to do the job. So it really comes from a place of like, do you trust them to do this? And you have to give up a certain amount of control to know that like the goal is that they do it on time and they do it to the highest quality, not that they necessarily do it the way that you would do it, right? So oftentimes with micromanaging, it's staying way too on top of people. And telling them to do it exactly your way. You have to remember as a supervisor, as a leader, that you have to give up a certain amount of control because the end result just needs to be high quality. It doesn't need to be exactly how you would do it. And micromanaging is often, you know, when you're saying, well, like, yes, this is the correct way of doing it, but I would do it this way and I want you to do it exactly how I would do it. That's not teaching somebody how to be their best version.