Yes, when your boss gets surprised in a meeting with their peers, that can be a real issue. I see this most often in tech. Senior leaders are usually strong former ICs who never fully shifted out of that mindset. Their instinct seems to be to micromanage, often driven by fear, and is rooted in the belief that control equals safety. However, if you continually feed fear with more fear, all you do is reinforce it. I agree, sometimes you do need to overcommunicate, but teaching people to be afraid of upsetting their boss is not leadership, it looks more like learned helplessness.
Yes, when your boss gets surprised in a meeting with their peers, that can be a real issue. I see this most often in tech. Senior leaders are usually strong former ICs who never fully shifted out of that mindset. Their instinct seems to be to micromanage, often driven by fear, and is rooted in the belief that control equals safety. However, if you continually feed fear with more fear, all you do is reinforce it. I agree, sometimes you do need to overcommunicate, but teaching people to be afraid of upsetting their boss is not leadership, it looks more like learned helplessness.
Agreed on that Andrew!
And thanks for sharing your experience!