Micromanagers Make Less Productive Workers. But What About Elon Musk?

The problem here is the difference between management and leadership.

Entry level workers don’t work well with someone breathing down their neck.  It makes them nervous.  It makes them choke.

Leaders, on the other hand, are not the same as an entry level or mid level employee.  They each have a criteria to live up to.  The benchmark they have to live up to are not only that of the ultimate leader, but of the greater vision as well.  It is one leader’s job, to attract other leaders, to move forward together.  This, is what we would call the inner circle.

This inner circle knows that they have specific tasks to handle, and benchmarks to meet.  They are known to carry their own weight and demand perfection out of themselves.  So, they also expect their leader to demand perfection of them as well.  Which he does.

Then, that trickles down to the middle level managers, to the bottom level employees.  Not each layer maintains the same level of consistency of micromanagement, yet it is quite important at the top.  Not necessarily at the bottom.

Image from McGraw Hill

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Originally posted on Quora.

Leonard Kim is Managing Partner at InfluenceTree. At InfluenceTree, Leonard and his team teach you how to build your (personal or business) brand, get featured in publications and growth hack your social media following.