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The Micromanagement Trap: Why Leaders Who Grip Too Tight Lose Their Team
You can hear it in the silence. A once-vibrant team now sits in a meeting room where ideas no longer flow, shoulders slump, and eyes dart toward the clock. What happened? The leader thought they were protecting quality by staying on top of every detail — but in reality, they were strangling the very energy that made the team strong.
Sam thought he was saving the project. As the newly appointed manager of a high-stakes initiative, he believed his job was to catch every detail before it slipped through the cracks. Every draft needed his edits. Every decision passed across his desk. He needed to be copied on every email. His inbox became a tollbooth, and the team lined up, engines idling.
At first, the grip felt safe. But slowly the team’s energy drained. They stopped offering ideas. Deadlines slipped. The best engineer left for a competitor. Sam realized too late that his grip wasn’t control — it was corrosion.
Micromanagement is a silent toxin in organizations. It often grows from good intentions — protecting quality, ensuring success — but the outcome is predictable: disengagement, lost talent, and stalled innovation.
