top of page

By:

Rahul Kulkarni

30 March 2025 at 3:32:54 pm

The Boundary Collapse

When kindness becomes micromanagement It started with a simple leave request.   “Hey, can I take Friday off? Need a personal day,” Meera messaged Rohit. Rohit replied instantly:   “Of course. All good. Just stay reachable if anything urgent comes up.”   He meant it as reassurance. But the team didn’t hear reassurance. They heard a rule.   By noon, two things had shifted inside The Workshop:   Meera felt guilty for even asking. Everyone else quietly updated their mental handbook: Leave is...

The Boundary Collapse

When kindness becomes micromanagement It started with a simple leave request.   “Hey, can I take Friday off? Need a personal day,” Meera messaged Rohit. Rohit replied instantly:   “Of course. All good. Just stay reachable if anything urgent comes up.”   He meant it as reassurance. But the team didn’t hear reassurance. They heard a rule.   By noon, two things had shifted inside The Workshop:   Meera felt guilty for even asking. Everyone else quietly updated their mental handbook: Leave is allowed… but not really. This is boundary collapse… when a leader’s good intentions unintentionally blur the limits that protect autonomy and rest. When care quietly turns into control Founders rarely intend to micromanage.   What looks like control from the outside often starts as care from the inside. “Let me help before something breaks.” “Let me stay involved so we don’t lose time.” “Loop me in… I don’t want you stressed.” Supportive tone.   Good intentions.   But one invisible truth defines workplace psychology: When power says “optional,” it never feels optional.
So when a client requested a revision, Rohit gently pinged:   “If you’re free, could you take a look?” Of course she logged in.   Of course she handled it.   And by Monday, the cultural shift was complete: Leave = location change, not a boundary.   A founder’s instinct had quietly become a system. Pattern 1: The Generous Micromanager Modern micromanagement rarely looks aggressive. It looks thoughtful :   “Let me refine this so you’re not stuck.” “I’ll review it quickly.”   “Share drafts so we stay aligned.”   Leaders believe they’re being helpful. Teams hear:   “You don’t fully trust me.” “I should check with you before finishing anything.”   “My decisions aren’t final.” Gentle micromanagement shrinks ownership faster than harsh micromanagement ever did because people can’t challenge kindness. Pattern 2: Cultural conditioning around availability In many Indian workplaces, “time off” has an unspoken footnote: Be reachable. Just in case. No one says it directly.   No one pushes back openly.   The expectation survives through habit: Leave… but monitor messages. Rest… but don’t disconnect. Recover… but stay alert. Contrast this with a global team we worked with: A designer wrote,   “I’ll be off Friday, but available if needed.” Her manager replied:   “If you’re working on your off-day, we mismanaged the workload… not the boundary.”   One conversation.   Two cultural philosophies.   Two completely different emotional outcomes.   Pattern 3: The override reflex Every founder has a version of this reflex.   Whenever Rohit sensed risk, real or imagined, he stepped in: Rewriting copy.   Adjusting a design.   Rescoping a task.   Reframing an email. Always fast.   Always polite.   Always “just helping.” But each override delivered one message:   “Your autonomy is conditional.” You own decisions…   until the founder feels uneasy.   You take initiative…   until instinct replaces delegation.   No confrontation.   No drama.   Just quiet erosion of confidence.   The family-business amplification Boundary collapse becomes extreme in family-managed companies.   We worked with one firm where four family members… founder, spouse, father, cousin… all had informal authority. Everyone cared.   Everyone meant well.   But for employees, decision-making became a maze: Strategy approved by the founder.   Aesthetics by the spouse.   Finance by the father. Tone by the cousin.   They didn’t need leadership.   They needed clarity.   Good intentions without boundaries create internal anarchy. The global contrast A European product team offered a striking counterexample.   There, the founder rarely intervened mid-stream… not because of distance, but because of design:   “If you own the decision, you own the consequences.” Decision rights were clear.   Escalation paths were explicit.   Authority didn’t shift with mood or urgency. No late-night edits.   No surprise rewrites.   No “quick checks.”   No emotional overrides. As one designer put it:   “If my boss wants to intervene, he has to call a decision review. That friction protects my autonomy.” The result:   Faster execution, higher ownership and zero emotional whiplash. Boundaries weren’t personal.   They were structural .   That difference changes everything. Why boundary collapse is so costly Its damage is not dramatic.   It’s cumulative.   People stop resting → you get presence, not energy.   People stop taking initiative → decisions freeze.   People stop trusting empowerment → autonomy becomes theatre.   People start anticipating the boss → performance becomes emotional labour.   People burn out silently → not from work, but from vigilance.   Boundary collapse doesn’t create chaos.   It creates hyper-alertness, the heaviest tax on any team. The real paradox Leaders think they’re being supportive. Teams experience supervision.   Leaders assume boundaries are obvious. Teams see boundaries as fluid. Leaders think autonomy is granted. Teams act as though autonomy can be revoked at any moment. This is the Boundary Collapse → a misunderstanding born not from intent, but from the invisible weight of power. Micromanagement today rarely looks like anger.   More often,   it looks like kindness without limits. (Rahul Kulkarni is Co-founder at PPS Consulting. He patterns the human mechanics of scaling where workplace behavior quietly shapes business outcomes. Views personal.)

