Why Remote Working Signals the Death of Micromanagement

by Jan Cavelle

Leadership of remote teams is a tricky business.   Correct that.  Leadership is a tricky business, but remote teams bring their own challenges.   But given the general hype that surrounds it, you could be forgiven for thinking remote management is something new.

Is remote work really new?

In reality, many leaders have been accustomed to running remote teams on a long-term basis.  For example, where territories spread over large areas or companies over several countries, remote leadership has been a given for decades.  Many tech companies have chosen to set up that way from conception.

But when the pandemic forced other companies into facing the remote leadership challenge, we saw panic ensue.   Three main reasons were behind that: change, which always throws people out; possible loss of revenue for anyone invested in office space; and, above all for many managers, huge issues surrounding trust and letting go.

Is the office the natural habitat for micromanagers?

Despite all the evidence that demonstrates just how disastrous micromanagers are, offices are filled with them all over the world, exercising control over people in the same way as they used a yoyo in the school playground.  Jerking them around, this way and that, but never letting go.

Micromanagers love being in the office.  They can hover over people’s shoulders to their hearts’ content.   They can check up daily or even hourly to show people who is boss.  They call endless meetings, demand to be cc’d on all emails, and devastate confidence with their critiques.  The second hand on the office clock is their ally.  Even the office environment is scrutinized and controlled, the state of people’s desks dictated.

These are the micromanagers’ ways of making their inadequate selves feel some semblance of control, whereas the reality is that they are nearly always over-promoted and struggling.  Flexing the muscles of power is the only way they have to make themselves feel better.  Micromanagers come in all shapes, sizes, and at all levels – some are employed as managers, and some run companies.

How remote work is threatening micromanagement

So, imagine the fear striking their hearts when their whipping teams were whisked away into the safety of their own homes to work.   Emails could still be cc’d, but everything else was off the table.  No control, no sighting of their minions outside  a zoom “check-in.”

At this point, the pack divided fast.   The savvy leaders stood right back and learned a new degree of letting go.  The die-hard micromanagers failed.

Set hours had to be abandoned to fit around family commitments.  The old ways of assessment based on hours worked were suddenly inappropriate, and evaluation of work changed to quality and results based.   Zoom “check-ups” proved not only time-absorbing and tiring but also detrimental.  People wriggled uncomfortably at the concept of letting managers or even fellow workers have a bird’s eye view of their private lives.  Controls that had been accepted, if despised as the idiocies of management in an office environment, became unacceptable levels of interference in people’s personal lives.

Traditional behaviors shifted.  Of course, some team members missed the camaraderie with fellow coworkers but just as existing remote working companies have found, regular meetups for both work and social occasions fill that gap without having to go to an office every single day.  And as people adapted to home working, large numbers found they liked the flexibility and the control over their lives and performed better.

The proof is in the results

Far from productivity and effectiveness suffering, the company gains of people having their new found freedoms have proved mammoth, not just in terms of happiness, but also in productivity and fiscal gain.

This has been an anathema to every micro-manager as their true inadequacies are exposed, and or their teams join the great resignation, rightly deciding there has to be more in life than this.   

When it comes to the perfect example of letting go, I am reminded of one of my favourite stories a branding entrepreneur named Danny Matthews told me while researching my next book.  Danny runs his business on “work on results” for his team and describes how some people struggle to get used to it.  One new recruit nervously emailed him to say they were going into town to buy some shoes but would definitely be back by two.   Danny emailed back, “excited for you about the shoes – send photos.  Work-wise, I don’t need to know this.  Have fun!”

Remote teams can and should benefit both sides.  There is a lesson in that story for every micro-manager out there.   Your time is done.  You have become the business dinosaur, and we can but hope your complete extinction is nigh.

About the author

Find out more about Jan Cavelle and her new book, Scale for Success.