elliot-stack 1.0.29 → 1.0.33

package/skills/estack-leadership-coach/references/.source-files/oncken-wass_monkeys-hbr-1974__oncken-wass-management-time-whos-got-the-monkey-hbr-classic-1974.md

@@ -0,0 +1,969 @@
+Harvard Business Review 30 DO 15 www.hbrreprints.org
+
+HBR CLASSIC
+
+The burdens of subordinates
+always seem to end up on the
+manager's back. Here's how to
+get rid of them.
+
+
+# Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey?
+
+by William Oncken, Jr., and Donald L. Wass
+•
+
+Included with this full-text Harvard Business Review article:
+
+
+## 1 Article Summary
+
+The Idea in Brief-the core idea
+The Idea in Practice-putting the idea to work
+
+2 Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey?
+
+
+### 8 Further Reading
+
+A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further
+exploration of the article's ideas and applications
+
+Reprint 99609
+This document is authorized for use only by Jillian Smith (jsmith@allinialglobal.com). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact customerservice@harvardbusiness.org or 800-988-0886 for additional copies.
+<!-- PageBreak [1] -->
+
+HBR CLASSIC
+
+
+# Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey?
+
+
+## The Idea in Brief
+
+You're racing down the hall. An employee
+stops you and says, "We've got a problem."
+You assume you should get involved but
+can't make an on-the-spot decision. You
+say, "Let me think about it."
+
+You've just allowed a "monkey" to leap from
+your subordinate's back to yours. You're now
+working for your subordinate. Take on
+enough monkeys, and you won't have time
+to handle your real job: fulfilling your own
+boss's mandates and helping peers gener-
+ate business results.
+
+How to avoid accumulating monkeys?
+Develop your subordinates' initiative, say
+Oncken and Wass. For example, when an
+employee tries to hand you a problem,
+clarify whether he should: recommend
+and implement a solution, take action
+then brief you immediately, or act and re-
+port the outcome at a regular update.
+
+When you encourage employees to handle
+their own monkeys, they acquire new
+skills-and you liberate time to do your
+own job.
+
+COPYRIGHT @ 2007 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
+
+
+## The Idea in Practice
+
+
+<table>
+<tr>
+<th rowspan="2">How to return monkeys to their proper own- ers? Oncken, Wass, and Steven Covey (in an afterword to this classic article) offer these suggestions:</th>
+<th>direct control and support employees' growth.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td rowspan="3">DEVELOP EMPLOYEES' SKILLS Employees try to hand off monkeys when they lack the desire or ability to handle them. Help employees develop needed problem- solving skills. It's initially more time consum- ing than tackling problems yourself-but it saves time in the long run.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>MAKE APPOINTMENTS TO DEAL WITH MONKEYS</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Avoid discussing any monkey on an ad hoc basis-for example, when you pass a subordi- nate in the hallway. You won't convey the proper seriousness. Instead, schedule an ap-</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>pointment to discuss the issue.</td>
+<td>FOSTER TRUST</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td rowspan="3">Developing employees' initiative requires a trusting relationship between you and your subordinates. If they're afraid of failing, they'll keep bringing their monkeys to you rather than working to solve their own problems. To promote trust, reassure them it's safe to make mistakes.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>SPECIFY LEVEL OF INITIATIVE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Your employees can exercise five levels of ini- tiative in handling on-the-job problems. From lowest to highest, the levels are: 1. Wait until told what to do.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>2. Ask what to do.</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>3. Recommend an action, then with your ap- proval, implement it.</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>4. Take independent action but advise you at once.</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>5. Take independent action and update you through routine procedure.</td>
+<td rowspan="2"></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>When an employee brings a problem to you, outlaw use of level 1 or 2. Agree on and assign level 3, 4, or 5 to the monkey. Take no more than 15 minutes to discuss the problem.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>AGREE ON A STATUS UPDATE</td>
+<td rowspan="2"></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>After deciding how to proceed, agree on a time and place when the employee will give you a progress report.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>EXAMINE YOUR OWN MOTIVES</td>
+<td rowspan="2"></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Some managers secretly worry that if they en- courage subordinates to take more initiative, they'll appear less strong, more vulnerable, and less useful. Instead, cultivate an inward sense of security that frees you to relinquish</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+This document is authorized for use only by Jillian Smith (jsmith@allinialglobal.com). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact customerservice@harvardbusiness.org or 800-988-0886 for additional copies.
