
The CEO of my company is a micro manager - how to make it stop? - kurtpara
The CEO founded the 30 person company, and there are no other investors- it's all his money. He's a micro-manager who won't let the VPs of sales, product management or engineering make any decisions without his OK. Basically, the CEO comes up with all strategies, and the VPs execute his vision. He smart, and he knows it- which makes him super cocky and he can't be contradicted. I'd like to think that the VP of sales can figure out how to sell our software, and the VP of engineering can be responsible for making it. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Anyone have any advice on how to tell a CEO with no superiors to let everyone do their jobs?
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freejack
Quit is great advice.

Don't try and solve this, its his problem, not yours. And unless you want
blood in the water (or a severance check) don't try and coach him on this.

I'm guessing that the CEO is younger and lacks the experience and seasoning
that will give him the self-awareness and self-confidence that he'd need to
delegate appropriately. Its quite common and there's absolutely nothing that
you can do to change it. After a few people leave, someone close to him
(perhaps a board member, advisor or someone in HR) will mention to him that
the turnover is related to his poor management practice and he'll hopefully
take that to heart, get some coaching and come out the other side with some
better habits. In the meantime, you can be leading a happy, productive career
elsewhere.

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TruffleLabs
Is this a place you want to work? You can deftly share articles like HBR "Why
Aren't You Delegating?" [http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2012/07/why-arent-you-
delegating.ht...](http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2012/07/why-arent-you-
delegating.html) , but at the end of the day the CEO is totally in charge.

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kurtpara
This is a really good article - thanks for this.

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woodchuck64
May I suggest first figuring out if the CEO is suffering from NPD
(narcissistic personality disorder); if so, you need out of there. An NPD CEO
is not concerned about what is right or good for business, he's concerned
about establishing his image to subordinates, customers, investors as a
person, nay, as a Messiah, who is vastly intelligent, experienced and wise and
should be followed blindly and committed to utterly. He will accomplish this
not by quietly demonstrating these attributes but by actively portraying and
marketing himself and his image at every opportunity. That kind of person will
stunt your personal growth and development immeasurably.

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consultutah
The easy answer is quit. If you're not inclined to do that, you can either
demonstrate to him that he doesn't need to micromanage you and everything else
or help him grow the business so much that he can't micromanage everything. In
either case, you can't make him do anything. He owns the business; you just
work there.

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nostromo
Quit

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lwhi
I agree. Work should make you feel satisfied. If your current job doesn't do
that for you, find one that does.

EDIT: However, thinking about this from the opposite position; perhaps the CEO
is looking for advice regarding employees who won't take instruction?

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kurtpara
What are are making is cool, and we have the potential to get huge so I'd like
to stay.

Everyone does exactly what he says, so he should have no issues with anyone
not taking instruction from him.

It just sucks to leave a meeting knowing that we are doing it the wrong way
and can't do anything to fix it. I want to fix it.

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sopooneo
If the company is so successful, is it possible that in fact you are _not_
being asked to do it the wrong way?

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j_baker
If he's being asked to do it the wrong way, is it possible the company could
be _even more_ successful?

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sopooneo
Yes, that seems entirely possible.

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anigbrowl
Rather than telling him, why not ask him? For example, does he have ameta-
system he's trying to instil or is he feeling his way? Does he actually like
managing every detail or is this something he would prefer to avoid if he felt
more confident in his team? Is he feeling short of things to do, since he
doesn't have to chase investment at this stage? how does he want to run things
as the company grows, or does he just want to keep it small and grow more
organically?

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toomuchcoffee
Sadly, the first step is to realize that (1) he really thinks he's doing the
right thing -- or at least he is choosing the necessary, lesser of evils when
he makes these interventions; and (2) that this impression is formed on the
basis of a lot of (lopsided) data, from his PoV.

By "lopsided" I mean, he's probably seen a lot of evidence that his business
continues to thrive when he continually takes the reins in every aspect of its
execution -- but what he _hasn't_ seen is the extent to which it can _really_
thrive when people feel truly enabled and empowered to contribute creatively
to productive outcomes (at least within their subdomains of the operation).
Even when it comes at the comparatively low cost of, yes, occasionally making
small-scale mistakes.

Unfortunately, I don't know a good way to tell a CEO that, like Bjork teaches
us, "there's more to life than this." Last time I tried, the CEO just didn't
get it (or he sorta tried to get it, but it just didn't stick), and our
relationship unraveled shortly after that.

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its_so_on
You and the original poster are completely wrong and misunderstanding the
situation.

"The CEO founded the 30 person company, and there are no other investors- it's
all his money", if true, means that he's not CEO (in the startup sense) at all
- he's the owner.

"Anyone have any advice on how to tell a CEO with no superiors to let everyone
do their jobs?"

