(None of them involve death😊)
Having a Micromanager as a boss can be a great source of frustration and impact your day-to-day working life. We have all had to work for one or more at some stage of our careers and if you haven’t yet then you probably will eventually.
You know the type, they try to control every aspect of the work, no matter how small, leading their employees to feel distrusted, disrespected, and dissatisfied. This can end up negatively affecting your mental wellbeing and productivity, and sometimes you resign as a result.
But it doesn’t have to be this way! With some careful attention and action, you can improve your work situation. I wanted to share some strategies with you on how to have a productive working relationship with a micromanaging boss.
1: Understanding the Triggers
People may micromanage for several reasons and may not even realise they’re doing it, so the first thing you should try to do is understand why they’re MM you. Your manager may lack confidence, be under stress or have had a previous employee situation where there were some trust issues. It could simply be a personality trait, often individuals with strong planning and organisational tendencies find it difficult to delegate. They find it hard to trust that someone else can do the job as well as them, or within the timeframe that they expect.
It might be difficult, but if you try to understand the triggers for their MM then you’ll be better equipped to deal with the situation.
2: Build Trust
Trust is key to any healthy relationship, be it personal or professional. But when a MM boss is concerned it becomes crucial. As mentioned above, a common reason someone will micromanage their employees is because they struggle to trust them, regardless of whether they’ve done something to jeopardise this trust or not.
You need to earn trust by demonstrating it to your manager that you’re on top of things, ensuring that tasks are completed on time and notifying them when there are delays. Keeping your manager informed about the progress of your work can do wonders for the situation. Sometimes building a personal relationship can also contribute to improving trust between two parties.
3: Open dialogue about the situation
MM can often have a very negative effect on employees, causing low morale, lack of confidence, stifled creativity and a general loss of independence and freedom. But often managers don’t even realise how their behaviour is affecting their employees. If you feel like your boss’s MM tendencies are impacting your ability to fulfil your role to the best of your ability, then it might pay to address the issue in a sensitive and discreet manner.
Explain politely how their behaviour makes you feel and have some specific examples on hand. You might want to explain that you’re more fulfilled at work when you feel empowered and can work independently. Done respectfully, having this conversation could really improve your situation.
4: Establish boundaries and expectations
As part of the conversation above it may be useful to establish further clarity on the role responsibilities and expectations of both parties so that there is no misinterpretation. What’s more it is good to talk about your communication, expected communication time frames, methods, and channels then there is less need for managers to be constantly checking in.
5: Keep communication open
If all these strategies help and you find your situation greatly improved, don’t become complacent. Continue to be proactive and talk to your boss, to make sure that they’re happy with your output and avoid things slipping back to how they were. If your manager wants to be informed regularly then set up a regular communication channel to keep them informed before they need to ask.
When it comes to workplace relationships, as with personal relationships, you shouldn’t expect to change things overnight. But by establishing and maintaining open, honest communication, setting boundaries, and understanding the drivers for the controlling behaviour, you can work toward improving your working relationship. This can provide benefits to both you and your boss.