Bxdty

At my current workplace, my boss is severely hands-on, so much so that he has practically trained his employees to wait on his decisions and responses for almost everything that they do (while complaining of this fact, but that's another story).

I get it: some people are micromanagers and in some instances, micromanaging may be a good thing. But in this case, regardless of experience, skill, aptitude or otherwise good characteristics, everyone is micromanaged (except for when they aren't, but that's another story).

However, my boss' behavior might be particularly damning to me, given the 'high-level' position I have in our company. Were I to go somewhere else and be expected to hit the ground running, I feel personally that I would find this ingrained behavior hard to shake; e.g., always waiting or asking for approval, not showing initiative or taking the risk to make good assumptions due to those behaviors being punished here.

I think it may be my greatest weakness, and thus my greatest area to improve upon-- making decisions without worrying if they are 'just-so' or 'exactly what was expected, (when that wasn't communicated)', and an area to gain confidence in.

Is this something that I should bring up in an interview, e.g., 'My previous position was one of constant oversight, but now think that this is the right time to try to stretch my wings, and this is the right place'? Should I eventually talk to future employers about this, or HR? Or should I avoid this topic entirely and deal? Any tips on how to nix this behavior in myself?

Thank you all for your time.

There is no benefit to you in bringing this up during a job interview, in fact it would probably hurt your chances. Also, there is no need to talk to HR or anyone within the company about it if you are hired. It is something that you need to work on correcting.

As for advice on correcting this behavior, it seems like you may be using your boss's micromanaging style as an excuse for your own lack of initiative. Even if your boss needs to approve of every decision and move that you make, it is still up to you to make those decisions. You can always run your thoughts by the boss if that is what he requires but you need to work towards doing things on your own rather than waiting for someone else to tell you what to do.