Lots of people are scared of being micromanaged. Lots of leaders are scared of being perceived as a micromanager. If you’re in a position where you’re supposed to lead others, this can be paralyzing: you want people to say that you’re a great leader, not someone that is micromanaging others.

Being a good leader comes down to knowing how much you need to guide the people you work with. To your team, sometimes this will feel like you’re telling them stuff they already know and don’t need guidance with, because you don’t know they know or for some reason your guidance is not relevant to them. Micromanagement is a style of leadership where decision-making power is not delegated and the employee is monitored with extremely close supervision. In other words: you’re giving the order, explaining how it should be done (exactly), when it should be finished and while the work is being done you continuously keep a close eye out until it is done precisely like you want it to be done.

If you’re not doing all of the above, you’re not micromanaging. If someone is accusing you of doing so, you should not back off. Instead, you should talk to them about the exact thing that is bothering them so you can tell them why you’re doing so.