+PAGE 1
+<!-- PageBreak [2] -->
+
+The burdens of subordinates always seem to end up on the manager's
+back. Here's how to get rid of them.
+
+HBR CLASSIC
+
+
+# Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey?
+
+by William Oncken, Jr., and Donald L. Wass
+
+COPYRIGHT @ 1999 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
+
+This article was originally published in the
+November-December 1974 issue of HBR and has
+been one of the publication's two best-selling
+reprints ever.
+
+For its reissue as a Classic, the Harvard Busi-
+ness Review asked Stephen R. Covey to provide
+a commentary.
+
+Why is it that managers are typically run-
+ning out of time while their subordinates
+are typically running out of work? Here we
+shall explore the meaning of management
+time as it relates to the interaction between
+managers and their bosses, their peers, and
+their subordinates.
+
+Specifically, we shall deal with three kinds of
+management time:
+
+Boss-imposed time-used to accomplish
+those activities that the boss requires and that
+the manager cannot disregard without direct
+and swift penalty.
+
+System-imposed time-used to accommo-
+date requests from peers for active support.
+Neglecting these requests will also result in
+
+penalties, though not always as direct or
+swift.
+
+Self-imposed time-used to do those things
+that the manager originates or agrees to do. A
+certain portion of this kind of time, however,
+will be taken by subordinates and is called
+subordinate-imposed time. The remaining por-
+tion will be the manager's own and is called
+discretionary time. Self-imposed time is not
+subject to penalty since neither the boss nor
+the system can discipline the manager for not
+doing what they didn't know he had intended
+to do in the first place.
+
+To accommodate those demands, managers
+need to control the timing and the content of
+what they do. Since what their bosses and the
+system impose on them are subject to penalty,
+managers cannot tamper with those require-
+ments. Thus their self-imposed time becomes
+their major area of concern.
+
+Managers should try to increase the discre-
+tionary component of their self-imposed time
+by minimizing or doing away with the subor-
+dinate component. They will then use the
+
+HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW . NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1999 This document is authorized for use only by Jillian Smith (jsmith@allinialglobal.com). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact customerservice@harvardbusiness.org or 800-988-0886 for additional copies.
+PAGE 2
+<!-- PageBreak [3] -->
+
+Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey? . HBR CLASSIC
+
+William Oncken, Jr., was chairman of
+the William Oncken Corporation until
+his death in 1988. His son, William
+Oncken III, now heads the company.
+Donald L. Wass was president of the
+William Oncken Company of Texas
+when the article first appeared. He now
+heads the Dallas-Fort Worth region of
+The Executive Committee (TEC), an
+international organization for presidents
+and CEOs.
+
+added increment to get better control over
+their boss-imposed and system-imposed activ-
+ities. Most managers spend much more time
+dealing with subordinates' problems than
+they even faintly realize. Hence we shall use
+the monkey-on-the-back metaphor to examine
+how subordinate-imposed time comes into
+being and what the superior can do about it.
+
+
+## Where Is the Monkey?
+
+Let us imagine that a manager is walking
+down the hall and that he notices one of his
+subordinates, Jones, coming his way. When
+the two meet, Jones greets the manager with,
+"Good morning. By the way, we've got a prob-
+lem. You see .... " As Jones continues, the man-
+ager recognizes in this problem the two char-
+acteristics common to all the problems his
+subordinates gratuitously bring to his atten-
+tion. Namely, the manager knows (a) enough
+to get involved, but (b) not enough to make
+the on-the-spot decision expected of him.
+Eventually, the manager says, "So glad you
+brought this up. I'm in a rush right now. Mean-
+while, let me think about it, and I'll let you
+know." Then he and Jones part company.
+
+Let us analyze what just happened. Before
+the two of them met, on whose back was the
+"monkey"? The subordinate's. After they
+parted, on whose back was it? The manager's.
+Subordinate-imposed time begins the mo-
+ment a monkey successfully leaps from the
+back of a subordinate to the back of his or her
+superior and does not end until the monkey is
+returned to its proper owner for care and
+feeding. In accepting the monkey, the man-
+ager has voluntarily assumed a position sub-
+ordinate to his subordinate. That is, he has al-
+lowed Jones to make him her subordinate by
+doing two things a subordinate is generally
+expected to do for a boss-the manager has
+accepted a responsibility from his subordi-
+nate, and the manager has promised her a
+progress report.
