The Circle of Death

I like to play a game when I am on social media. I don’t know when it started, but lately it seems to be happening a lot. Every time I see an article or a video about things that bad leaders or managers do, I read or watch it. I’m always looking for two things. First, they seem to always say something about micromanaging within the first two things that they mention. Second, they usually mention bad mouthing the people below you and being afraid to delegate. I find that all these things are related. You have a leader who micromanages everything, so the people below them never learn as much as they should. Because they never learn, the leader obviously sees how bad they are at their job. Since they are bad at their job, the leader has no choice but to step up and do everything. Instead of the circle of life, I would call that the circle of death. What amuses me so much is that they are responsible for the people below them learning. So ultimately if the people below you are horrible at their job, you probably aren’t doing the best job teaching them. What I love most about playing this game is that I listen to all these traits that everyone says are bad traits, and then I look for them in everyone I come across. The first person I start with is the one in the mirror. I must admit, sometimes I am very guilty about something I read or hear. The part that drives me the craziest though, is the fact that some people have had these issues for twenty years. I’ve said it before, it’s ok to have an issue. Everyone has an issue! But, if you have had the same issue for a certain amount of time, you aren’t trying to fix it. How can you have people in your organization that have been micromanaging for twenty years, when every article written for the last ten years says that it’s a horrible trait. To me, that is screaming that you aren’t even trying to get better. You just don’t care! I know it might sound harsh, but it’s 2025, the answer to every question is available on the internet. If you find yourself upset with the people below you, you may need to change your approach. If you find your plate is way too full, way too often, you may have an issue with delegating tasks. If you find yourself doing things that aren’t in your job description and it’s filling up your day, you might be micromanaging. One of the things that I am most proud of at my job is the amount of people who report to me who get promoted. We recently had two openings come up and both spots were given to people who reported to me. Here are the things that I have noticed that have helped the people who report to me get promoted and noticed. The first thing I do is share my knowledge. I’m always available to answer questions. The minute I start working with you, I am willing to help you by telling you the things I’ve done that have worked, and the things I have done where I messed up. Second, this can be tricky, but I give people opportunities. I know that some jobs are better than others but doing the hard jobs that are sometimes not fun at all, get you noticed very quickly. So many of the jobs that get people noticed are the jobs that some people just aren’t willing to do. What I’ve noticed about these jobs is that if you are willing to do them a few times, others will notice the attention you are getting, and you won’t have to do the job for very long. I’ve pointed out a few of the good things, so is there a negative? The biggest negative I have found is this, some people don’t want more responsibility or to move up. You need to treat those people more carefully. If you give them more responsibility and then back away, they usually feel like you have abandoned them. This leads me to what might be the most important thing, knowing your people. What do they want from the job? Someone must do the work, it’s ok to have people who are top performers who don’t want to move up. It’s not ok to have low performers who don’t want anything extra from the job, but top performers, who consistently stay on top, are good to have. The people who want to move up give them chances. They are going to mess up sometimes, that’s ok. We don’t like to admit it, but there was a time when we messed up. We live in a world where people keep talking about people who quietly quit. They don’t leave the company, but they checked out a long time ago. If you want to avoid dealing with this, start handing out responsibilities. People want to know they are trusted; they want to be part of the team. The saddest thing I’ve seen because of micromanagement is their people look miserable most of the time. Let’s stop the circle of death and try and help people have pride and happiness in their jobs again!