The Dangers of Micro-Managing from 50,000 Feet
There is a particular kind of manager who is deeply involved in everything and yet somehow never actually close to the work. They attend every meeting. They ask for constant status updates. They want to be copied on every email. They weigh in on decisions that are nowhere near their level. And yet, despite all of that involvement, they do not actually know what is going on. They are micro-managing from 50,000 feet — controlling everything in theory while understanding very little in practice. I have seen this pattern more times than I can count. And I have seen the damage it does. What It Actually Looks Like Micro-managing from altitude is harder to spot than the classic version, where a manager is looking over someone's shoulder telling them how to type. The high-altitude version feels more sophisticated. The manager is "engaged." They are "across" the project. They are "asking the right questions." But what they are really doing is creating...