21 signs of micromanagement to watch out for in your managers’ and employees’ behaviors

Micromanaging kills your corporate culture and your chances of success.

Does it sound exaggerated? Unfortunately, it’s not. This is why we wanted to highlight the most common signs of micromanagement that you can notice in your leaders’ or your employees’ behaviors. Creating a positive work environment and making employees thrive should be the primary goal for anyone in a leadership position. Some supervisors can’t help but excessively monitor every process their workers do. The reasons for an over-controlling management style are often linked to difficulty trusting others or fear of failing. This corporate management style creates more damage than positive outcomes. To help you spot and fix these toxic practices, here are 21 micromanaging examples to watch out for and stop before they deeply affect your workforce and your business. We also share with you the best approach to adopt when managing people.

21 leaders’ and employees’ behaviors that are signs of micromanagement

13 leaders’ behaviors that are concrete micromanaging examples

1. Requiring to validate each step of every process

The most common sign of micromanagement is the need for supervisors to validate every action their team members take. They want to know everything beforehand and can quickly get irritated if projects are realized without their approval. This leadership style is often called “helicopter management.” Micromanagers can’t help but control everything, even the smallest details. Not only does it leave employees feeling oppressed and distrusted, but it also negatively impacts innovation, engagement, and performance. 

2. Being against change

Another obvious micromanaging example is when managers refuse to change practices without valid reasons - simply because “it’s always been done that way.” Not only can this be frustrating for employees who come up with new ideas to improve processes, but it can also negatively impact the company. First, talents might look for a new job opportunity where their opinions and ideas will be considered. Second, competitors who listen to their staff and accept that they can have great significance might develop faster and stronger than you.

3. Giving extra detailed and complex instructions

As discussed in this blog post, micromanagement does not leave room for creativity and autonomy. This is because micromanagers often give their team members thorough and complex instructions before assigning tasks or projects. They have a clear idea of how things must be done, and they don’t think it should (could) be done otherwise. Giving recommendations is no problem as long as it’s only to help employees complete that mission and you encourage autonomy and initiative.

💥 As we talk about autonomy, discover how deskbird helps you boost hybrid work productivity and maximize efficiency!

4. Being constantly unsatisfied with deliverables

Do you always have something to say about the work your staff delivers and tend to focus more on the negative than the positive? Well this can also be a sign of micromanaging leadership. Of course, it can happen that your team members forgot something or could have done otherwise. But if you constantly pinpoint every detail that they could have done better or differently instead of looking at the big picture, this is micromanagement.

5. Focusing on details instead of results

It’s one of the main differences between micro and macro-management. With macro leadership, managers focus on the destination and let their staff figure out the journey. Micromanagers concentrate all their attention and energy on the details in between. They want to be part of each decision. The reason can be their inability to trust their peers or that they see it as proof of commitment to their team. Two classic examples are requesting to be cc’d in every email and participating in all team meetings.

6. Lacking transparency when communicating with their teams

Micromanagers often leave their employees in the dark about what is happening in the organization. Instead of promoting a transparent communication strategy, they prefer keeping the information to themselves, considering their coworkers don’t need to know. It results in teams not being aware of their mission’s context and working without the big picture. Not only does it make people feel unacknowledged and frustrated, but it also creates inefficiency. Employees sometimes end up redoing tasks because of a lack of input in the first place.

7. Considering failure as no option

Although all big success stories result from trials and failures, failing isn’t an option in the micromanager’s mind. This is one of the main reasons for this excessive need for control. By being aware of each step and validating every process, a micro leader seeks to avoid any not favorable outcome. A great supervisor leaves some room for failure because they understand it is an inevitable step to growth and success. Blaming a team because they failed to meet their goal does not help them (and you neither) learn and improve their way of working - quite the opposite.

8. Not taking accountability

Talking about unpleasant situations and not being accountable for your team are also signs of micromanagement. Unfortunately, it is quite common in a micromanaged environment to see a gap between the manager and the rest of the staff. Taking credit when everything goes smoothly and blaming workers when it doesn’t is a classic example of this leadership style. Conversely, supporting each other in good and bad moments helps employees feel connected and motivated to thrive.

