Being in a position of leadership comes with influence. But remember that your influence — and its impact on your business — can be positive or negative. No one likes being micromanaged, but micromanaging remote workers is especially detrimental. It undermines trust, stifles creativity, and creates a culture of dependency, leading to disengagement and higher turnover.
Management is an art and a science. It is based on research, industrial-organizational psychology, and iterative reasoning. That also means that while some people might be said to be “born leaders,” their ideas on how to motivate others must also be founded on facts and best practices, not just personal experience and gut feelings.
Keep reading to learn about micromanagement, how to recognize it in a remote work environment, and what to do instead.
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Try it free for 14 daysWhat is micromanagement, and why does it occur in remote work environments?
Micromanagement is a management style that focuses on total control, even down to the most minor details. A micromanager finds it difficult to let anything go. Micromanagement is often linked to reduced team morale, low productivity, and high staff turnover.
Micromanagement is more common in remote work because leaders often struggle with physical visibility, leading to anxiety about productivity and a tendency to overcompensate by closely monitoring tasks and activities.
Managers may feel that their employees, especially those in a remote setting, must complete every task precisely as instructed, and they check in constantly to ensure that others carry out each instruction precisely as directed.
Managers that operate this way are usually passionate and well-intentioned. However, their fear of failure can make them more hands-on than they need to be. Ironically, this fear of failure ultimately leads to failure.
Psychology of micromanagers
The reasons for micromanagement are often rooted in the manager’s personality and skill level. They usually stem from:
- Insecurity – A manager might feel incompetent and project these feelings onto their team members. They micromanage to get their team to respond to their authority. Often, these people have a hard time dealing with failure and uncertainty.
- Excessive control issues – Some people want to control every aspect of their life, including work. They can’t let go of even the most minor details. For these managers, it’s frustrating when team members tackle tasks differently than they would have done, even if the results are the same.
- Perfectionism – Many micromanagers are perfectionists by nature. They need to be (or appear to be) perfect, and they project this need onto their team. Perfectionists tend to be overly critical of themselves and others.
All of these factors can be amplified by remote work, where the ability for managers to observe progress casually is diminished, creating a temptation to over-monitor and seek constant updates.
Luckily, you can prevent yourself from micromanaging a remote worker, even if you struggle with some of these. Let’s talk about how to recognize if you’re micromanaging your team.
Signs of micromanaging remote workers
Are you worried that you might be a micromanager? Look for these signs that you need to reevaluate your management style.
1. Obsessive attention to detail
Are you detail-oriented? Great. Managers should pay attention to details.
But do you check everyone’s work to make sure even the tiniest details are exactly what you want? There’s a big difference between being detail-oriented and being a nitpicker.
While paying attention to details is not bad, it can be a problem if it becomes an obsession.

If you said yes to three or more of these, you might be overly involved in details at the expense of the big picture.
2. Failure to allow others to make decisions
Do you insist on having team members ask for your approval on every task?
Micromanagers are notorious for wanting to make all the decisions and solve all the problems themselves. They don’t trust their team members’ decision-making skills and get irritated if someone decides without consulting them first.
It’s natural for teams to have approval processes. However, team members should also have autonomy in deciding how to complete a task.

Three or more of these should tell you that it’s time to work on trusting your team more.
3. Absence of constructive criticism
Micromanagers are reluctant to pass on their skills and knowledge because they fear that doing so would make them replaceable. When a team member doesn’t complete a task successfully, they usually won’t tell them how to do better next time.
Micromanagers often lack the emotional intelligence and communication skills needed to provide constructive feedback. Instead, they’ll take over the task and do it themselves. This is a short-term solution that only fosters resentment and negativity.
Here are some things to ask yourself.

If you checked three or more times, it might be time to improve your constructive criticism skills.
Take opportunities to let your team know that you appreciate their work. And avoid using gratitude as a cover to provide critique (like in “The Sandwich Technique”).
4. Poor delegation skills
Do you have a hard time giving up control? Micromanagers try to do everything themselves because they think no one else can complete tasks as well as they can.
In reality, they’re likely less qualified for some tasks than their team members.
When they do delegate a task, micromanagers tend to give precise, step-by-step instructions. This gives them some sense of control over how team members will complete it.
Instead of judging the success of a task or project based on the outcome, they’ll look at how closely you followed their instructions.
Ask yourself if you show any of these warning signs:

If you answered “yes” to two or more, you have room to work on delegation. This is an essential skill for leaders because your time is more valuable — you can’t afford to spend it on tasks that someone else could get done for you.
5. Overall lack of trust in your remote employees
Micromanagers often don’t trust that their team members can complete tasks correctly. They’ll frequently ask for multiple daily updates and check in with team members. This usually results in team members spending more time producing updates and reports than doing actual work.
Conversely, the manager wastes time reviewing all the updates and course-correcting team members on their tasks.
If you tend to do any of these things, don’t think team members haven’t caught on — they can tell you don’t trust them. This creates a stressful workplace and impacts your team’s well-being and productivity.
Here’s what to ask yourself.

