“When you micromanage, you’re telling your team you don’t trust them.” – Simon Sinek
By Bill Rusteberg
Micromanagement is a governance failure. When upper management steps in it’s usually because they don’t trust the committee or leadership is reacting to pressure or past failures.
Insurance committees are common among political subdivisions, especially Texas school districts. Insurance committees often exist solely for political purposes resulting in poor risk management oversight. Others exist because risk, claims, and benefits require specialized knowledge. In the latter case micromanagement replaces expertise with decisions made by non-experts. Risk management oversight becomes politicized.
The organization’s risk‑management system starts to break down resulting in diluted accountability, slower decisions, weaker underwriting discipline, and higher financial risk leading to poor insurance outcomes. It causes stress and low morale. Committee decisions become cautious and defensive. The committee loses relevancy and members leave. Those who remain act differently.
“There are no bad teams, only bad leaders.” – Jocko Willink
Plan sponsors should exercise caution and understand delegation of duties is an art form in interpersonal skills. It is a social science, a distribution of responsibilities, empowering teams based on a foundation of trust and accountability.
“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self‑restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” – Theodore Roosevelt