There's More Than One Way to Be a Top Performer: How Great Leaders Stop Micromanaging and Start Multiplying Success
I once had a sales leader tell me something that hit me right in the gut:
“But Casey, if I don’t stay on top of this, how do I make sure they don’t drop the ball? How do I know they’ll do it right?”
My answer was simple: they might not do it right according to your way of doing things. But unless you give your reps the space to sell their own way (and fail now and again in the process), they’ll never actually learn to do it themselves.
This leader—let's call her Sarah—was a rockstar individual contributor who got promoted because she consistently crushed her numbers. Her playbook worked brilliantly for her. So naturally, when she started leading a team, she expected everyone to follow her exact approach.
But here's the thing about sales leadership that nobody tells you when you get promoted: your playbook isn't the only playbook that works.
Your job isn’t to teach them your way as the only way. Your job is to set clear expectations, focus on the outcome; and coach them on the messy process of getting there.
The Carbon Copy Trap
Sarah was falling into what I call the "Carbon Copy Trap"—believing that because her methods led to her success, they're the only valid methods for her team.
The result? She was:
Reworking all her team’s customer emails
Jumping in to "save" customer calls the moment they felt they were wavering
Requiring detailed updates on all deals (no matter how small) in 20 different places
Providing step-by-step instructions for every situation
Sound familiar? If you're wincing right now, I’ve been there too.
The interesting part is that Sarah genuinely believed she was being helpful. Her intentions were good—she wanted her team to succeed. But her impact was the opposite:
Her reps stopped taking initiative
Team creativity plummeted
Deals moved slower (everything needed her approval)
Her calendar became a total nightmare
Suddenly, Sarah was working 60+ hour weeks and still felt like she was totally drowning.
The Multiplier Mindset
When you realize your job isn't to create mini-versions of yourself (like Sarah did), that's when a real breakthrough can happen. It's empowering (and a little scary) to recognize your role is WAY bigger than building a bunch of mini-me's. Your job as their leader is to multiply success by letting each rep develop their own special sauce.
This mental shift from "my way or the highway" to "multiple paths to success" will change everything about how you lead.
And that change in perspective shows up in several ways:
Focusing on outcomes, not methods - Defining what success looks like, then let reps find their own way within that definition
Celebrating different approaches - Highlighting when team members succeed using methods different from your own
Coaching to individual strengths - Helping each rep develop their own style, instead of forcing conformity
Building frameworks, not rulebooks - Creating guiding principles that allow for flexibility
The results of this approach are stunning. For Sarah, within the first quarter, her team's performance improved by 23%, while her working hours dropped by nearly 15 hours per week.
Are You Accidentally Micromanaging?
It’s hard to realize it, but most of us don't realize when we’re micromanaging.
Like Sarah, we believe we’re being thorough, helpful, and appropriately hands-on. Our intentions are good, but our impact is limiting our team's potential and abilities.
So how do you know if you're accidentally falling into micromanagement habits?
There are 5 clear warning signs that I see consistently among new leaders:
The Email Control Freak - Requiring to be CC'd on every client email
The Hero Complex - Jumping in to "save" customer calls
The Task Dictator - Focusing on step-by-step instructions instead of outcomes
The Red Line Addict - Proofreading your AEs' emails
The Meeting Overloader - Setting up meetings that could be emails
These patterns might feel like "good leadership" in the moment, but they're actually preventing your team from developing and succeeding in their own right.
The Path Forward
If you recognize yourself in any of these warning signs, don't panic—you're not alone, and awareness is the first step to change.
And I want to be clear: there are times in leadership when these behaviors are totally warranted. Circumstances with exceptionally high stakes, times of crisis, or managing underperformance may necessitate more direct control. But when these patterns emerge outside those situations, the actions start to feel controlling and over the top.
The good news? Small shifts in your approach can create massive improvements in both your team's performance and your own work-life balance (how’s that for a win-win?!).
I've created a detailed guide that dives deeper into each of these warning signs and provides practical strategies to shift from micromanaging to multiplying. It includes:
How to recognize when you're falling into these patterns
Practical alternatives that maintain quality while building trust
Simple scripts to help you communicate this shift to your team
Remember, there's more than one way to be a top performer. Your job as a leader isn't to create replicas of yourself—it's to create an environment where multiple approaches to success can flourish.
Your team is capable of more than you think. Sometimes the best leadership move is simply getting out of their way.
