The difference between micromanagement and true leadership comes down to one fundamental shift: moving from controlling processes to empowering outcomes.
As a leader, you may believe you’re gathering perspectives, but if you’ve already decided the outcome, you’re not collaborating. You’re controlling. When every idea must pass through your filter, you’ve created a performance where team members guess what you want rather than offering their best thinking.
True collaboration doesn’t mean directing traffic. It means trusting the collective wisdom of your team enough to be proven wrong.
