Micromangement is an effective leadership principle

The premise here is "Micromanagement is an Effective Leadership Principle." Since, in this debate, effective is defined as "doing the right thing," the question we are asking can be portrayed as "are micromanagers doing the right thing?" I say no. For my opening argument, I will contrast micromanagers with managers and seek to uphold the merits of the latter. Using our agreed definitions, I will compare leaders who closely observe and control the work of subordinates (micromanagers) to leaders who do not closely observe or control it (managers). Three principle reasons expose why micromanagement is not doing the right thing: 1) Micromanagement is inefficient - By its very definition, micromanagement means inefficiency. If a manager is closely controlling the work of a subordinate, it has the effect of two people doing the same job. As an example, imagine my two hands typing this sentence on the keyboard. Imagine that my left hand is a micromanager obsessed with typing the letters "k" and "o." Every time I needed to use one of these letters, the left hand crossed over and punched the key rather than simply letting the right hand take care of it. This would make typing much slower. This same scenario plays out in businesses across the world in the form of excessive meetings, reports, updates, and checks. The destructive nature of this activity is twofold. First, it prevents subordinates from fully accomplishing their assigned tasks (the right hand cannot type a "k" or "o" without interference from the left). Second, the manager is no longer able to fully focus on their tasks, because they are busy controlling the work of others (it takes longer for the left hand to return to the left side of the keyboard after typing an "o"). As the Harvard Business Review observes: "The problem with micromanagers is that they apply the same level of intensity, scrutiny, and in-your-face approach to every task, whether warranted or not." [1] This is the very definition of inefficiency - wasting intensity and effort on unnecessary things. 2. Micromanagement demoralizes people - When a micromanager closely controls your work, it appears like they don't trust you. It is patronizing, and it demoralizes the workforce. A micromanager makes the organization dependent on them - they must personally check the work and ensure its quality. According to Jim Collins, the renowned business strategist and author of "Good to Great," this behavior is incredibly destructive. His research confirms that CEOs who insist on personal control often see their companies crumble after their retirement because the organization became so dependent on their singular supervision [2]. The Harvard Business Review confirms: " You create an organizational vulnerability when your team isn"t used to functioning without your presence and heavy involvement." [3] I have personally experienced this many times in the military. I once had a Brigade Commander attach himself to a patrol I was in charge of, whereby he immediately took my vehicle seat and radio and began directly communicating with my platoon. I found myself thinking "if he doesn't trust me enough to lead this patrol, then why am I even here?" It was extremely demoralizing and made me lose credibility with the Soldiers I was supposed to be in charge of. It stifled the motivation I had for excelling at a task I was legitimately passionate about, and the same thing happens every time a micromanager steps in to "save the day." 3. Micromanagement makes it harder to see the big picture - Managers differ from workers by thinking strategically. Managers are supposed to focus on the big picture and guide the efforts of their workers towards it. Yet, when a manager dives into the micro level, they cannot do this as well. By closely controlling lower level work, micromanagers get bombarded with details and it becomes difficult to understand what is relevant and what is not. This can lead to confusion and distraction, which often transcends in strategic mistakes. When micromanagers try to focus excessively on details, they require ever more input to make sense of them. This destroys the productivity of subordinates. As business researcher Yves Morieux puts it, "the more complicated the organization, the more difficult it is to understand what is really happening. So we need summaries, proxies, reports, key performance indicators, metrics. . . people spend their time in meetings, writing reports they have to do, undo, and redo. . . teams in these organizations spend between 40 and 80 percent of their time wasting their time." [4] The vital role a manager fills is thinking strategically and keeping the big picture in focus. A micromanager by definition must surrender this focus, and therefore risks losing their strategic vision. For these reasons, micromanagement is not doing the right thing. Micromanagement is not effective. [1] https://hbr.org... [2] Collins, Jim. "Good to Great" Ch. 1 [3] https://hbr.org... [4]https://www.ted.com...