Combatting Micromanaging

Question: How do I deal with being micromanaged? My manager is constantly showing up in meetings they don’t need to be in, and making operational decisions with our partners that I will have to make work. I believe I am competent and can do this work for myself, but I’m nervous about asking my manager to back off. What do I do?

Answer: This is such a common problem, so I’m glad I get to address it. The first thing to do is assess if your manager is engaging in this behavior intentionally or unintentionally. Obviously, the best case scenario is that they are doing so unintentionally, so I’ll address that option first. 

If you think the micromanaging is unintentional, I think the best thing to do is set a meeting with your manager specifically to address the behaviors that are problematic. You will need specific examples of the actions that need to change, and how they impact(ed) your job performance and outputs. The next thing to do is to transition into describing ways they can be useful to you (ex: attending certain meetings on your behalf, helping speak with especially difficult partners, securing resources or new timelines from leadership as needed, etc.) Close it out by asking if they have any specific concerns about your work that they would like you to be mindful of, and that will help them to have complete trust in your ability to handle projects on your own moving forward. If you otherwise have a positive relationship with your manager, they should seem remorseful and apologetic once they know how their behavior was affecting you. They may need you to continue to point out when they engage in these behaviors in future, since the central issue is that they didn’t realize they were doing it. 

Now to the more difficult situation. 

If you think your manager is intentionally taking over your work, you can certainly still try to make your work situation better. The first thing to do is to have a similar discussion with your supervisor as outlined above, but you need to document everything, and be prepared to take a more direct tone about the impact of their behavior. 

I would start the conversation with:

 “In our meeting with (blank) I noticed you contradicted the timeline I had agreed to with them previously. I understand that you may disagree with the project timeline, but when you give different information than our project team already decided on, it is confusing for our partners and creates extra work for everyone. Next time you have an issue like that, would you be comfortable speaking to me about it privately and then letting me work it out with our partners?” 

By asking if they would be comfortable, you are able to get to either a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for future behavior. If you get the yes, great! But be prepared to do extra follow-up with your manager in advance of meetings to make sure they don’t pull an audible again. (Yes, you may have to micromanage the micromanager). Also, it will definitely take reps and accountability for their behavior to change permanently. 

If you get a ‘no’ to the new working preposition. Have this conversation three times about three distinct instances of the micromanagement, document them, and then request a skip-level with your manager’s boss. Lay-out the problems and the impact they are having as dispassionately as possible (leadership hates dealing with personal conflict, so they’ll be more likely to help if you keep it impersonal) and ask if your manager’s manager would be willing to sit in on the next time you have to address the behavior with your manager. Now your manager will be upset at you going over their head, but you have given them multiple opportunities to improve and they refused to do so. This approach should at least get your manager’s boss interested in their management style and performance, and give you some additional cover and support. 

Finally, you need to consider looking for a new position if these interventions fail. Life is too short to suffer at work.