It is protocol at the Financial Times to submit edited versions of opinion articles to a senior journalist for final scrutiny. Once, a colleague on deadline sent a notoriously pernickety editor an op-ed for approval. Within minutes, he called her back: “There’s a problem with the final full stop,” he said. “It’s in italics.”

You could call this attention to detail, or pedantry, or, worse, micromanaging, a term that has become synonymous with the worst style of leadership.

Micromanagers are supposedly the opposite of delegators. Micromanagers are attacked for obsessing over fine detail, stifling their subordinates’ initiative and lacking strategic nous. Delegators are applauded for appointing gifted deputies, “empowering” front-line team members and stepping back to concentrate on the wider vision.