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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.)

Equity MFs inflow drops 26 pc to Rs 29,303 cr in Feb; SIP hit 3-month low

  • PTI
  • Mar 12
  • 3 min read

Updated: Mar 13


SIP hit 3-month low

New Delhi: Inflow in equity mutual funds dropped 26 per cent to Rs 29,303 crore in February, primarily due to a significant decline in investments in small and midcap schemes, amid continued market volatility.

This was the second consecutive month of decline in inflow in equity funds. The latest fund infusion by investors also marks the 47th consecutive month of net inflows into the segment.

Moreover, inflows into systematic investment plans (SIP) came at Rs 25,999 crore in February, making it three months low. Before this, SIP inflow was Rs 26,400 crore in January and Rs 26,459 crore in December.

"The SIP inflows have come down, but the drop is not significant, partly due to February being a shorter month as compared to January," Suranjana Borthakur, Head of Distribution & Strategic Alliances at Mirae Asset Investment Managers (India), said.

According to data released by Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) on Wednesday, equity-oriented mutual funds saw an inflow of Rs 29,303 crore in February, way lower than Rs 39,688 crore registered in January and Rs 41,156 crore in December.

However, the pace of investments moderated compared to the previous month due to increased market uncertainty and a broader correction in equities.

"While short-term headwinds have tempered investment flows, domestic investor confidence remains strong, as indicated by continued inflows. Investors are adopting a cautious yet steady approach, reassessing their portfolios while maintaining long-term investment commitments," Nehal Meshram, Senior Analyst - Manager Research at Morningstar Investment Research India, said.

Akhil Chaturvedi, Executive Director & Chief Business Officer, Motilal Oswal AMC, said that continuous monthly market correction has led to a slowdown of sales in February, this could also be partially attributed to a truncated month. Investors are being cautious in allocations and may postpone or stagger in the near future. Having said so, net sales of Rs 30,000 crore are also pretty healthy and the broader sentiment looks optimistic from a long-term wealth creation perspective.

Also, the sharp decline was attributed to reduced inflows in mid and small-cap funds, which saw a drop to Rs 3,406 crore and Rs 3,722 crore in February, compared to Rs 5,147 crore and Rs 5,720 crore in January, respectively. In large-cap funds, inflows totalled Rs 2,866 crore, down from Rs 3,063 crore in January.

Within the equity categories, sectoral/thematic funds witnessed the highest net inflow of Rs 5,711 crore, followed by Flexi Cap Funds with Rs 5,104 crore.

Apart from equities, gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw an inflow of Rs 1,980 crore against Rs 3,751 crore in January.

However, debt mutual funds registered an outflow of Rs 6,525 crore last month in February, a sharp reversal from the strong inflows of Rs 1.28 lakh crore in the preceding month.

Despite the outflows, liquid funds saw the inflow at Rs 4,977 crore, followed by corporate bond funds (Rs 1,065 crore) and short-duration funds (Rs 473 crore). However, several short-term debt categories witnessed heavy redemptions, with ultra-short duration funds (Rs 4,281 crore), money market funds (Rs 276 crore), low-duration funds, and overnight funds (Rs 2,264 crore) seeing the highest outflows. Together, these four categories accounted for 90 per cent of total redemptions, Meshram said.

Of the 16 debt categories, 10 recorded net outflows, indicating that the bulk of redemptions were concentrated in short-duration funds.

Overall, mutual funds attracted over Rs 40,000 crore in the month under review compared to a staggering inflow of Rs 1.87 lakh crore in January suggesting a cautious approach from investors in the mutual funds space.

This slump in inflow has pulled the overall assets under management of mutual funds down 4 per cent to Rs 64.53 lakh crore in February-end compared to Rs 67.25 lakh crore in the preceding month.

This comes in the backdrop of global uncertainties and macroeconomic factors, which led to a slump in benchmark index Sensex by 5.5 per cent in the month.

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