Written by Mike Florence, Chief Strategy & Planning Officer
Micromanagement is a known driver of stress. It’s time for an alternative audience-first leadership approach, says dentsu’s Mike Florence.
What’s the fix for 2026? Well, there’s no doubt that a shift towards audience-led (data) planning will be high on every pitch agenda. Exciting times with exciting solutions ahead.
However, there’s another type of audience-led shift I’d love to truly influence in our industry. One that I believe will not only improve our work and our clients’ outcomes but also improve our people (see Harvard Business School’s Service Profit Chain).
Micromanagement has always existed. But in a post-Covid, hybrid world, it has quietly become one of the biggest cultural drains in modern work. When teams dispersed and face-to-face time shrank, many managers responded with the most counterproductive instinct possible: more control, more check-ins, more approvals, more hovering.
But control-led leadership is killing the work. It’s eroding trust. And it’s damaging people. Not just their performance, but their confidence, autonomy and motivation.
In the State of Us’ 2025 report Mental Health in Uncertain Times, the mental health network identified that nearly two–thirds (64%) of UK advertising and comms professionals say they’ve experienced extreme stress. Micromanagement is a known driver of this. That should alarm all of us.
Audience-led leadership
Marketing has long celebrated “audience-led” thinking. Understanding behaviours, motivations and needs before crafting the work, which, through AI, we can now develop further to build truly genuine audiences and activations.
Yet we rarely apply that same logic to the people doing the work. In 2026, it’s time for audience-first leadership.
Leaders need to start with the human in front of them, not the process. Not the spreadsheet. Not the instinct to control.
If you’re reading this, wondering, Am I a micromanager? Good! Self-awareness is the antidote. If you’re asking the question, you’re already ahead of the problem.
Three leadership modes. Use them with intent
At its simplest, there are three core leadership styles available in any interaction. The real skill is knowing which one your “audience” needs at any given moment.
Top-Down – Decisive, directive, fast. Best when clarity is needed immediately: tight deadlines, high stakes, or inexperienced teams seeking structure.
Bottom-Up – Empowering, participatory, liberating. You create space for the team to propose solutions, build ownership and increase ambition.
Alongside – Collaborative, coaching, shoulder-to-shoulder. You work the problem together, transferring judgment and confidence – not just answers. Works wonders on pitches.
All three styles have value. The issue? Under pressure, when emotional intelligence is arguably needed the most, managers typically default to a top-down approach. Not because it’s right, but because it’s easy … and then they start chasing.
Ask yourself, what style does this person need in this moment?
And for those being micromanaged, I urge you to seek out leaders, not managers. Managers track tasks, leaders develop people. You deserve someone who trusts you enough to stretch you, not smother you.
And to leaders, setting high standards is not the problem. You should demand excellence. You should expect ambition. You should maintain quality. But do it with a “soft glove”: the trust, freedom and challenge that enable people to rise, not retreat.
So please, let’s make audience-led leadership the fix for 2026.
This article first appeared in The Media Leader on 09/01/26.
