This Myth Is Holding You Back as a Leader

For too long now, the pendulum of management advice has swung in the wrong direction, toward hands-off management. The problem is that too many leaders have been told that employees do their best work when they are free to manage themselves. They are told the best way to get employees engaged at work is to put employees on assignments they enjoy and give them lots of praise.

Managers today are advised to merely be facilitators, there to align the natural talents and desires of employees with fitting roles in the workplace. Managers should not tell people how to do their jobs, but rather let employees come up with their own methods. The idea is: Make employees feel good inside, and the results will take care of themselves.

But these leaders then must face the reality: Employees do not have the power to do things their own way in the workplace. They are not free to ignore tasks they don’t like. They are not free to do as they please. Rather, employees are free to only make their own decisions within defined guidelines and parameters that are determined by others—primarily, their boss.

Responsibility without sufficient direction and support is not empowerment. It sets both managers and their teams up for failure.

Micromanagement is the number one myth in the workplace.

Almost everybody performs better with more guidance, direction, and support from a more experienced person. So why do managers often second-guess their own instincts to take a stronger hand?

The prevailing fear is being accused of micromanagement. When managers do take charge, employees often respond by saying, “I know how to do my job. Don’t micromanage me!”

But most cases mistaken for micromanagement turn out to be undermanagement in disguise. Consider these three examples.

1. The employee must check with their manager every step of the way to make basic decisions or take routine action. If an employee is unable to make basic decisions or take routine action on their own, that’s almost always because the manager has not prepared the employee in advance. Someone has to tell them, “If A happens, do B. If C happens, do D. If E happens, do F.” Someone has to tell the employee exactly what to do and how to do it. Someone has to make sure they understand how to accomplish their tasks and carry out their responsibilities. Someone must equip the employee with the tools and techniques of the job. And that someone is the manager.
2. The employee makes decisions and takes actions without ever checking in with their manager. When the manager finds out about those decisions and actions, the employee gets in big trouble. The employee may get burned for taking initiative, but it is not the result of micromanagement. If an employee does not know where their discretion begins and ends, that’s because their boss has not spelled out guidelines and parameters up front. It’s up to that person’s manager to clarify what is within their authority and what is not.
3. The manager remains tangled up with the employee’s tasks, or the employee gets tangled up with the manager’s tasks. In the end, neither person can tell which tasks belong to the manager and which ones belong to the employee. This comes down to failure to delegate. Some work is hard to delegate, but if the work cannot be delegated properly, it is the manager’s job to figure that out and act accordingly.

All of these cases, often misconstrued as micromanagement, turn out to be cases of undermanagement. Of course, some managers overdo it sometimes. But the vast majority underdo it. Real micromanagement is quite rare.

Real employee empowerment is the result of clearly defined parameters.

If managers want to truly empower people, they must define the terrain on which their direct reports have power. That terrain consists of effectively delegated goals, with clear guidelines and concrete deadlines. Consistently articulating with every employee the appropriate standards and expectations—what to do and how to do it—is the hard work of leading, managing, and supervising.

Within clearly articulated parameters, people have power. That power may be limited. But it also has the great virtue of being real power.