I don’t think you’ll find too many management consultants espousing the benefits of micro-management. But, a lot has been made of Steve Jobs’ command-and-control-style management. Legend has it that Mr. Jobs was deeply involved in each project, including designing the Apple stores’ famous glass staircases.
We are all well aware of the success that Apple enjoyed under Jobs’ watchful eye. What we are yet to see, is whether he succeeded in passing on his passion for detail, design, and simplicity.
When we micro-manage everything, we may think we are relieving our co-workers of work. In the end though, we aren’t relieving them, we are depriving them.
Micro-management deprives co-workers of the lessons learned from first-hand experience. It stifles creativity, favors inactivity over pro-activity, breeds dependence, and creates workers that are robbed of the thrill of a victory or the agony of defeat (both are important).
One of the main rewards of the employer/employee relationship is that the employee gains experience that can be used to succeed in a more senior position within or without the company. By teaching workers to wait for someone else to give the answer, we rob them of that reward. When you teach someone to depend on you for everything – they depend on you for everything. That’s a great ego boost for you and that’s fine for folks that just want to keep their head down and float along. It’s a death trap for career-minded people. And what happens when you are gone?
As leaders, we need to build environments that thrive on creativity, managed conflict, independent thought, and responsibility. Set goals, provide vision, and give feedback, but try to steer away from becoming the micro-manager-in-chief.
Demand Generation Consulting 
Completely agree. There was an interesting post this week on HBR on a similar theme. They ran workshops aimed at showing the leaders that their specifications needed less detail on how to do the task, instead giving their teams more freedom to be creative. Top post!
Thanks Alesandra! Agreed, we can do more to do less 🙂 It is tough to let go at first because we think we are doing our co-workers a favor or think they will not do it ‘right’. In the end though, the rewards will shine through, for the projects and our co-workers. Thanks for taking the time to comment!