Articles on Leadership

Cheat Code: Techniques to Modify a Micromanagement Leadership Style

The final personality type described in the DISC assessment is type C, or Conscientious. Conscientious employees tend to be introverted. They hold themselves and others to a high standard of perfection, which means if you want this employee to manage others, you’ll need to coach them on how to stop micromanaging.

Traits of a High-C Personality

The DISC personality assessment has four leadership styles: Dominant, Influencing or Interpersonal, Steady, and Conscientious. Conscientious, or high-C, employees do well in careers that involve programming, research, or high volumes of data. As leaders, they are tactful and humble but highly value accuracy.

Your employee might have a micromanagement leadership style if they possess the following traits:

  • Accurate
  • Precise
  • Analytical
  • Compliant
  • Courteous
  • Diplomatic
  • Detailed
  • Fact-Finder
  • Objective

The following needs, emotions, and fears often drive high-C employees. This will impact their working and management styles.

Needs Rules to follow, data to analyze
Emotions Fear, concern
Fears Being criticized, loss of accuracy or quality

How to Help Someone Let Go of Perfectionism

Contrary to what you might think, C personality types don’t micromanage because they’re unreasonable. Unfortunately, often they don’t know how to stop micromanaging. Here are a few ways you can help an employee navigate their micromanagement leadership style.

If your employee is… You can…
Concerned with aggressive approaches Approach them in an indirect, non-threatening way
A logical thinker Show your reasoning and how you arrive at your conclusions
Looking for data Give them facts and figures in writing
Trying to understand the process Provide explanations and rationale
Overly cautious Allow them to think, inquire, and double-check before they make decisions
Struggling to delegate When delegating, let them check procedures before they make decisions
A perfectionist Compliment them when appropriate
Gravitating toward quality control Let them assess and be involved in the process when possible
Avoiding conflict Tactfully ask for clarification and assistance you may need
Needing to be right Allow them time to find the best or “correct” answer within available limits.
Contemplative Tell them “why” and “how.”

You can help an employee with C personality traits by giving them realistic deadlines and parameters for their work and encouraging them to do the same for others on their team. Model a non-micromanagement leadership style by allowing them to work without frequently checking in.

Help them put their tasks and interactions with others into perspective so they aren’t tempted to imbue them with more importance than necessary. Of course, they should have high expectations for high-priority work, but they risk burning out and pressuring their teammates if they maintain those standards for everything.

Want to learn more about managing the different personality types? As a business coach, I have administered and debriefed over 3,000 pre-hire behavioral profiles for my clients. Unfortunately, making a wrong hiring decision is incredibly expensive and a massive disruption to your business. Click here if you would like to learn more about a fast and affordable way to assess and understand candidate talents and opportunities.

Coach Dave

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Dave Schoenbeck

Dave Schoenbeck is a professional business and executive coach who translates complex business methods, processes, and strategies into actionable plans to dramatically improve financial results. Read more about Dave here.

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Dave Schoenbeck

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