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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.)

Virat stops at 9,230 Test runs

  • PTI
  • May 12
  • 4 min read

Says it's not easy but feels right

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New Delhi: India's most successful Test captain and the fulcrum of its batting for over a decade, Virat Kohli announced his retirement from the format on Monday, ending his passionate love affair with the five-day game which celebrated him as its saviour during a global T20 surge.


The 36-year-old Kohli, who admitted that it wasn't an easy call to make, turned up in 123 Tests for India, scoring 9230 runs with 30 hundreds and 31 half centuries at an average of 46.85.


He will now only be seen in ODIs, having already retired from T20 Internationals last year after having a significant role in India's T20 World Cup win in the Caribbean.


Since making his debut in 2011 as the nation's Test cap number 269, Kohli captained India to the world number one position in the format and fetched a historic series triumph in Australia in 2018-19.


Under his leadership, India won 40 of 68 Tests, making him the most successful for his country and fourth most successful overall, behind South African Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh. He also logged 20 hundreds as captain, making it the highest by an Indian in that position.


"It's been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket. Honestly, I never imagined the journey this format would take me on. It's tested me, shaped me, and taught me lessons I'll carry for life," Kohli added.


Last assignment

The megastar's last Test assignment was a largely underwhelming tour of Australia in which he managed just one hundred. He ends his career well short of the 10,000 run mark, which was, at one stage, considered a formality.


The right-hander nonetheless signs off as a giant of the format with seven double hundreds, the highest for an Indian and well ahead of the legendary quartet of Sunil Gavaskar (4), Sachin Tendulkar (6), Virender Sehwag (6) and Rahul Dravid (5).


The aura

At a time when T20 leagues became the most sought after and watched showpiece in international cricket, Kohli's aura played a significant role in keeping fans hooked to Test cricket.


This was acknowledged by no less than Sir Viv Richards, with whom he was often compared for his style and aggression, that he dialed down considerably in the last few years.


"There's something deeply personal about playing in whites. The quiet grind, the long days, the small moments that no one sees but that stay with you forever," Kohli wrote in his farewell note for the format.


"As I step away from this format, it's not easy — but it feels right. I've given it everything I had, and it's given me back so much more than I could've hoped for. I'll always look back at my Test career with a smile," he added.


The exodus

His retirement continues the exodus of Indian bigwigs from the Test arena. Ravichandran Ashwin (in December) and Rohit Sharma (last week) are the others to have called it quits in the format.


In ODIs, Kohli is not expected to wind up before 2027 but his Test departure will leave a huge void in the team that is on the hunt for a new captain in the format after Rohit's sudden retirement.


Kohli recently enjoyed a fairly decent outing during the Champions Trophy, smashing an unbeaten hundred against arch-foes Pakistan and scoring 84 crucial runs against Australia in the semifinals.


India won the trophy, adding another glorious chapter to his storied ODI career of 302 games in which he has amassed 14,181 runs, dotted with a jaw-dropping 51 hundreds, at an average of 57.88.


The BCCI lauded its biggest star of the past decade by declaring that his "legacy will continue forever."


Virat forced Gen-Z to fall in love with Red and Whites

New Delhi: Virat Kohli entered Indian drawing rooms as a quintessential "West Delhi boy', grew on his fans like a never-ending love story with his boundless passion and finally called time on his career in whites when his legion of admirers yearned for 'One Last Dance'.


In his mind, he knew that although "it is not easy", it did "feel right". The question to be asked is when exactly did Kohli get this feeling?.


Perhaps it was after a torrid tour of Australia where he scored only 91 runs after his second innings century in Perth. Swing and bounce together made life difficult and even for the eternal optimists, a second coming looked distant.


Yet, Indian cricket needed him in England but it seems, the mind, more than the body, had taken enough battering to last a lifetime and he didn't want to go through that rigour for another five Test series. Virat Kohli, the Test devotee, had decided to wave the white flag.


“I am walking away with a heart full of gratitude - for the game, for the people I shared the field with, and for every single person who made me feel seen along the way.”

Virat Kohli


“You offered to gift me a thread from your late father. It was something too personal for me to accept, but the gesture was heartwarming and has stayed with me ever since. While I may not have a thread to offer in return, please know that you carry my deepest admiration and very best wishes. Your true legacy, Virat, lies in inspiring countless young cricketers to pick up the sport. What an incredible Test career you have had! You have given Indian cricket so much more than just runs – you have given it a new generation of passionate fans and players.”

Sachin Tendulkar, Cricket Legend

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