Who's Got The Monkey Now? How to find out how well you manage
your time
Copyright 2006 The National Learning Institute
Are you a manager? Would you like more available time? Yes, then
read on . . .
How come you've worked hard all day but haven't started the one
task that was most important to you? As a manager, how come your
daily work schedule often falls in a heap by mid-morning?
Who's got the monkey? The answer is, you have - probably several!
"Management Time: Who's got the Monkey" has been the second most
popular management article ever published by the Harvard
Business Review ("Management Time: Who's got the Monkey", by
William Oncken and Donald Wass, first published by Harvard
Business Review, 1974) and has been reprinted several times.
Thirty odd years later, the message Oncken and Wass sent us on
management, still holds true today.
They suggested that there are three types of management-imposed
time pressure - Boss, System, and Self.
Boss-imposed time pressure Activities, which must be
accomplished, or we'll suffer the consequences!
System-imposed time pressure Those activities/requests which
come from peers and colleagues. The penalties are not so severe
or as swift, but we may still suffer if these things are not
done.
Self-imposed time pressure Those activities we ourselves
initiate or agree to do - particularly those things which have
been upwardly delegated from people who report to us. As
managers, these activities impact heavily on our discretionary
time, and the penalty for not doing these is stress.
Oncken and Wass used the monkey analogy to make their point. As
the manager, when someone in our team talks about a "problem"
they want to "run past us", the monkey (in other words, the
problem) is very clearly on their back. But when we respond with
something like "Well, I haven't got time right now, but leave it
with me", the monkey immediately leaps from their shoulders to
ours. We have just been on the receiving end of an excellent
piece of upward delegation!
If this happens to you every day (or at least more often than it
should), you'll soon be carrying a cagefull of monkeys on your
back. Not only have you reduced your discretionary time, you
also must feed and care for the monkeys you've acquired. For
example, your people are probably pretty good at keeping track
of their delegated task, when they say things like "Hey boss,
how's that issue going that I told you about the other day?"
The secret is to reduce the pressure of self-imposed activities
to give us more discretionary time. You can then use this time
to become more productive with your boss and the system and in
the process, a better manager.
How do you avoid catching monkeys and give yourself more
discretionary time? The first step is to recognise that the
monkeys are jumping onto your back!
Use the following checklist to see whether as a manager you are
a collector of monkeys. Answer each with "Always", "Often" or
"Rarely".
How often do I say . . . "Leave it with me" "Can I think about
that?" "I'll get back to you on that" "I've seen something like
that a thousand times. I'll look after it for you" "I'll get Bob
to look after that" "Send me an e-mail on that will you?" "Don't
you worry about it"
If you found yourself answering "Always" or "Often" for most of
these, then it's probably too late. The monkey has just jumped!
There's a very good chance that you are taking on the problems
of your people, rather than helping them solve the problems
themselves and in the process, further developing their own
skills and knowledge. In thirty years of running and designing
management training programs, managers tell me that the one
thing they would like to do better or more of, is delegate!
Want to try again? Use the same "Always", "Often" or "Never" on
the following questions.
How often do I say . . . "Let me know if you have trouble" "You
know you don't have to do it that way" "That's interesting. I've
never seen anything quite like that before" "I remember when
that happened to . . . " "I think my last boss had something
like that happen to him/her"
If you found yourself answering "Always" or "Often", then the
result is not as bad as the first list. However, beware! The
monkey is about to jump! While the responses sound very
supportive and helpful (which they are), starting out like this
invariably ends up with you, the manager, taking on the problem
to solve.
How did you score on both lists of questions? Do you use similar
phrases to some of the ones in the checklists? If you found
yourself ticking a number of "always" or "often" columns, or you
use similar phrases regularly, then chances are you need to be
careful about taking on too many monkeys. Think about what: -
you should and can do, - then, what others could do for you.
What you "should do" is all about setting your priorities and
sticking with them. What are the two or three things that you
must achieve today, "come what may". Do not be swayed from these!
What you "can do" has nothing to do with your ability, rather it
is about the amount of time you have available and how you use
that time - in other words, effective time management. As the
manager, you are the "expert" - your people know that there are
lots of things that you can do. Do not be trapped into doing
things just because you know how. While it may take a little bit
of your time to teach or coach someone else, in the long run
doing so will save you heaps of time.
What "others can do for you" is about your willingness and
ability to delegate. Remember, developing your people to take
responsibility will provide you with more discretionary time to
devote to other activities.
More tips in future articles on how to limit boss imposed time;
how to distinguish the important from the urgent; how to
delegate effectively. In the meantime if you would like more
information on any or all of these, or any aspect of managing
more effectively, please contact me via
www.nationallearning.com.au for free advice.