Point Lookout: a free weekly publication of Chaco Canyon Consulting
Volume 4, Issue 47;   November 24, 2004: Are You Micromanaging Yourself?

Are You Micromanaging Yourself?

by

Feeling distrusted and undervalued, we often attribute the problem to the behavior of others — to the micromanager who might be mistreating us. We tend not to examine our own contributions to the difficulty. Are you micromanaging yourself?

Judging by the almost-universal understanding of the term micromanager, many of us have experienced micromanagement. It's pretty easy to detect micromanaging when someone else is doing it, but it's difficult to see it when we're doing it ourselves. Micromanagers are everywhere — even inside us.

One reason it's so hard to see our own micromanaging behavior is our reluctance to face the possibility that we're hurting other people. That's why our own behavior can be easier to see if we look at how we micromanage ourselves.

A sleeping dog

Tobias, 11 years old, sleeping on the floor. No guilt detectable here. Photo by Teles, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Here are some warning signs that your inner micromanager might need some retraining:

  • You feel guilty about sleeping late, even on your days off, and even if you're exhausted.
  • Whenever you get a parking ticket, you feel really horrible — out of all proportion to the offense.
  • You don't have a "free" minute. Every bit of time is accounted for. It's been months since you've had the experience of just hanging out, in the way you did so easily in your teens.
  • You berate yourself if you do something just well enough. You could have done better.
  • You rarely celebrate achievements or acknowledge successes, because you're afraid that if you do, you might get too comfortable or ease off.
  • When you put anything at all on your To-Do list, you have a clear idea of the right way to do it. You rarely let yourself try new or more interesting approaches.
  • Micromanagement
    is difficult to detect
    when we're doing
    it ourselves
    When you travel somewhere, even for a routine errand, you always take the "best" route — never trying a different, more scenic, or more adventurous one.
  • You constantly ask yourself when you'll complete some particular task. When you do complete it, or if it goes on hold for reasons beyond your control, you start nagging yourself about some other task.
  • You question yourself about decisions you can't undo.
  • You blame yourself if a decision you made turns out badly, even if you did your best with the information you had at the time.
  • You compare yourself to others, especially when the comparison is unfavorable to you. You give too little weight — or don't even acknowledge — aspects of those comparisons that are favorable to you.
  • You don't trust yourself with difficult decisions. You give more weight to the advice of others, even when they couldn't possibly know any more than you do.
  • You keep a close eye on all your spending, requiring that every penny be accounted for and every expenditure be justified.

If any of these rang bells, and you want some training for your inner micromanager, remember that there's no best way to do it. Any way that works is a good way. On your next day off, you can start by sleeping late. Go to top Top  Next issue: Decisions, Decisions: II  Next Issue

303 Secrets of Workplace PoliticsIs every other day a tense, anxious, angry misery as you watch people around you, who couldn't even think their way through a game of Jacks, win at workplace politics and steal the credit and glory for just about everyone's best work including yours? Read 303 Secrets of Workplace Politics, filled with tips and techniques for succeeding in workplace politics. More info

More about micromanagement

Bottleneck road signWhen Your Boss Is a Micromanager  [December 5, 2001]
If your boss is a micromanager, your life can be a seemingly endless misery of humiliation and frustration. Changing your boss is one possible solution, but it's unlikely to succeed. What you can do is change the way you experience the micromanagement.

I'm glad he isn't my bossThere Are No Micromanagers  [January 7, 2004]
If you're a manager who micromanages, you're probably trying as best you can to help your organization meet its responsibilities. Still, you might feel that people are unhappy — that whatever you're doing isn't working. There is another way.

The 1991 eruption of Mount PinatuboManaging Pressure: Communications and Expectations  [December 13, 2006]
Pressed repeatedly for "status" reports, you might guess that they don't want status — they want progress. Things can get so nutty that responding to the status requests gets in the way of doing the job. How does this happen and what can you do about it? Here's Part I of a little catalog of tactics and strategies for dealing with pressure.

Freeway damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta, California, EarthquakeManaging Pressure: The Unexpected  [December 20, 2006]
When projects falter, we expect demands for status and explanations. What's puzzling is how often this happens to projects that aren't in trouble. Here's Part II of a catalog of strategies for managing pressure.

One of the Franklin Milestones on the Boston Post RoadManaging Pressure: Milestones and Deliveries  [December 27, 2006]
Pressed repeatedly for "status" reports, you might guess that they don't want status — they want progress. Things can get so nutty that responding to the status requests gets in the way of doing the job. How does this happen and what can you do about it? Here's Part III of a set of tactics and strategies for dealing with pressure.

Captain William BlighHow to Tell If You Work for a Nanomanager  [March 7, 2007]
By now, we've all heard of micromanagers, and some have experienced micromanagement firsthand. Some of us have even micromanaged others. But there's a breed of micromanagers whose behavior is so outlandish that they need a category of their own.

The USS Doyle as DMS-34, when she played The CaineReverse Micromanagement  [July 18, 2007]
Micromanagement is too familiar to too many of us. Less familiar is inappropriate interference in the reverse direction — in the work of our supervisors or even higher in the chain. Disciplinary action isn't always helpful, especially when some of the causes of reverse micromanagement are organizational.

Damage to Purple Loosestrife due to feeding by the galerucella beetleLateral Micromanagement  [September 10, 2008]
Lateral micromanagement is the unwelcome intrusion by one co-worker into the responsibilities of another. Far more than run-of-the-mill bossiness, it's often a concerted attempt to gain organizational power and rank, and it is toxic to teams.

The Niagara River and cantilever bridgeBottlenecks: I  [February 4, 2015]
Some people take on so much work that they become "bottlenecks." The people around them repeatedly find themselves stuck, awaiting responses or decisions. Why does this happen and what are the costs?

A schematic representation of a MOSFETBottlenecks: II  [February 11, 2015]
When some people take on so much work that they become "bottlenecks," they expose the organization to risks. Managing those risks is a first step to ending the bottlenecking pattern.

A demanding managerWhat Micromanaging Is and Isn't  [April 14, 2021]
Micromanaging is a dysfunctional pattern of management behavior, involving interference in the work others are supposedly doing. Confusion about what it is and what it isn't makes effective response difficult.

Eurasian cranes migrating to Meyghan Salt Lake, Markazi Province of IranOn Schedule Conflicts  [May 10, 2023]
Schedule conflicts happen from time to time, even when the organization is healthy and all is well. But when schedule conflicts are common, they might indicate that the organization is trying to do too much with too few people.

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