How to Ask Your Boss to Stop Micromanaging You

 Asserting yourself while respecting others is a very good way to win respect yourself. 

Most of us have experienced a boss, parent or family member that hovers over us as we perform a task. In the workplace, this close observation and continual redirecting can drive us to look for a different job.   Before we do that, there may be a way to get the message across to our boss or family member how damaging this can be to our relationship with them.

Before I lay out a process for how to do this, let's give this controlling behavior a name....micromanagement.

Here are a few examples of micromanagement in an office setting:

• Your boss asks you to develop a strategy to fix a problem and then quickly second guesses your solution and asks you to change it to his strategy
• You are a trusted employee and your boss watches all your incoming and outgoing emails to make sure your comments are accurate
• You are on the phone with a customer and your boss listens in on your conversation and tells you what needs to be done and what questions to ask the customer while you are on the phone

Now, before we begin talking about a strategy to ask your boss to stop this annoying behavior, you will need to answer a few questions:

• Does my boss micromanage a few of my work tasks or pretty much everything?
• Do I need to have close supervision in a few tasks because I am new or have not had great results doing the task in the past?

If you are new to a position or have not performed at a high level, your boss is simply "managing" you which is what he or she should be doing. Maybe you have had previous boss's that let you do whatever you want whenever you want...this is not managing. A great manager knows when to manage closely and when to back off when the employee shows competence in a task.

So, let's assume you are not new to your job and you have a boss that watches over most things that you do. You may just want to tell your boss to STOP MICROMANAGING! But this strategy often backfires and makes your boss defensive. This can also be a CLM or career limiting move for you. But, if you follow this more strategic process, your chance for success is much greater:

• Make a list of your top 5-7 tasks that you are responsible for and rank your performance in these tasks on a scale of 1 being poor and 10 being superb.
• Ask your boss for a meeting in a neutral location to discuss your performance and development. (I believe a neutral location to meet does not give either person more power)
• Share your top 5-7 task list with your boss and ask if these are the most important tasks of your position and how he would rank you in those tasks on the same 1-10 scale.
• Share your rankings and talk about the similarities and differences.
• Ask for ways that you can improve in those tasks that show the greatest differences. Make sure you get specific details as to what an 8, 9 or 10 looks like on a specific task on your boss's scale.
• Ask if you can have full authority and autonomy in those areas that you perform extremely well, i.e., ranking of 8 through 10. If your boss is micromanaging you in an area you are performing at a high level, this is the time to ask why? Let him or her know how you feel when your actions are continually scrutinized and second guessed.
• Ask to have another meeting in 60 days to review your plan to improve those weak areas and to observe if your boss is able to let go of micromanaging in your strong areas.

If you have made a sincere effort to improve your performance in those problem areas, and your boss continues to micromanage you, it may be time to find yourself another position in the company or another company to work for as you are working for a chronic micromanager.