+
+The subordinate, to make sure the man-
+ager does not miss this point, will later
+stick her head in the manager's office and
+cheerily query, "How's it coming?" (This is
+called supervision.)
+
+Or let us imagine in concluding a conference
+with Johnson, another subordinate, the man-
+ager's parting words are, "Fine. Send me a
+memo on that."
+
+Let us analyze this one. The monkey is now
+
+on the subordinate's back because the next
+move is his, but it is poised for a leap. Watch
+that monkey. Johnson dutifully writes the re-
+quested memo and drops it in his out-basket.
+Shortly thereafter, the manager plucks it
+from his in-basket and reads it. Whose move is
+it now? The manager's. If he does not make
+that move soon, he will get a follow-up memo
+from the subordinate. (This is another form of
+supervision.) The longer the manager delays,
+the more frustrated the subordinate will be-
+come (he'll be spinning his wheels) and the
+more guilty the manager will feel (his backlog
+of subordinate-imposed time will be mounting).
+
+Or suppose once again that at a meeting
+with a third subordinate, Smith, the man-
+ager agrees to provide all the necessary
+backing for a public relations proposal he
+has just asked Smith to develop. The man-
+ager's parting words to her are, "Just let me
+know how I can help."
+
+Now let us analyze this. Again the monkey
+is initially on the subordinate's back. But for
+how long? Smith realizes that she cannot let
+the manager "know" until her proposal has
+the manager's approval. And from experi-
+ence, she also realizes that her proposal will
+likely be sitting in the manager's briefcase for
+weeks before he eventually gets to it. Who's
+really got the monkey? Who will be checking
+up on whom? Wheel spinning and bottle-
+necking are well on their way again.
+
+A fourth subordinate, Reed, has just been
+transferred from another part of the company
+so that he can launch and eventually manage a
+newly created business venture. The manager
+has said they should get together soon to ham-
+mer out a set of objectives for the new job,
+adding, "I will draw up an initial draft for dis-
+cussion with you."
+
+Let us analyze this one, too. The subordinate
+has the new job (by formal assignment) and
+the full responsibility (by formal delegation),
+but the manager has the next move. Until he
+makes it, he will have the monkey, and the sub-
+ordinate will be immobilized.
+
+Why does all of this happen? Because in
+each instance the manager and the subordi-
+nate assume at the outset, wittingly or un-
+wittingly, that the matter under consideration
+is a joint problem. The monkey in each case
+begins its career astride both their backs. All it
+has to do is move the wrong leg, and-
+presto !- the subordinate deftly disappears.
+
+HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW . NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1999
+This document is authorized for use only by Jillian Smith (smith@allinialglobal.com). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact customerservice@harvardbusiness.org or 800-988-0886 for additional copies.
+PAGE 3
+<!-- PageBreak [4] -->
+
+Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey? . HBR CLASSIC
+
+The manager can now
+see, with the clarity of a
+revelation on a
+mountaintop, that the
+more he gets caught up,
+the more he will fall
+behind.
+
+The manager is thus left with another acquisi-
+tion for his menagerie. Of course, monkeys can
+be trained not to move the wrong leg. But it is
+easier to prevent them from straddling backs
+in the first place.
+
+
+## Who Is Working for Whom?
+
+Let us suppose that these same four subordi-
+nates are so thoughtful and considerate of
+their superior's time that they take pains to
+allow no more than three monkeys to leap
+from each of their backs to his in any one day.
+In a five-day week, the manager will have
+picked up 60 screaming monkeys-far too
+many to do anything about them individually.
+So he spends his subordinate-imposed time
+juggling his "priorities."
+
+Late Friday afternoon, the manager is in his
+office with the door closed for privacy so he
+can contemplate the situation, while his subor-
+dinates are waiting outside to get their last
+chance before the weekend to remind him that
+he will have to "fish or cut bait." Imagine what
+they are saying to one another about the man-
+ager as they wait: "What a bottleneck. He just
+can't make up his mind. How anyone ever got
+that high up in our company without being
+able to make a decision we'll never know."
+
+Worst of all, the reason the manager can-
+not make any of these "next moves" is that his
+time is almost entirely eaten up by meeting
+his own boss-imposed and system-imposed
+requirements. To control those tasks, he needs
+discretionary time that is in turn denied him
+when he is preoccupied with all these monkeys.
+The manager is caught in a vicious circle. But
+time is a-wasting (an understatement). The
+manager calls his secretary on the intercom
+and instructs her to tell his subordinates that
+he won't be able to see them until Monday
+morning. At 7 PM, he drives home, intending
+with firm resolve to return to the office to-
+morrow to get caught up over the weekend.