Their job is to do whatever he wants. If he wants you to hire three people to
do interpretive dance in front of a web cam and put it up, go ahead.

As long as he's the whole owner, you should act like you're being paid to
paint his house. Whatever he wants, as long as he's paying the checks. If you
can't do what he asks or don't want to at that price, quote the price you'll
do it for or leave. If you can do what he asks for the price he's paying, do
whatever he says.

It's his house.

~~~
toomuchcoffee
_As long as he's the whole owner, you should act like you're being paid to
paint his house._

Bad analogy. It's more like you _thought_ you were hired to paint his house,
but the way things ended up he was telling you how to match colors and hold a
brush. All the while pointing to the 10 year-old kids sloppily painting a
fence across the street saying "See? You're still in the basement mixing
paint, and they're almost done already!"

~~~
its_so_on
"he was telling you how to match colors and hold a brush"

You have no cause to complain here in this analogy. Either quit or happily let
him tell you how to match colors and hold a brush, and if he tells you to
paint like the sloppy kids across the street, that's now your job.

You're not painting for the City while having a superior, or for
"shareholders" or to "build a good house" or "build a good company" (that this
is a metaphor for) - you're painting for him. If you don't want to do it like
he says, you would leave (or quote more money for putting up with his
childishness.)

~~~
toomuchcoffee
_...or quote more money for putting up with his childishness._

Basically, yeah, that's usually how I end up handling these situations when
quitting seems less than convenient.

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penguinboy08
If you're already invested in the company and it's treating you well in other
areas (culture/pay/technology) then you have the choice to actively try to
change the company.

It's likely that your CEO doesn't trust others to make the best decisions,
which is not a great way to run a company. It's going to take a lot of time
and a huge amount of effort to change this mindset by demonstrating your
capabilities. I would progressively take more ownership of your own area of
the business and start making some of the smaller decisions that you would
usually require the OK for.

I've done this in a similar situation and it worked out for me. The owner
still wasn't happy because he felt it could have been done better his way. But
as I took more decisions into my own hands he began to see that it was alright
to let go of control, because in the end it worked out. Good luck to you.

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michaelpinto
honestly unless you're a owner it's not your place to critique the management
style of the ceo. yes if you disagree with something specific you should speak
up, but the reality is that you're a hired hand. also if the ceo managed to
scale up to 30 people without any help something tells me that either he's
doing something right or has enough money banked to make and learn from his
own mistakes.

now if you don't like the ceo or that culture you should leave. although
unless the ceo is a trust fund kid with cash to burn i think i'd want to learn
something from someone who went from one person to thirty (because that's damn
hard to do without outside funding).

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phillmv
>honestly unless you're a owner it's not your place to critique the management
style of the ceo.

Of course it is. It's not like he's some ubermensch beyond flaws or with an
infinite capacity for reasoning.

You can micromanage 0-20 people to success but it starts to fall apart when
you begin to have employees whose names you only sorta remember.

~~~
michaelpinto
it depends on the nature of the business and the capacity of the manager --
for example google didn't start to talk about having a real ceo (i.e. a
professional manager) until they hit 200 people. when you join a company
you're buying into the culture of that company, and that includes the style of
the ceo. so imagine someone telling steve jobs that he's "too passionate about
aesthetics" or telling bill gates that "you have really BAD taste" -- clearly
you shouldn't be at that company (even if you're correct).

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msencenb
If its possible have him read this book:

[http://www.amazon.com/Multipliers-Best-Leaders-Everyone-
Smar...](http://www.amazon.com/Multipliers-Best-Leaders-Everyone-
Smarter/dp/0061964395)

It's a book on how some leaders push people at their job while other leaders
simply make everyone shut down and only get about 50% productivity. He's
micro-managing style is actually covered in depth.

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commanderkeen08
The easiest, most general answer is: data. Give him a pie chart with numbers
and dollar signs. How much time is he spending on micro-managing? Calculate
it. The little things start to add up. Time spent micro-managing is time not
spent doing other things (growing the business).

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joelberman
Sometimes it is necessary to have that to get things going. But of course it
does not scale. 30 people are not too many for one manager. When you go
international and the number of employees is in the middle hundreds he will
need to delegate or growth will stop.

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j_baker
You know, sometimes it's best to leave others to solve their own problems. The
executives in your company can worry about themselves. How is the CEO
affecting your work?

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leeskye
Agreed. The people being micromanaged are adults and should be able to fend
for themselves. If your work is being affected, then it would be a cause of
concern.

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threepipeproblm
I think the advice to Quit should be qualified by: only if the company has
more than about 25 people. Otherwise, there may be hope.

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idont
As he is the owner, buy the company or live with it. :(

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toomuchcoffee
Oh, there are plenty of other options on the table, my friend:

    
    
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitdown_strike

