If your boss is a micromanager, your days at work would definitely be more stressful and youâd often return home exhausted and frustrated. However, there are certain ways to deal with such micromanagers.
Learn about the triggers and values of your micromanager
You should pay extreme attention towards the work related things which you are being micromanaged for. Just think and evaluate as in what are you being micromanaged for. This could be around certain timelines like, meeting various deadlines. It could also relate to the quality of work or even the flow of information. Therefore, it is really important to notice your micromanager’s underlying values and triggers. This would be a starting step to begin with while dealing with such managers but it is extremely useful and important for anyone dealing with such issues.
Take the initiative
Once you have come to know about the micromanagement trigger or value and say it is for being on-time, the next thing you need to do is work upon the same. In many cases, your micromanager would be calling you on a daily basis and inquire about the on-time status of a project or report. This would definitely become a routine and pretty frustrating for you. What one can do is call or even poke his/her head in the managerâs office and let him/her know the status even before youâre actually asked. Doing this a couple of times would definitely relax the dynamic between you and your micromanager. Remember that you need not to reverse the micromanagement roles here and take initiatives rather at an excessive frequency of your boss. You should however preempt by using a natural frequency and addressing all the questions before/first asked. This would be beneficial in two ways; firstly, it would let your manager know that you really understand the value of being on-time and secondly, it would help in building trust and a strong bond. Whenever your boss sees that youâre on top of it, he/she would definitely relax about checking in on you all the time.
Discuss the topic with your micromanager
If you really have a good relationship with your boss, start talking about it. Acknowledge that you are quite aware of the values, for example, timeliness. Explain to him/her that you could rather work more effectively and better with lesser check-ins. Ask your boss about what all he/she needs and discuss various solutions to it. Make your boss understand that you work best when you feel trusted. You can even suggest your boss that regular check-ins could be left for those weekly status meetings instead. That would rather be a better platform to discuss all such matters as there would be less time constraint. Tell your boss that he/she could count on you to let him/her know for any changes throughout the remaining week. In case, you don’t have a good relationship with your boss, you can definitely use a third party to facilitate the discussion. You can also speak to the HR or another manager.
Understand the situational context
If you are new to a certain position, have taken an additional responsibility or are learning a new task, do expect your boss to check-in more often and to be more hands on. At the very beginning, your boss will be more instructional, ask about any support needed in the process and check-in to see how things are going with you. However, after some time, once he/she sees that you’re cruising right along, the best managers will give you space.
Re-build ownership and trust
At times micromanagement takes place when you have made a mistake, let a team down, missed a deadline, etc. If such things happen, people stop trusting and relying on you, and start worrying. They’ll always try to control the situation so that the “miss” doesn’t happen again. In such cases, you’ll want to stay focused on results. What you can do is come good on your promises, put in valuable efforts during crunch situations, meet and sustain deadlines, keep the people around informed, show up, communicate clearly, etc. It might definitely take some time before the manager sees a repeated difference and start to loosen the reins with you and trust again. If you have amends to make, make them strong and the re-building process can start.
