Why Is Micromanagement So Infectious?
21/10/2022, 10:59
Why Is Micromanagement So
Infectious?
Part of the draw of self-managing organizations, like those we explore in
our recent HBR article, is their promise to free us from the disease of
micromanagement. But they’re not the only cure.
Before we get to what works, let’s consider what micromanaging really is
and what puts you at risk of doing it. It’s not just a personality or
leadership trait that can be blamed on genetic makeup or bad training, as
some arguments say. Rather, it’s a breakdown in the fundamentals of
delegation.
When a manager delegates a goal to an employee effectively,
she bestows ownership of what we call a “brief,” a set of outcomes
subject to deadlines and other constraints. The owner’s job becomes
figuring out how to deliver on that brief while operating within the
specified constraints, which can range from “stay within this budget” to
https://hbr.org/2016/08/why-is-micromanagement-so-infectious
Page 1 of 5
Why Is Micromanagement So Infectious?
21/10/2022, 10:59
“follow these policies” to “get my approval on this type of decision.”
The manager, who assumes the role of a sponsor, can change the brief,
change the owner, or change the context in which the owner does his
work. But if she dictates the tasks to be done or directs how to do the
work, she ceases to be a sponsor and becomes a micromanager.
Micromanagement has a way of spreading in organizations, where goals
and accountability are intricately nested. What your people deliver affects
what you deliver, and so on up the chain of command — so the pressure is
on everywhere to make sure everyone comes through.
The boundaries around sponsorship and ownership are simple to
understand in theory but difficult to observe in the fog of real business.
When clarity is hard to achieve, we would rather just “dive in.” We start off
trusting, but verifying, that people are clear about the desired outcomes
and capable of delivering on them. But we’ve become so great at
verifying, thanks to our “smart,” all-seeing workplaces, that the sponsor
can observe the owner’s every move. If an office bathroom’s RFIDenabled hand soap dispenser can micromanage people by telling them, by
name, to wash their hands before they return to work, think of the
possibilities for micromanagement by sponsors. It’s just so tempting to
watch…and then so tempting to comment…and before you know it, you’re
micromanaging. It’s too easy.
How do you avoid falling into micromanagement? By making sure you
have the following elements in the briefs you delegate. Otherwise, you
may start to zoom in too aggressively on concrete tasks in an effort to
control something, anything, within reach.
Do you have:
Clear targets? Delegation works poorly when the owner doesn’t have a
clear picture of the outcomes needed. Perhaps standards are fuzzy (for
https://hbr.org/2016/08/why-is-micromanagement-so-infectious
Page 2 of 5
Why Is Micromanagement So Infectious?
21/10/2022, 10:59
instance, client satisfaction is understood to be a goal, but no one really
knows what “good” looks like). Or maybe a relevant outcome hasn’t been
specified (you’ve established financial targets but nothing that measures
client experience). Sadly, leaders often “manage” by vaguely saying that a
team member is responsible for a certain kind of thing — as in, “He does
‘marketing’” — without defining outcomes. In the absence of clear targets,
people start picking apart tasks.
Sufficient (but not stifling) constraints? Artful management specifies
where constraints are needed and which kinds make sense. If you don’t
have enough constraints, you aren’t defining expectations clearly enough,
which leads employees to flail and managers, in turn, to hover. Too many
constraints, and you’re tying people’s hands. Telling the general counsel
simply to “get the contract in place” and handing him the term sheet on a
napkin is likely to work only for a routine transaction or a very special
counsel. But saying “I’ll need to approve all edits in each step of the
negotiation” will waste time. Either way, by understepping or
overstepping, you end up failing as a sponsor.
A shared understanding? Though a brief can be written down (and often
should be), its essence is shared, iterative understanding. Delegation is
derailed when sponsor and owner don’t have a meeting of minds. For
example, they may have different ideas about what an outcome or
constraint will look like in practice. Sponsors try to close the gap by
specifying “make it look this way — and do it like this.”
Effective oversight? Delegating responsibility for a goal doesn’t
magically create the capability or even the drive to achieve that goal.
Oversight is effective when the sponsor can rationally expect, not just
hope, that the brief will be fulfilled. Oversight is easy when the owner is
clearly on track. When the going is difficult, the sponsor earns her keep,
wrestling with whether to evolve the brief, offer advice, shift something
about the context, change the owner, or stay the course. Effective
https://hbr.org/2016/08/why-is-micromanagement-so-infectious
Page 3 of 5
Why Is Micromanagement So Infectious?
21/10/2022, 10:59
sponsors may see lots of data but constrain their impulses to dive in
whenever they spot an anomaly. This restraint prevents oversight from
sliding into micromanagement — but restraint becomes harder and rarer
in an all-seeing workplace.
Given how easily just one flaw in the delegation process can give rise to
micromanagement, it’s critical to put the right conditions in place for
effective delegation. For starters, keep it real. Never let people think
they’re owners if you aren’t willing to let them own. If you’re the real
owner, say so, make clear that the team member’s role is to help you, and
explain what kind of help you need.
When you take the sponsor role, be explicit about which hat you’re
wearing as you engage with the owner. Are you clarifying the brief?
Assessing progress? Offering feedback? Just brainstorming? It’s
important to advise with care. By all means, make suggestions. But it is
the owner’s role to decide whether and how to take them. Of course a
sponsor can be valuable “on the field,” advancing a particular piece of
work based on expertise, relationships, or credibility, but when you step
onto the field, be accountable to the owner leading the team.
The power of these fundamental concepts — the sponsor, the owner, and
the brief — is that they help people make reasonable, effective choices
when it isn’t clear what’s best to do. In that way, they’re a lot like the rules
of engagement in holacracy and other forms of self-managing
organizations. It may seem strange to compare this approach with selfmanagement, since the sponsor-owner construct is hierarchical. But both
ways of managing create autonomy where it is needed to spark creativity
and productivity.
Micromanagement is constitutionally forbidden in holacracy. (It’s merely
inadvisable in organizations with traditional structures.) But changing
organizational design alone won’t build the capabilities needed to
navigate hard questions and reach big goals. Managers at all levels, in
https://hbr.org/2016/08/why-is-micromanagement-so-infectious
Page 4 of 5
Why Is Micromanagement So Infectious?
21/10/2022, 10:59
organizations of any design, face the everyday choice between fostering
ownership and micromanaging, and they have the power — if they can
develop the skill to consistently choose well.
https://hbr.org/2016/08/why-is-micromanagement-so-infectious
Page 5 of 5