Having been down the micromanagement path it is extremely difficult to avoid on projects that will kill the company if they go wrong. When you are running a business that involves taking one critical gamble after another you really don’t want to take the risk of anything going wrong.<p>On the other hand I have managed in situations where this pressure didn’t exist and it was much more pleasant for me. I could just explain what was need, let the person come up with the best plan of attack, and if the project failed have a quiet chat afterwards on how thing might be handled better next time.