9. Resisting to delegate to team members

Usually, if you work as a leader, it suggests that you have good leadership skills. Delegating is one of them. However, micromanagers often struggle to assign tasks to their team members and try to do everything themselves. They tend to believe that their coworkers cannot complete the missions as well or better than them and worry about the consequences. Yet, trusting employees in their abilities is essential to creating a reliable relationship, allowing them to grow, and enabling you to focus on other tasks.

👉 Read more about the importance of trust in the workplace!

10. Redoing team members’ work is standard practice

Because they prefer when things are done their way and don’t like to delegate, micro leaders can sometimes even redo what their team members have done. This is a typical micromanaging practice that affects both employees and the company. They lose time because of their lack of trust in their coworkers and end up creating a toxic work culture where people feel entirely unvalued and unrecognized for their skills.

11. Struggling with remote work practices

Allowing employees to work from home or a third workplace is one of the worst nightmares for micromanagers. While many organizations have adopted flexible work arrangements, micromanaging teams seems harder in this context. Supervising and checking each task they are doing becomes very challenging as they can’t see them in person. Leaders might then rt their coworkers to be constantly available on Slack during working hours or ask for daily reports. These practices enable them to compensate for the incapacity to control and to be reassured that their staff do work…

12. Requesting updates (too) frequently

Do you constantly ask your employees how far they are with their tasks? Frequently requesting news regarding a project is a common sign of a micromanagement style. Leaders worry about the advancement of a mission, not meeting the deadline, and panic if they can’t control what is going on.  But by acting like this, they put pressure on their peers and stress them out, too. While short periods of stress can happen, it shouldn’t be part of the daily atmosphere at work. In the long run, the impact can be devastating, with workers feeling burnout or quitting before it’s too late.

13. Struggling with effective and constructive feedback 

Micromanagers usually don’t have any issue saying when things are wrong but struggle to share constructive feedback with their coworkers. Moreover, only 26% of employees consider that the feedback they get helps them to perform better.¹ As a manager, you cannot expect your team members to grow and meet your requirements without discussing their strengths and weaknesses with them. But the same goes the other way around. Leaders practicing micromanagement often struggle to listen to feedback from people under their supervision.

💡 Check out our customers’ feedback about the deskbird app!

8 employees’ behaviors that can be micromanaging signs

1. Giving up on taking the initiative

Because their opinion is not considered, micromanaged employees think twice before taking the initiative or stop doing it. Instead of looking for new ideas and being innovative, they would rather wait for instructions, as they know things will be done according to their boss’s will anyway. Workers also tend to ask for their manager’s approval before proceeding with any new idea. This leadership style kills the spirit of initiative among the workforce. If this sometimes helps people who lack confidence, others will quickly get frustrated and want to show their strengths (somewhere else!). 

2. Showing low levels of engagement

Employees lose the spark when constantly controlled and restricted in their work. How can they stay motivated without signs of trust and room for self-development? Micromanagement makes them slowly (but surely) lose the stamina and devotion to doing their job properly. They come to work because they have to and no longer because they want to. You start to see workers doing the minimum amount of work requested and not going the extra mile, as they know their ideas will be ignored anyway. A low engagement rate clearly indicates that something is wrong, and it can be an effect of micromanagement.

3. Focusing on getting the boss’s approval more than the results

Over-controlling team members makes them lose sight of their primary purpose. They become obsessed with getting their supervisor’s approval. Instead of being customer-focused, they switch to acting manager-focused. Every conversation with their superior turns into a performance review where they feel constantly tested. They end up putting all their effort into making their boss happy rather than concentrating on the big picture. If your employees only care about what will fulfill their leader over the company, there is a high chance they are evolving in a micromanaged work environment. 

4. Stopping sharing opinions and becoming silent

Are your meetings a moment for your coworkers to share their points of view or more of a one-way conversation where you are the only person talking? If it sounds more like the last option, this is not normal. Letting your team members express themselves freely is fundamental. A silent team that only listens and doesn’t give feedback is a sign of a toxic workplace. Employees who do not voice their opinions may be demotivated, disengaged, or afraid of their boss. This is neither good for them nor your company’s growth. In any case, the explanations often come from the results of micromanaging practices.

