Hiring help can be extremely beneficial for business growth, but you gotta have faith and trust in who you employ to make the most of their talents – and your time.

You’re not fully leveraging your team or truly freeing up your schedule to contribute at the level you’re capable of if you’re micromanaging. 

This ‘M’ word is one that everyone agrees is problematic, but it can be sneaky in how it unfolds. 

Spotting Micromanagement

Use the short reflective list below to consider if there are any areas where you can step back a bit and empower those you work with. If you see yourself in any of the statements, celebrate the fact that you’re conscious of the limiting behavior and be patient with the process of trying new ways. 

You may have some micromanaging tendencies if you:

• Find yourself saying, “Here’s how I would do it,” before they ask for guidance
• Say, “I can just do it…” or “Let me just do it…”
• Hardly delegate anything and join all projects/teams 
• Insist on approving everything 
• Talk the most at every meeting 
• Ask to be cc’d on every email and follow all tasks  

Preventing Micromanagement

To counter micromanaging, try the following: 

• Set clear expectations and timelines so everyone knows what success entails and when certain parameters should be met  
• Ask what your teammates need from you to be successful
• Come to an agreement in advance of when it’d be most helpful for you to check in 
• Clarify what your team does and does not need to check in with you about 
• When your teammates do come to you with a question, ask for their thoughts on a potential solution first and provide constructive feedback while giving your input 

Curing Micromanagement

Beyond the practical advice given thus far, I encourage you to also reflect on the narratives running through your mind when you’re tempted to take over so you can more thoroughly alter your behavior over time.

Ask yourself: 

• Where are you lacking trust, confidence, or faith in yourself, your team, or the process? 
• How can you demystify or counter triggering beliefs or assumptions prompting micromanagement before diving into action? 
• What are the costs of your micromanaging on yourself and your team? What have the benefits been? Are you willing to give up the perks to mitigate the detrimental effects?  

We naturally want to help others to feel like we’re meaningfully contributing and upholding our sense of belonging. And we often gravitate towards controlling behavior to reduce anxiety and fear around unknowns. But too much ‘helping’ or ‘control’ can lead to micromanagement! 

Believe in yourself, your team, and the processes you employ to build on everyone’s potential while scaling your business efficiently!

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If you’d like to explore how you can strengthen your processes and management techniques to build your business in a more stable, streamlined way, book a free discovery call to learn how I can help.