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ManagerZine Archive Favorite
10. The Second Skill: Getting Rid Of Monkeys
As regular readers of ManagerZine have come to know, feedback is the single
most important skill for a manager to master and practice. The benefits are
many: clarity, performance improvement, a sense of openness, fairness,
motivation. From our work with many managers over the past year, we have
come to value the second most important manager skill. It has to do with
getting rid of monkeys.
We received a call from a far-flung reader with a monkey problem. He had
three direct reports who were managers themselves. Each had some heavy
new responsibilities. Turns out, they were not shy about getting him involved
with their work. “Can you please review this before I send it out?” was a typical
request. “I’ve got a problem. Here’s what happens” was another. Pretty soon, his
work became their work and his time was not his own.
What is happening here is a classic back and forth game of who has
responsibility. The subordinate puts the monkey on the manager when she asks
for a review or when the boss is asked to solve a problem. When a manager
picks up the monkey from a direct report, he or she is literally working for the
subordinate. The manager’s time is being taken up by a subordinate’s work.
Something is wrong with this picture.
William Oncke, Jr., and Donald Wass wrote a landmark article for the Harvard
Business Review that should be tacked on every manager’s office wall. “Who’s
Got The Monkey?” (HBR, November-December 1974) is a tale of delegations
gone wrong. The idea of delegation is to give responsibility to direct reports
without having that responsibility come back to the manager. That’s the
essence of empowerment, that awful buzz word. Taking on that responsibility
may take some learning on the part of the subordinate, even some risk taking
and hand holding. But that’s where the responsibility has to stay. Of course, the
manager is still there for advice and help with the proviso that the monkey
stays on the direct report’s back. Such is the nature of effective delegation.
Our work with managers has revealed four basic considerations in delegating
well. Try these to keep the monkeys off your back.
Pick the right task to delegate. If the task has vague objectives, uncertain
process, the need to work with an adversarial group, and a relatively high risk of
failure, pass on delegation. Or at least, be prepared to become highly involved.
Provide the delegatee with the right amount of direction. An inexperienced
person needs more information than a veteran. In addition to knowing the
objective, tell the neophyte what to do and how to do it. If you did that to a
person who is experienced in a particular task, it would come across as micro
managing. Very Dilbert.
Plan your involvement. This is where you create some guidelines about what
your role will be. Progress reviews, advice and support, help in opening doors,
etc., should all be spelled out.
Monkey rules. Establish the ground rule that the person has responsibility for
execution, that you are available as defined, and that monkeys are non-
transferable.
SPECIAL ARTICLE! ADVICE FROM A MASTER
ManagerZine is honored to present this article by one of the most respected
managers in the human resources business. William F. Haupt was Manager of
Executive Development at General Motors, the world’s largest corporation, for
many years. He is currently president of Adaptive Leader Consulting, his own
management training consultancy in Panama City Beach, FL. Here are his
thoughts on making delegation work.
Organizational downsizing in recent years has resulted in fewer levels of
management and increasing spans of control. As a result, today’s managers
need to be much better at delegation. For some, the practice of effective
delegation comes easily. For others, it is a struggle, running counter to our
natural instincts and comfort levels. Indeed, many of the questions we have
received at ManagerZine relate directly to the issues, techniques and fears
concerning delegation.
What are the effective keys to delegation? What do “great delegators” do?
Here are some ideas drawn from observing hundreds of managers at various
levels in different organizations and functional areas. As you scan these, try
assessing your own approaches.
* Effective delegators start with a healthy self-esteem, self-confidence and a
realistic view of their own limitations. They are not afraid to surround
themselves with smarter or more qualified people.
* Effective delegators don’t cave in to micro-managing bosses who expect
them to know every detail of every operation they have delegated to lower
levels of their department.
* Effective delegators know the difference between “job enlargement” and “job
enrichment”. They also know the profound difference between “dumping” and
“empowering”.
* Effective delegators trust their people to do the right thing. That is no small
matter.
* Effective delegators grow their people through progressive degrees of
delegation, increasing their freedom to act and decreasing the manager’s
involvement and oversight.
* Effective delegators are clear about responsibility, authority and
accountability. They delegate responsibility, provide proportionate authority
and share and retain accountability.
* Effective delegators accept risks and tolerate mistakes when employee
actions are
1. in pursuit of goals and within policy and scope of authority
2. are not part of a pattern
3. something the employee can learn from.
* Effective delegators are role models for their people on how an empowered
employee can and should act on one’s own authority when they are well
trained, understand the mission, follow procedures and intend to be helpful to
the customer.
Caveat: If we continually delegate the most challenging tasks to the same
employee because that is who we trust the most, at some point that person will
feel taken advantage of. Hence, the employee expression, “Performance can
be punishing.” Remember, as a manager, you must develop all your people,
not just a select few.
© 2006 Singularity Group
10. The Second Skill: Getting Rid Of Monkeys
As regular readers of ManagerZine have come to know, feedback is the single
most important skill for a manager to master and practice. The benefits are
many: clarity, performance improvement, a sense of openness, fairness,
motivation. From our work with many managers over the past year, we have
come to value the second most important manager skill. It has to do with
getting rid of monkeys.
