How to deal with a micromanaging boss

No one likes to be monitored every moment. Imagine a situation where your boss expects an update from you every hour and questions every single thing you do. Then, they justify their actions stating that the employees aren’t performing as expected, hence the constant supervision. Employees often feel smothered in this scenario. The lack of trust and empowerment do not let them perform to their best of the abilities.

Management is a difficult task, there are no set rules to follow. Managing people is even more challenging. It needs thought, consideration, and people skills to deal with subordinates.

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If you have a boss who is constantly hovering over your desk, these tips might help you deal with him. You have to give him room to loosen his grip and allow smoother and efficient productivity flow.

Understand why

There is always a reason why a person behaves in a certain manner. It takes a mature person to understand this fact and dig deeper into why your manager is so. Generally, there are three reasons why this happens ­‑ fear of underperformance, desire of perfect performance, desire to finish more and more work. Once you understood why, act appropriately in the direction where your manager is comfortable to lose his grip.

Pro-activeness

After few days of working with them, you’re bound to anticipate what the manager wants. You need to work ahead of them in the time dimension. Be in constant touch with him and provide regular updates. This will instill the manager’s confidence in you and he will gradually become less involved, knowing that you will be able to take care of things.

Ask them to delegate

Some managers are frenzy by nature. They feel really uncomfortable without a control over things. Here it becomes your task to skillfully and politely teach your manager the importance of delegation. Delegation will also allow him to focus on other things.

Show them an alternative

Sometimes micromanagers are such because they do not know any other way of management. This again becomes your job to work closely with them and change their work pattern. Create metrics, project tracker, MIS systems, and similar things that help them keep tab on progress of things without having to hover around all the time.

Speak to the others in the team

It is important to check whether your boss micromanages only you or the others as well. Speak to the other team members. If you are the only one being focused on, it’s time to introspect. Check your work habits with others and see if it matches the company/boss standards. Find out what is expected out of you and whether you are doing it properly or not. If you find areas you can improve upon, immediately implement them and share these developments with your manager.

It may take some time to get these things working and for you to see the results. However, after reasonable amount of effort and time, if things are still the same way, you should consider moving on.

Share with us how you managed your micromanaging boss.