5. Lacking any form of personal or professional development

Micromanagement is an obstacle to personal and professional growth, and it causes frustration and demotivation. People want to develop their skills and improve their career paths by learning new tasks or taking on new projects. Yet, micromanaged teams tend to be more limited in this regard, as leaders decide all processes and constantly check that things are done their way. The focus is less on employees’ needs and more on the results. However, outcomes are more significant when workers’ expectations are met. 

6. Feeling unvalued and unrecognized

Micromanaged workforces often suffer from a lack of recognition from leaders. Micromanagers are at ease when it comes to saying what’s done wrong but struggle a bit more with acknowledging the good work and sharing it with their team. This makes coworkers feel bitter as their efforts seem taken for granted, unseen, unappreciated, and unvalued. Send an employee satisfaction questionnaire focusing on leadership to know if your staff feels recognized. It will help you detect any sign of micromanagement and correct it as soon as possible.

7. Quitting seems like the only options

How is your employee turnover rate? Do you struggle to retain your talents? People quitting their jobs clearly show discontentment, but where is it coming from? Micromanaging practices undoubtedly increase your workforce’s chances of looking for another job that will make them grow personally and professionally and feel trusted, appreciated, and happy. Seventy percent of employees consider resigning because of micromanagement, and 30% actually do.² If workers keep quitting, the leadership style in place might be the issue.

😳 Check out our article about quiet quitting. If your micromanaged talents don’t resign officially, they might give up on you in another way…

8. Being unsatisfied, unhappy, and eventually burned out

Because of micromanagement's effects on people’s mental health, it is no surprise to see low job satisfaction and employee happiness levels in companies where micromanaging leadership is used. Excessive monitoring causes staff to lose confidence in themselves and prevents them from making the most of their skills. They become frustrated about being unable to work autonomously and feeling supervised like children at school.

The reasons why micromanaging is terrible and what to do instead

The effects of micromanagement on your employees and your business

We’ve already mentioned a few of the consequences of micromanagement while introducing the signs of this type of leadership (lack of engagement, recognition, initiatives, trust, etc.). Here are some extra reasons to stop micromanaging, focusing more on the psychological effects of micromanagement: 

• lack of creativity and innovation;
• low self-confidence;
• frustration;
• loss of motivation and purpose;
• drop in productivity;
• increase of interpersonal conflicts;
• development of a toxic work environment;
• anxiety, stress, and burnout.

👋 Read our full article about the psychological effects of micromanagement.

The alternatives to micromanagement

The adverse effects of this form of leadership result in micromanaged teams experiencing a lack of recognition, autonomy, trust, transparency, and development perspective. Micromanagers don’t realize how much their behaviors impact their teams and prevent them from thriving and performing.

Adopting macro management and employee-centricity practices is the best way for workers to feel valued, take initiative, innovate, be motivated, and boost their engagement.

At deskbird, our goal is to help you embrace new ways of working successfully by making hybrid workplace management easy and leveling up your employee experience. Here are 3 must-reads for promoting a thriving hybrid team leadership: 

• Leadership in a hybrid work era.
• Employee empowerment: spreading power makes your business stronger.
• What are your employees’ needs? From managers to HR practices.

While flexible work practices encourage employee centricity and flexibility, micromanagement kills all the advantages of hybrid work and a people-first culture. These micromanaging examples can destroy a business, making workers either disengaged, stressed, and ultimately burned out or pushing them to quit. Spotting the signs of micromanagement and training leaders to avoid these practices is key to tackling this consequential problem in the workplace. 

Are you willing to give more autonomy to your coworkers and develop an employee-centric culture? Request a free demo of the deskbird app to discover how to improve your hybrid teams’ experience while saving costs!

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Sources:
¹ Give Employees the Right Kind of Feedback at the Right Time, Gallup.
² The Effects of Micromanagement, Management Consulted.