Dr. K. L. Shrimali: The Unsung Hero of Indian Education

Updated: Oct 21, 2024

Dr. K. L. Shrimali: The Unsung Hero of Indian Education

While history is filled with many influential figures, they eventually fade from public memory. However, there are a few whose legacies continue to shape the nation. One such figure is Dr. Kalu Lal Shrimali, India’s second education minister. Surprisingly, his legacy has been overlooked, a recent inaccurate claim by a prominent Rajya Sabha MP and former Deputy CM claim on social media that India’s first five Education Ministers were from the Muslim community. This Teachers’ Day, we revisit the life and work of Dr. Shrimali—a Hindu Brahmin born in 1909 in Udaipur, Rajasthan. He served under the Prime Ministership of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. He passed away on 5th January 2000.

It is both surprising and disheartening to witness how quickly a figure like Dr. Shrimali, who was hailed by President Dr. Pranab Mukherjee as the forefather of Indian education, has been so quickly forgotten. This Teachers’ Day, we remember the man who introduced ‘Teachers’ Day’ in schools to honour his predecessor, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.

Dr. Shrimali, a distinguished educationist and parliamentarian, made significant contributions as the Union Minister of Education for the Government of India from 1955 to 1963. He completed his education at Banaras Hindu University, Calcutta University, and Columbia University in New York, establishing a strong academic foundation that fuelled his passion for education reforms in India.

His tenure as the Education Minister was marked by a deep commitment to educational reform and institution-building. Dr. Shrimali’s legacy as a ‘forefather’ of Indian education is rooted in his visionary approach, which sought to balance the need for modernisation with the cultural and social context of India.

Dr. Shrimali was instrumental in the establishment and expansion of several higher education institutions. Under his leadership, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were further developed and new ones were established, laying the groundwork for what would become India’s premier technical education institutions.

He supported the creation of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act of 1956. This Act empowered the UGC to oversee and regulate higher education in India, ensuring the maintenance of standards, the promotion of research and quality education.

Recognising the need for a skilled workforce to drive India’s industrialisation, Dr. K.L. Shrimali emphasised the importance of technical and vocational education. He championed the establishment of Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs), which were precursors to the National Institutes of Technology (NITs), to address the regional imbalances in access to quality technical education.

He was an advocate for adult education and literacy, particularly in rural areas. He promoted several literacy programs aimed at reducing the high illiteracy rates in the country, believing that education was a key driver of social and economic progress.

Beyond his ministerial duties, Dr. Shrimali was actively involved with various educational institutions. He founded the iconic Vidhya Bhavan in Udaipur and social welfare organisations like the Seva Mandir. He was the editor of Jan Shikshan, a monthly educational magazine. He also authored several publications where he highlighted the challenges and opportunities in Indian education, influencing public opinion and policy discussions. In 1963, he resigned from the Congress. However, his passion for education continued. After resigning from the ministry, he served as the Vice Chancellor of Mysore University and Banaras Hindu University.

Dr. Shrimali played a key role in implementing the recommendations of the Secondary Education Commission (1952-1953) and prepared the groundwork for future reforms that included the Kothari Commission’s report (1964-1966). His advocacy for the three-language formula and the importance of moral and character education helped shape the curriculum and policy directions that India would follow for decades. His contributions to education were recognised through numerous awards and honours, including the prestigious Padma Vibhushan in 1976. His work continues to be celebrated.

(The writer is a grand daughter of K.L. Shrimali. Views personal)

Comments

bottom of page