What CAUSES your boss to micromanage ?

Micromanaging is mostly caused by a blend of factors which mainly is due to the boss’ mindset and his or her management style.

Let’s look at some of the reasons that causes a boss to micromanage.

• Trust issues – If you are new to a workplace, a manager may not trust you simply because they don’t know you yet. Or they could have trust issues due to former colleagues who stealing confidential information or failing to work on an important project.
• Lack of Training- They may be mimicking leadership styles they have experienced in the past, or they never learnt how to manage a team effectively.
• Lack of confidence- People often over supervise because they do not feel confident in their leadership/managerial skills. They think they need to “show you who is boss” to feel like they are “ in charge”.
• Fear – Your boss maybe new to their position or had a negative experience in the past where they gave employees too much reign.
• Having a healthy ego – Boss’s often start their careers as high performing individual contributors. They are experts in their individual role, and then get promoted to a supervisory role. In such situations, they perceive themselves to be the best person for the job- but now managing a group of people who are not, in their view, as good as them and they fear that if they put their name to their team’s efforts it would not be as good as when they would do it themselves.
• Need to be seen as experts and authority figures – Being power driven is not inherently a bad thing, it just means that they want to be in-charge and they want authority to make decisions. But if you have a strong drive for power and you want to be seen as an expert, imagine how you would feel when your employees are working independently and self-sufficiently that they seem to have no use of your expertise and authority.