Micromanagement

A few days ago I read this article from the blog, Coding Horror.  I read it fairly frequently even though it has a very technical slant to it.  It claims that if you answer yes or kinda yes to any of these questions – you are probably micromanaging.  I shared my answers below – in some cases I disagreed or felt it wasn’t as black and white as the article makes it out to be.

1. 1. Do you pride yourself on being “on top of” the projects or your direct reports? Do you have a solid grasp of the details of every project?
2. Do you believe that you could perform most of the tasks of your direct reports, and potentially do a better job?
3. Do you pride yourself on frequent communication with your employees? Does that communication include asking them for detailed status reports and updates?
4. Do you believe that being a manager means that you have more knowledge and skills than your employees, and thus are better equipped to make decisions?
5. Do you believe that you care about things (quality, deadlines, etc.) more than your employees?

Here are my answers to those questions -