Care or control?

Micromanagement is a lazy label because it describes the behaviour without asking whether the behaviour has a point.

In the presence of a good strategy, close attention to detail can simply mean care in execution. The work is being protected because the direction is clear.

Alongside an average strategy, the same behaviour starts to look like ordinary micromanagement. The detail is still being controlled, but the control does not improve much.

Without a strategy, it becomes something worse: mismanagement. People are being managed closely without knowing what the closeness is meant to achieve.

Detail only helps when it serves a direction. Otherwise, it is just supervision with better stationery.