Add Category
Years ago, Shona Ryan was working in a role when her confidence started to dwindle.
She felt hemmed in by her boss; her job satisfaction plummeted and, as the weeks passed by, she says she fell into a "spiral".
"I wasn't motivated to keep going, to voice my own opinions, or to do anything out of the norm," Shona Ryan, an employee relations specialist, tells ABC RN's This Working Life.
"I was very much doing what I had to do and [then I] moved on."
Eventually she left the role.
But it wasn't until later that she realised what she was experiencing was micromanagement.
What is micromanagement?
Most employees regularly receive feedback from managers about their performance at work.
However, there is a difference between taking on the guidance required to do a job well and receiving unnecessary feedback in the workplace.
University of Sydney lecturer James Donald describes micromanaging as when "a leader is exerting excessive focus on observing and controlling people's behaviour in the workplace".
More than a decade ago, he was on the receiving end when he worked with someone he remembers as a "well-intentioned manager".
"But I would say there was a tendency, at times, towards over-focusing on the processes of things and the more minute [and] less strategically important [things]," Dr Donald says.
That had a negative flow-on effect in his work.
"It creates this sort of sense of self-doubt … where you're looking over your proverbial shoulder with every decision or action that you take," he says.
It can also make people slower in their work and less likely to make decisions.
"No-one wants to be a bad boss. No-one sets out to be a micromanager at the beginning of their career," he says.
Staff rely on their bosses to provide clear expectations, but it can sometimes turn into a slippery slope.
Added direction can sometimes be helpful, particularly when staff are starting out in their careers and are craving more direction and structure.
But when managers continually get too drawn into the details, it can end up being quite unstrategic, Dr Donald explains.
"There might be times when we really need to, as leaders, be right across the detail on something. And so this idea that [micromanaging is] bad, period, I have a problem with," he says.
"For me, the question is, when does it make sense? And it turns out that most of the time, it doesn't make sense."
It's okay for employees to make mistakes, to take risks and to try something new, he explains, and this applies in most organisations.
"Of course, it might be different if you're doing some complex heart surgery or you're in a plane, but in most contexts, that would be the principle," he says.
'A persistent challenge'
Dr Donald says micromanaging is unfortunately common.
This was particularly true during the pandemic, when more people were working remotely.
One global survey, taken during the pandemic, found that, on average, almost half of all employees felt that they were being micromanaged by their boss.
"In OECD countries like the US, it was as high as two-thirds [of all employees]. So it's certainly a big problem," he adds.
The other key indicator is work engagement.
"Work engagements are a pretty good indication of how productive and committed people are to their work," he says.
"And work engagement globally ... is stubbornly stuck at around one third of people reporting feeling relatively disengaged in their work."
Comparatively, in Australia, according to a recent workplace report, around a quarter of employees say they are engaged in their work.
He says these findings suggest there's work to be done when it comes to micromanagement.
"It's a persistent challenge that we've really struggled to move the dial on," he says.
Shona Ryan's negative experience with micromanagement led her to study the topic.
She asked 120 millennial workers about what they valued most in the workplace. She found that 70 to 80 per cent of those surveyed said they wanted autonomy, and they wanted to feel valued and trusted.
"[About] 97 per cent said that if they felt they were removed from the decision-making process or not involved in the decision-making, then they would be dissatisfied," she says.
"So the findings were very clear in that people want the opposite of what a micromanager gives."
How do I fix the problem?
For those who are on the receiving end of micromanagement, Dr Donald has some advice.
Firstly, calling your leader a micromanager outright might not be the best approach.
"That's probably the last place you would want to go," he says.
A good approach to begin with is to describe your own personal experience to your manager.
"You're not accusing them, or you're not assuming anything, but you're just describing your experience and some of the challenges around executing your work," he says.
You could give this feedback in a meeting with them or even in a performance review.
He also has advice for managers to avoid micromanaging their staff.
"The first thing I would say is that whenever you're asking someone to do something, explain the purpose. And that is a very easy thing to forget. So it takes some effort, but it pays huge dividends," he says.
He says that by explaining the purpose behind a request or a project, you are engaging their sense of agency psychologically.
"That is a very powerful thing to do. I think a lot of people underestimate the power of that," he says.
The second thing is to be clear about what the goalposts are.
"Often, people slip into micromanagement because they haven't actually gotten clear on what they are wanting the person to do. So focusing on and thinking about, well, what are the outcomes that we're looking for here?" he says.
"Then the third thing would be to really let the person get on and do it. And they call this job crafting …. allowing people to use their own intelligence and their own expertise to work out the best way of doing this task."
Sometimes managers need to go in and help.
But if they find themselves rescuing their employees too much, then they're taking away their staff's sense of agency, and their opportunity to problem-solve, make mistakes, and find solutions to things.
And Dr Donald says allowing staff to do these things can, in turn, lead to more innovative working environments.
Which is better for staff and managers alike.
RN in your inbox
Get more stories that go beyond the news cycle with our weekly newsletter.