Remote work and hybrid arrangements are seemingly here to stay. While there are many benefits for employees such as autonomy over when and where you work, there are other, less-than-ideal remote work trends. Enter the micromanager.
When people work outside of the office, a lot of what they do is unseen by their managers. This requires a great deal of trust. Some managers are fine with this and are able to evaluate the quality and quantity of work submitted without much oversight. Others are struggling. They may begin exerting excessive levels of control, trying to micromanage every task and deliverable that their subordinates are working on – even the small things.
If this sounds familiar, you may be dealing with a micromanager. With these three theories from Social Psychology, you can employ some managing-up techniques to reduce the scrutiny and interference from your manager.
Us Against Them: Social Identity Theory
Humans are tribal. We have a tendency to see others as either “us” or “them”. Help your manager to see you as an ingroup member, someone who shares their interests, goals, and perspectives. According to social identity theory, people derive their sense of self partially from the groups they belong to and feel connected with.
For example, I feel a sense of pride when I watch athletes representing America and Australia win Olympic medals. As a dual citizen of the US and Australia, I feel connected to those athletes, even though I have never met them. We share a national identity, which means we’re in the same social group.
Reinforce your shared identity in simple ways, like using collective language such as “we” or “us” when discussing your current projects, goals, and wins. Explicitly emphasizing the goals you share and inviting your manager to celebrate in your wins will remind your them that you are on the same team. When communicating your wins to others, naming your manager and other team members when describing how you achieved what you did will strengthen the perceived group membership between you, your team, and your manager. When they begin to feel that sense of pride and accomplishment along with you, they may reduce the degree to which they scrutinize and micromanage your daily work.
Give And Take: Social Exchange Theory
Social behavior is part of an exchange process. When you provide something valuable back to someone who provided value to you, it feels equal, fair, and non-exploitative. There is a sense of reciprocity. Overall, people tend to return the kind of treatment you give to them.
You may find that being proactive rather than reactive may help minimize your manager’s need to or desire to excessively supervise. You could try sending your manager regular (weekly) and detailed updates before they ask. Give them concrete things they can pass up, which may reduce their insecurities.
They will then come to expect these updates and their uncertainty and related anxiety may dissipate. That is, they will likely reciprocate with greater trust and less oversight. Be patient. Building trust and establishing reciprocity only happen with repeated interactions.
The Blame Game: Attribution Theory
A common bias noted in Social Psychology is our tendency to attribute others’ flaws to their personalities, while attributing our own flaws to an outside or situational cause. This is known as the fundamental attribution error. When a co-worker is late for a meeting, you might think of them as irresponsible or flakey, instead of considering that they may have been held up in unexpected traffic or that they had a family emergency.
Similarly, you may think of your micromanager as a control-freak, without recognizing the intense pressure they may be under from their supervisors. How you feel about your micromanager and how you react to them is something that is within your control. By engaging in empathy, rather than blame, you may see them in a different light.
With this new perspective, you could try sharing early drafts and asking for constructive feedback. In time, they will hopefully come around to trusting you, resulting in less interference and oversight.