“Detaching is an action that you take that helps you ‘stay in your own lane’ or stay focused on what you can control and what’s your responsibility—and not interfere in other people’s choices.”
– Sharon Martin, LCSW, Psychology Today
Micromanaging, and its inevitable partnership with stress, is a problem that has led to the downfall of otherwise promising executive leaders. At VIM Executive Coaching we have seen the consequences of executive burnout in numerous leadership situations.
Business courses often warn that detachment is cruel, ineffective and immature. Experts have warned detachment leads to worker alienation and encourages executives to assume attitudes of arrogance and irresponsibility. Such mistaken bias, we fear, is exactly why detachment is so essential in developing and maintaining healthy workplaces.
Misunderstanding the issues
Detachment is not cruel. What is punishing to subordinates is excessive worrying, believing every problem is catastrophic, thinking every member of an ineffective team must be rescued or much worse, that poor behaviors or unethical actions must somehow be excused. The stressors caused by believing every situation in the workplace is a situation that must be addressed by an executive leader is fool’s gold.
Detachment creates boundaries. Detachment demands and recognizes that the executive leader must allow subordinates to fail, that they must make decisions and be mature enough to solve routine problems. It is not the executive leader’s responsibility to solve every employee’s shortcoming, fix their personal life difficulties or “taking over” employee tasks they can easily do themselves.
In fact, we can argue employee growth can only occur when they are allowed to stand on their own, make choices, achieve positive results and contribute to the organization without having to be told to do so. Employee growth is an outcome of allowing maturity and nurturing “strength” and self-expression.
Why has detachment been seen in such a negative light?
In 2024, The Gallup Organization identified five factors as leading to employee alienation:
- Rapid organizational change
- Hybrid and remote growing pains
- New customer expectations
- New employee expectations
- Broken performance management practices
In the examination of each factor above, there is a common driver: a lack of communication. Communication difficulties, not detachment, leads to these situations. Executive leaders can control how important information is relayed, how expectations can be managed, how workplaces should be staffed, and when, and similar details related to managing organizations.
Again, we would argue that “the detached leader,” is an empowering leader who can “say” to employees:
- We are undergoing organization change which is why I trust you to be a problem solver and help us deal with it.
- We need to find an effective balance between hybrid and/or remote situations. What are your suggestions?
- How do you perceive the organization better handling customer expectations?
- As an employee, what are your expectations and how can we best work together?
- What are the problems you see in the way management is working and how can it be improved.
Ultimately, detachment demands partnerships as well as self-preservation. The detached executive learns what they can control and what they can’t.
It is easy to blame a lack of interference, a non-attachment, on the part of an executive leader as being responsible for all difficulties. Not allowing employees to flourish is potentially a much more serious outcome for any organization.