How to resolve an issue you don't know you have? MDM Editor Lindsay Konzak recently wrote a blog about Getting Back to Management Basics, in which she mentions that micromanagement is viewed as an obstacle to effective management. The problem is that you may not know you're being viewed as a micromanager. You may think you're "checking in" with your employees; they may think you're "checking up" on them.

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It's an important distinction, according to Teresa Amabile, Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and independent researcher Steve Kramer. The two recently collaborated on a blog about the topic, "Checking In with Employees (Versus Checking Up)", for the Harvard Business Review. "Checking in is really about collaboration; checking up is about suffocation," they write.

So how can you tell where you fall? Here are some indicators that you're micromanaging:

• If you're asking if a task is done rather than asking what someone needs to finish the task, you might be micromanaging.
• If you're always checking in to see how people are working on a task rather than letting them take a path to success that you might not see, you might be micromanaging.
• If you're giving direction but not allowing feedback, you might be micromanaging.

"Checking in – if done well – means sharing information about what you are up to, especially if it might be relevant to what your team is doing," Amabile and Kramer say. And it allows you to be in a better position to make sure they have what they need to finish the job.