We received a call from a far-flung reader with a monkey problem. He had
three direct reports who were managers themselves. Each had some heavy
new responsibilities. Turns out, they were not shy about getting him involved
with their work. “Can you please review this before I send it out?” was a typical
request. “I’ve got a problem. Here’s what happens” was another. Pretty soon, his
work became their work and his time was not his own.
What is happening here is a classic back and forth game of who has
responsibility. The subordinate puts the monkey on the manager when she asks
for a review or when the boss is asked to solve a problem. When a manager
picks up the monkey from a direct report, he or she is literally working for the
subordinate. The manager’s time is being taken up by a subordinate’s work.
Something is wrong with this picture.
William Oncke, Jr., and Donald Wass wrote a landmark article for the Harvard
Business Review that should be tacked on every manager’s office wall. “Who’s
Got The Monkey?” (HBR, November-December 1974) is a tale of delegations
gone wrong. The idea of delegation is to give responsibility to direct reports
without having that responsibility come back to the manager. That’s the
essence of empowerment, that awful buzz word. Taking on that responsibility
may take some learning on the part of the subordinate, even some risk taking
and hand holding. But that’s where the responsibility has to stay. Of course, the
manager is still there for advice and help with the proviso that the monkey
stays on the direct report’s back. Such is the nature of effective delegation.
Our work with managers has revealed four basic considerations in delegating
well. Try these to keep the monkeys off your back.
Pick the right task to delegate. If the task has vague objectives, uncertain
process, the need to work with an adversarial group, and a relatively high risk of
failure, pass on delegation. Or at least, be prepared to become highly involved.
Provide the delegatee with the right amount of direction. An inexperienced
person needs more information than a veteran. In addition to knowing the
objective, tell the neophyte what to do and how to do it. If you did that to a
person who is experienced in a particular task, it would come across as micro
managing. Very Dilbert.
Plan your involvement. This is where you create some guidelines about what
your role will be. Progress reviews, advice and support, help in opening doors,
etc., should all be spelled out.
Monkey rules. Establish the ground rule that the person has responsibility for
execution, that you are available as defined, and that monkeys are non-
transferable.
SPECIAL ARTICLE! ADVICE FROM A MASTER
ManagerZine is honored to present this article by one of the most respected
managers in the human resources business. William F. Haupt was Manager of
Executive Development at General Motors, the world’s largest corporation, for
many years. He is currently president of Adaptive Leader Consulting, his own
management training consultancy in Panama City Beach, FL. Here are his
thoughts on making delegation work.
Organizational downsizing in recent years has resulted in fewer levels of
management and increasing spans of control. As a result, today’s managers
need to be much better at delegation. For some, the practice of effective
delegation comes easily. For others, it is a struggle, running counter to our
natural instincts and comfort levels. Indeed, many of the questions we have
received at ManagerZine relate directly to the issues, techniques and fears
concerning delegation.
What are the effective keys to delegation? What do “great delegators” do?
Here are some ideas drawn from observing hundreds of managers at various
levels in different organizations and functional areas. As you scan these, try
assessing your own approaches.
* Effective delegators start with a healthy self-esteem, self-confidence and a
realistic view of their own limitations. They are not afraid to surround
themselves with smarter or more qualified people.
* Effective delegators don’t cave in to micro-managing bosses who expect
them to know every detail of every operation they have delegated to lower
levels of their department.
* Effective delegators know the difference between “job enlargement” and “job
enrichment”. They also know the profound difference between “dumping” and
“empowering”.
* Effective delegators trust their people to do the right thing. That is no small
matter.
* Effective delegators grow their people through progressive degrees of
delegation, increasing their freedom to act and decreasing the manager’s
involvement and oversight.
* Effective delegators are clear about responsibility, authority and
accountability. They delegate responsibility, provide proportionate authority
and share and retain accountability.
* Effective delegators accept risks and tolerate mistakes when employee
actions are
1. in pursuit of goals and within policy and scope of authority
2. are not part of a pattern
3. something the employee can learn from.
* Effective delegators are role models for their people on how an empowered
employee can and should act on one’s own authority when they are well
trained, understand the mission, follow procedures and intend to be helpful to
the customer.
Caveat: If we continually delegate the most challenging tasks to the same
employee because that is who we trust the most, at some point that person will
feel taken advantage of. Hence, the employee expression, “Performance can
be punishing.” Remember, as a manager, you must develop all your people,
not just a select few.
© 2006 Singularity Group
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Click Board! If you come into work mulling over the overbearing traffic, lack of parking places, the crush of commuter buses and trains, and the other woes in this fickle world, reflect, for a moment, on the Universe. This site takes a macro zoom from all the way out there beyond Alpha Centuri to way down to the atoms in an oak leaf. http://micro.magnet.fsu.ed u/primer/java/scienceoptic su/powersof10/index.html Apropos of nothing, here is a reverse Google website. You have to see what we mean. http://www.alltooflat.com/g eeky/elgoog/m/index.cgi |
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Well-Spoken
"If there is no struggle,
there is no progress."
Fredrick Douglas
"If everyone is moving
forward together, then
success takes care of
itself."
Henry Ford
"If there is no struggle,
there is no progress."
Fredrick Douglas
"If everyone is moving
forward together, then
success takes care of
itself."
Henry Ford