Podcast Season 5, Episode 2: Are You ‘Helping’ or Micromanaging? Here’s How to Tell

On this episode of the Radical Candor podcast, Kim, Jason and Amy discuss how to tell if the “helpful” guidance you’re giving your team is actually veering off into micromanaging. If you want to be a kick-ass boss instead of having team members who want to kick your ass, this episode is a must-listen!

Listen to the episode:

Radical Candor Podcast Episode At a Glance

A classic example of a micromanaging helicopter boss is  Bill from the 1999 movie Office Space, the bad boss who spawned thousands of memes. He roams around the cubicle farm monitoring everyone’s activity and stops by to scold workers for minor mistakes like forgetting to put the cover sheet on their TPS reports.

However, on a remote team, Bill can’t wander around a physical office, so instead, he finds ways to virtually remind folks about those TPS cover sheets. He sends Slack messages, and emails, schedules unnecessary meetings, he calls and texts. DON’T FORGET THE COVER SHEETS!

 

A 2020 Harvard Business Review study found that this behavior is less about employees’ ability to work autonomously than a helicopter boss’s confidence in their own ability to manage a remote team.

And while the micromanager is often described as having too much involvement, Gallup notes that “Today’s micromanager is likely someone who wants it done exactly their way but provides little context, support, help or advice. It’s easier than ever for a manager to swoop in on an email chain or conference call and make demands without having full context about what’s happening.”

This kind of incompetent interference can not only cause projects to go awry, but can also lead to burnout, and anxiety and cause good employees to resign.

The problem is that no one thinks they are micromanaging, but clearly, a lot of bosses are exhibiting helicopter behavior. How can you tell if you’re one of them?

Listen to the episode to learn more!

Radical Candor Podcast Checklist

1. Let go of control and embrace feedback from your team. Remember, challenging others and encouraging them to challenge you helps build trusting relationships because it shows one, you care enough to point out both the things that aren’t going well and those that are, and two, that you are willing to admit when you’re wrong and then you’re committed to fixing mistakes that you or others have made.
2. A true thought partnership is a team effort. What matters is how much your direct reports think of you as a thought partner. Actively solicit feedback from the people who work for you to make sure you are indeed practicing thought partnership.

Radical Candor Podcast Resources

• Absentee And Micromanagers Make Equally Bad Bosses—Here’s 1 Thing Successful Managers Do Instead
• The remote ‘helicopter bosses’ who stunt worker resilience – BBC Worklife
• ExpressVPN Survey Shows Widespread Surveillance on Remote Workers
• The Ultimate Guide to Micromanagers: Signs, Causes, Solutions
• Remote Managers Are Having Trust Issues
• The Exploding Market for Devices That Help You Evade Corporate Productivity Trackers
• The Rise of the Worker Productivity Score
• Why It’s Important for Leaders & Coaches to Double Down On Radical Candor During a Crisis
• Radical Candor Podcast: Are You A Micro Or Absentee Manager?
• Are You An Absentee Manager, A Micromanager, Or A Thought Partner? | Radical Candor

Have questions about Radical Candor? Let's talk >>

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–