Do you find yourself wanting to ask your boss to back off your work? Let you run your part of the business? Do you feel you and your boss are overlapping in either actions, decisions and responsibility? How can you get your boss to back off from micromanaging your responsibilities?

You can’t make your boss to back off. No matter how much you feel you know better, your boss by definition will do what she or he wants to do. You saying “back off” is not going to have any affect other than negatively impact your relationship with your boss. There is almost no way to say this without sounding like you are focused on the wrong thing. Consider for a moment that your boss is acting from a place that he or she believes it is necessary to be involved.

Figure out what is driving your boss. Ask yourself what goal is motivating the overlap with you. There may be some very important project that has high visibility. Maybe the concern is over people, such as a fear of key staff turnover. Create some hypothesis for what your boss wants out of his or her involvement in areas that you think he or she could be less involved with and find ways to validate it.

Spend time contributing to that goal in a complementary way. Use your one on one meetings with your boss or peers to gather deeper information. Solicit information from sources you think your boss might be missing. Explore options to get results that are different than those already being explored. Identify and clear obstacles to ensure the best possible results.

Communicate what you’re doing to your boss. Use a positive, results driven communication style to share what you’re doing. Start by validating your hypothesis with your boss. This may be obvious or it may not be; validate what you see as the primary result your boss is looking for from his/her involvement. Say something like “I believe one of your top priorities is making sure Project Phoenix is delivered on time and on budget. Is that correct?”

Your boss may say that you don’t need to be involved. Be careful not to take this as instructions to check-out. If the work being done falls into your responsibility, you need to continue to stay abreast of the progress. You need to continue to bring ideas to get things done better and faster. You do want to adapt your communication with your boss. Ensure you are communicating the other important results you are delivering. This adaptation will avoid doubling down on the impression that you are overlapping. Contribute where you can, and be sure your boss sees you contribute on other areas that are your priorities, too.

Continually communicate what you’re learning and what’s working towards those results. Be careful this doesn’t come across in a way that reflects resentment of his/her involvement. You’re working to help, so be positive. This communication isn't a back-handed way of telling your boss to back-off. Although your goal may be to get more space to operate, avoid that as the overt message. Consider yourself an extension of your boss delivering these results. Your boss will back off when he/she is ready.