Answering three of these with a “yes” might indicate that you need to work on some trust issues.
One more sign to watch for: is your team boss-obsessed or customer-obsessed?
Identifying micromanagement might even boil down to one simple question: Is your team boss-obsessed or customer-obsessed?
Team members who work to please their boss instead of the customer can quickly become involved in a toxic work environment.
While pleasing your boss is a necessary evil in any occupation, it should never outweigh the customers’ needs. The old adage “the customer is always right” is overused but relevant here.
An example of a boss-obsessed team
For example, let’s say your team needs to design an email to increase signups for an upcoming virtual event. They’ve experimented with numerous call-to-action designs and placements. Additionally, they’ve A/B tested them thoroughly.
One of these email mockups came to fruition because of your consistent input. However, let’s say that some of the other layouts performed much better than the email in question.
A conflict may arise if the team decides to go with the design that performs the best but was made without your input. Suppose they choose the design that you, their boss, like best; instead, they worry you’ll be disappointed in their job performance.
Many teams deal with these types of scenarios every day. Unfortunately, no-win situations like these can lead to stress and burnout.
The negative effects of micromanagement
How bad is micromanagement?
The short answer: it’s awful. This management style hurts:
- Mental health and wellbeing – If you scrutinize everything team members do, you create loads of extra stress at work. Micromanagement hurts your team’s performance and health and is a major cause of burnout.
- Morale – Micromanaging remote workers shows that you don’t trust them. It also makes them think you don’t consider them capable of doing their jobs without your intervention. This fosters distrust on both sides and negatively affects team morale.
- Confidence and initiative – Constantly telling team members how to do things can significantly impact their confidence. They’ll start thinking that they can’t do anything right. You’ll be stuck doing everything because your team members don’t feel capable and won’t take initiative.
- Staff turnover rate – No one likes being micromanaged. This, combined with all the other negative impacts we’ve already mentioned, causes a high turnover rate for teams with a micromanager.
- Productivity – By micromanaging team members, you take away their autonomy, stress them out, and make them feel incompetent. All of this leads to reduced productivity.
The bottom line is that micromanagement is expensive for companies. While there may be some short-term benefits, the long-term expenses far outweigh them.
5 strategies to help you stop micromanaging remote workers
It’s never too late to adjust if you are guilty of micromanaging. Here’s what you should do to stop micromanaging remote workers:
1. Set clear expectations
You can’t expect team members to meet your expectations if they don’t know what those are. Setting expectations will also help improve your team’s focus and help them stay motivated.
When setting expectations, it’s good to separate them into two distinct categories:
- Performance – Expectations regarding job-specific performance. These should be different for every role. For example, you might want your content writer to produce four blog posts monthly or expect your sales representatives to make ten sales calls daily.
- Behavior – Behavioral expectations revolve around team members’ attitudes and communication. For example, you might expect team members to have a positive attitude and respond to team messages promptly during work hours.
2. Delegate tasks others can do
The next step to stop being a micromanager is to get comfortable with delegating tasks. If this is difficult for you, start small and delegate tasks you don’t consider to be important or a big priority.
Ultimately, you’ll want to get to a point where you’re delegating everything except the tasks that only you can do.
When delegating a task, consider team members’ strengths and weaknesses. Try to assign each task to the person who will be the most efficient at it.
Additionally, once you assign a task to someone, avoid the temptation to tell them exactly how to do it. Instead, give team members the freedom to approach tasks in a way they consider best.
3. Create and share policies and company values
As a manager, you should be more concerned about the overall company culture than individual tasks. Leave the to-dos to the people you hired to do those things, and spend your time building the kind of company you want to lead.
For remote teams, creating an online database for company communication and expectations is best.
When defining company values, think about the following:
- What’s your company’s mission?
- What kind of value do you strive to provide to your customers?
- How do you want team members to treat each other?
Once you have answers to these questions, put them in a document and share them with your team. This will help them keep company values in mind when approaching tasks and collaborating with co-workers.
4. Hire self-starters
Your micromanagement tendencies are more likely to emerge if a team member is unqualified to do their job or lacks a particular set of skills. That’s why you need to hire the right people from the start, especially in a remote environment.
Remember, you’ve hired experts; you’re not the expert. If you and your hiring team have done their jobs, you should have best-in-class talent taking care of business. Therefore, if you want your organization to be effective, don’t micromanage. Step back and let them excel.
5. Use software to break your habit
What if we told you there’s a way to keep an eye on what team members are doing without bothering them and impacting their productivity? Hubstaff was built to help manage remote teams.
You can use Hubstaff to:
- See which tasks team members are working on
- Learn the status of each task and project
- Get daily updates from team members
- Understand when team members are struggling and might need help
Using tools like Hubstaff, you’ll manage your team more efficiently and spare team members from the negative impacts of micromanagement. These tools work particularly well for remote teams because they create visibility you wouldn’t otherwise have. Instead of asking for an update, you can check the software.
Final thoughts
Moving past micromanagement can help you reduce stress, eliminate burnout, and repair your team’s turnover rate. It will also give you more time to improve company culture, speed up your hiring process, and create more effective processes and workflows.
Keeping your employee experience positive means letting people have their best day at work. Avoiding micromanagement by focusing on empowering employees is a great way to keep your team engaged, on task, and appreciated.
Apply these tips, and be the kind of boss your remote team is proud of.
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