
William Bligh, Captain of HMS Bounty, which experienced a mutiny on April 28, 1789. Illustration from A Voyage to the South Sea, his book on the subject. Courtesy Project Gutenberg, the oldest producer of
free ebooks on the Internet.
If you think you might be working for a micromanager, but you aren't sure, count yourself lucky, because when your boss is a micromanager, there's absolutely no doubt. Um, wait, there is some doubt — your boss might be a nanomanager. Nanomanagers are about a thousand times worse. They do most of what micromanagers do, but they do it more often, and way better. Here's a little catalog of what it takes to be a nanomanager.
- Has open door policy, but the door in question is yours.
- For any task, specifies precisely how and by-when.
- When you can't do the how or you miss the by-when for a task, determines the how and the by-when of determining the new how and the new by-when.
- Does the things you're supposed to do, but still insists that you do them too.
- Is too busy doing your job to pay any attention to own job.
- Can't tolerate incompetent subordinates.
- Can't tolerate competent subordinates.
- Demands the impossible.
- Is clueless about difference between what's possible and what's not.
- Doesn't understand — and therefore rejects — all explanations of why the impossible is impossible.
- Blames subordinates for all failures.
- Claims responsibility for all successes.
- Sees no need to recognize contributions of subordinates, since there aren't any.
- Makes Captain Queeg and Captain Bligh look like management geniuses.
- Has fingers in everything, but has no idea where anything stands.
- Demands next status report before previous status report is completed.
- Claims all assignments are clear and unambiguous.
- Won't supply clear answers to questions about ambiguous assignments.
- Corrects the way you ask clarifying questions about ambiguous assignments.
- Has said, "I don't like surprises," but gets obvious thrills from surprising subordinates.
- Nanomanagers are like
micromanagers, but about
1000 times worseIs isolated from peers, with possible exception of other nanomanagers. - Changes directions frequently, but doesn't necessarily inform subordinates.
- When contradicted by Reality, or by own boss, claims never to have said or believed what was contradicted.
- Can't always resist the urge to tell subordinates how to use the phone system.
- Doesn't actually know how to use the phone system.
- Sits in on meetings chaired by subordinates, saying, "Pretend I'm not here," then hijacks the meeting.
- Insists on signing off on all decisions of subordinates, and regularly rejects some.
- Countermands decisions of subordinates, then makes same decisions a few days later.
- Can't always coherently explain what was wrong with rejected decisions.
- Never takes vacation.
- Does get sick from time to time, but comes to work anyway, saying, "I'm needed."
- Takes sick days only for major surgery, and then only while still anesthetized.
- Periodically tries to build rapport with subordinates, by stopping by for friendly, relaxed chats, but only when hard deadline is imminent.
- Strenuously denies micromanaging anyone, ever.
There's more, but do I have to spell it out for you? (Just kidding.) Top
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For a survey of tactics for managing pressure, take a look at the series that begins with "Managing Pressure: Communications and Expectations," Point Lookout for December 13, 2006.
For more about micromanagement, see "When Your Boss Is a Micromanager," Point Lookout for December 5, 2001; "There Are No Micromanagers," Point Lookout for January 7, 2004; "Are You Micromanaging Yourself?," Point Lookout for November 24, 2004; "Reverse Micromanagement," Point Lookout for July 18, 2007; and "Lateral Micromanagement," Point Lookout for September 10, 2008.
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Related articles
More articles on Workplace Politics:
Nasty Questions: II
- In meetings, telemeetings, and email we sometimes ask questions that aren't intended to elicit information.
Rather, they're indirect attacks intended to advance the questioner's political agenda. Here's part
two of a catalog of some favorite tactics.
What You See Isn't Always What You Get
- We all engage in interpreting the behavior of others, usually without thinking much about it. Whenever
you notice yourself having a strong reaction to someone's behavior, consider the possibility that your
interpretation has outrun what you actually know.
How to Undermine Your Subordinates
- People write to me occasionally that their bosses undermine them, but I know there are bosses who want
to do more undermining than they are already doing. So here are some tips for bosses aspiring to sink
even lower.
On Badly Written Email
- Even those who aren't great writers do occasionally write clearly, just by chance. But there are some
who consistently produce unintelligible email messages. Why does this happen?
Implicit Interrogation Tactics
- When one person tries surreptitiously to extract information from another at work, an implicit interrogation
is taking place. Here are seven tactics that people use to interrogate others without revealing what
they're doing.
See also Workplace Politics and Managing Your Boss for more related articles.
Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout
Coming April 21: Choice-Supportive Bias
- Choice-supportive bias is a cognitive bias that causes us to evaluate our past choices as more fitting than they actually were. The erroneous judgments it produces can be especially costly to organizations interested in improving decision processes. Available here and by RSS on April 21.
And on April 28: The Self-Explanation Effect
- In the learning context, self-explanation is the act of explaining to oneself what one is learning. Self-explanation has been shown to increase the rate of acquiring mastery. The mystery is why we don't structure knowledge work to exploit this phenomenon. Available here and by RSS on April 28.
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Decis
ion-makers in modern organizations commonly demand briefings in the form of bullet points or a series of series of bullet points. But this form of presentation has limited value for complex decisions. We need something more. We actually need to think. Briefers who combine the bullet-point format with a variety of persuasion techniques can mislead decision-makers, guiding them into making poor decisions. Read more about this program.
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Webinar Series. PMI members can earn 1.0 Category 'A' PDU by viewing this program. View this program now.
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Beware any resource that speaks of "winning" at workplace politics or "defeating" it. You can benefit or not, but there is no score-keeping, and it isn't a game.
- Wikipedia has a nice article with a list of additional resources
- Some public libraries offer collections. Here's an example from Saskatoon.
- Check my own links collection
- LinkedIn's Office Politics discussion group