Step 1: Expectations are not met. This is when a manager has expectations, spoken or unspoken, that a team member doesn’t meet. One of the main reasons expectations aren’t met is that they aren’t clearly communicated.

Brene Brown refers to this as “stealth expectations”, where someone has expectations of someone, but fails to communicate them. So when an employee doesn’t meet these expectations, the manager begins to question the quality of their work, which leads us to the next step.

Step 2: Trust is damaged. Once the expectation isn’t met, trust starts to diminish. The manager begins to monitor and inspect the work closely.

They become less of a leader and more of a quality control officer. And, the more time someone spends looking for issues, the more issues they find, bringing us to the worst part of the cycle.

Step 3: Confidence drops. The worst part about micromanagement is that it obliterates an employee’s confidence. As a manager critiques the small details, employees begin to question themselves, their decisions, and their work. This leads to fear of failure, lower productivity, and the final stage of the cycle.

Step 4: More mistakes. It’s simple HR math – lack of confidence + controlling leadership = more mistakes. You can see how we get stuck in the vicious cycle. The more errors an employee makes, the more it validates the need for micromanagement. And so the soul-destroying cycle continues.

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But, the good news: the cycle can be broken. Here’s how:

Leaders that are stuck in the cycle need to hit reset with their teams. They need to reset the expectations and rebuild trust.

First, managers and team members must get all the unexpressed expectations on the table. Ellie Middleton’s ‘What, Why, When’ approach works really well for setting clear expectations:

1. What do you need your team member to do
2. Why do you need it
3. When does it need to be done

Your goal is to be clear on the outcomes but flexible in how people get there.

Next, managers have to rebuild trust and confidence. One way to make it happen is to agree how you’ll handle problems before you have a problem. If a deadline can’t be met or an important detail gets missed, create a game plan for resolving it.

Managers who acknowledge mistakes will happen but have strategies to resolve them build trust. They also give their employees clarity about how they can escalate issues.

Micromanagement is a soul-crushing art and vicious cycle. If you’re stuck in the middle of it, it’s time to hit reset.