How Experts Become Micromanagers

You did not set out to become a micromanager. But if you got promoted for being the best expert in the room, perfectionism is probably running your leadership now, and it might be quietly burning you out or causing you to become ineffective as a leader.

Dr. Mira Brancu breaks down a pattern she sees constantly in expert-driven industries like research, law, medicine, and engineering. In those fields, being right and thorough is the entire job, so you learn to hold everything to one standard and never let anything drop. Then you get promoted, and that exact habit starts choking your team.

She tells the story of a VP at a biotech company who reviewed every deck, and then every revision of every deck, until her team started padding timelines just to work around her. Everyone could see she was stressed except her.

Here is the part most leadership advice gets wrong. Telling a high performer to let go of perfectionism does not work, because perfectionism is the thing that built their credibility in the first place. Mira explains what to do instead, and why the real fix is treating leadership as a second specialization you have to learn on purpose.

Subscribe for weekly conversations on leadership, burnout, and the human side of high pressure work.

To find more of my work:

Subscribe to this channel

Subscribe to my free newsletter at: mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe

Work with me one-on-one: calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation

Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu

Learn more about my services: www.gotowerscope.com

Get practical workplace politics tips from my books: gotowerscope.com/books