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Women at Work wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the H-BICAST from Harvard Business Review. I'm Allison Beard. Most of us know what it feels like to be micromanaged. Your boss gives you an assignment

but then tells you exactly how to do it, keeps checking up on you, and sometimes even takes over the work. It's maddening. But what if you're the boss? And you really

want that assignment done perfectly because it's your reputation on the line. And you know exactly

how to do it, but you know you shouldn't be a

micro manager. How do you help out without making your employee feel bad about it?

Most people in leadership roles struggle with this. I know I'm the kind of editor who likes to jump right in and fix something,

rather than letting a colleague figure it out on her own,

or subtly leading him to a solution.

I also track every word in my articles until publication, which I know annoys the people

responsible for moving things along.

But none of us want to be that kind of person at work.

Our guest today has studied how effective managerial help works in several

organizations and he's found that it's possible for bosses to weigh in pretty

heavily on projects they've delegated provided they do it in the right way.

Colin Fisher is an associate

professor at the University College London School of Management and he's co-author

of the HPR article How to Help Without Micro Managing. Colin thanks so much for being on the show.

Thank you, Allison.

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