Dear Management Mentor: The Midnight Editor

Dear Management Mentor,
I recently stepped into a role as a team lead at our software firm in Austin, and I am completely drowning in self-doubt. I was promoted from within, which means I am now managing former peers who used to sit right next to me. I feel like a total impostor, and I spend my days second-guessing every single decision I make. My team seems fine, but my anxiety is through the roof.
The worst part is my habit of working in secret. Every night after everyone logs off, I quietly open up their code and documents, rewriting their reports and fixing their projects because I am terrified that their mistakes will reflect poorly on my authority. I know I should be delegating, but I am convinced that no one else has the same attention to detail. I haven't slept properly in three weeks, and I feel like I'm failing at leadership.
How do I stop micromanaging without letting the team's quality drop?
Sincerely,
Allison

Dear Allison,
First of all, take a deep breath and put the keyboard down. What you are describing is a classic confidence crisis, and it is remarkably common among first-time managers. You are trying to lead from the front by doing everyone else's job, but leadership is no longer about individual execution. It is about enabling others to succeed. If you keep working until midnight to fix your team's output, you are not managing—you are just exhausting yourself.
You need to step back and let your direct reports grow into the job, even if that means they occasionally make mistakes. When you rewrite their work in secret, you are failing to hold people to account and you are robbing them of the chance to develop. Have an honest conversation with your team about your management style and set clear expectations upward with senior leadership so you are not overloaded.
And now for a confession that might surprise you: when I was first promoted to a management position in Chicago years ago, I was so overwhelmed by the steep curve that I actually gave up the job after just two weeks and went back to my old desk. I felt like a failure.
However, after taking some time to reflect on what went wrong, I realized I had been looking at authority all wrong. I took the management job again a year later with a totally different mindset, and that time it worked brilliantly. You don't need to quit like I did, but you do need to stop treating your team like incompetent children. Trust them, step away from their night-time files, and give yourself permission to learn on the job.
Warmly,
Hannah

Read again and choose the right answer

What is Allison's main problem at night?

• She plays video games instead of sleeping.
• She secretly rewrites her team's work.
• She attends endless meetings with senior leadership.

Why does Allison feel like an impostor?

• She was hired from outside the company and knows nothing about software.
• She is now managing her former peers who used to sit beside her.
• She secretly hates the software industry.

What surprising secret does Hannah share in her reply?

• She once quit a management job after two weeks and took it back a year later.
• She never had any management experience before becoming a columnist.
• She used to work with Allison at the same company in Austin.

What advice does Hannah give Allison about her team's mistakes?

• Fire anyone who makes a single error on their first try.
• Hide their mistakes from senior management.
• Let them make mistakes so they can grow into the job.

Sources: photo by David Bares on Pexels