+He returns bright and early the next day only
+to see, on the nearest green of the golf course
+across from his office window, a foursome.
+Guess who?
+
+That does it. He now knows who is really
+working for whom. Moreover, he now sees
+that if he actually accomplishes during this
+weekend what he came to accomplish, his sub-
+ordinates' morale will go up so sharply that
+they will each raise the limit on the number of
+monkeys they will let jump from their backs to
+
+his. In short, he now sees, with the clarity of a
+revelation on a mountaintop, that the more he
+gets caught up, the more he will fall behind.
+
+He leaves the office with the speed of a per-
+son running away from a plague. His plan? To
+get caught up on something else he hasn't
+had time for in years: a weekend with his
+family. (This is one of the many varieties of
+discretionary time.)
+
+Sunday night he enjoys ten hours of sweet,
+untroubled slumber, because he has clear-cut
+plans for Monday. He is going to get rid of his
+subordinate-imposed time. In exchange, he
+will get an equal amount of discretionary time,
+part of which he will spend with his subordi-
+nates to make sure that they learn the difficult
+but rewarding managerial art called "The Care
+and Feeding of Monkeys."
+
+The manager will also have plenty of discre-
+tionary time left over for getting control of
+the timing and the content not only of his
+boss-imposed time but also of his system-
+imposed time. It may take months, but com-
+pared with the way things have been, the
+rewards will be enormous. His ultimate ob-
+jective is to manage his time.
+
+
+## Getting Rid of the Monkeys
+
+The manager returns to the office Monday
+morning just late enough so that his four sub-
+ordinates have collected outside his office
+waiting to see him about their monkeys. He
+calls them in one by one. The purpose of each
+interview is to take a monkey, place it on the
+desk between them, and figure out together
+how the next move might conceivably be the
+subordinate's. For certain monkeys, that will
+take some doing. The subordinate's next
+move may be so elusive that the manager
+may decide-just for now-merely to let the
+monkey sleep on the subordinate's back over-
+night and have him or her return with it at an
+appointed time the next morning to continue
+the joint quest for a more substantive move
+by the subordinate. (Monkeys sleep just as
+soundly overnight on subordinates' backs as
+they do on superiors'.)
+
+As each subordinate leaves the office, the
+manager is rewarded by the sight of a mon-
+key leaving his office on the subordinate's
+back. For the next 24 hours, the subordinate
+will not be waiting for the manager; in-
+stead, the manager will be waiting for the
+subordinate.
+
+HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW . NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1999
+PAGE 4
+This document is authorized for use only by Jillian Smith (smith@allinialglobal.com). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact customerservice@harvardbusiness.org or 800-988-0886 for additional copies.
+<!-- PageBreak [5] -->
+
+Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey? . HBR CLASSIC
+
+Later, as if to remind himself that there is
+no law against his engaging in a constructive
+exercise in the interim, the manager strolls by
+the subordinate's office, sticks his head in the
+door, and cheerily asks, "How's it coming?"
+(The time consumed in doing this is discre-
+tionary for the manager and boss imposed for
+the subordinate.)
+
+When the subordinate (with the monkey on
+his or her back) and the manager meet at the
+appointed hour the next day, the manager ex-
+plains the ground rules in words to this effect:
+
+"At no time while I am helping you with
+this or any other problem will your problem
+become my problem. The instant your prob-
+lem becomes mine, you no longer have a
+problem. I cannot help a person who hasn't
+got a problem.
+
+"When this meeting is over, the problem
+will leave this office exactly the way it came
+in-on your back. You may ask my help at
+any appointed time, and we will make a joint
+determination of what the next move will be
+and which of us will make it.
+
+"In those rare instances where the next
+move turns out to be mine, you and I will de-
+termine it together. I will not make any
+move alone."
+
+The manager follows this same line of
+thought with each subordinate until about
+11 AM, when he realizes that he doesn't have
+to close his door. His monkeys are gone. They
+will return-but by appointment only. His
+calendar will assure this.
+
+
+## Transferring the Initiative
+
+What we have been driving at in this monkey-
+on-the-back analogy is that managers can
+transfer initiative back to their subordinates
+and keep it there. We have tried to highlight
+a truism as obvious as it is subtle: namely, be-
+fore developing initiative in subordinates, the
+manager must see to it that they have the ini-
+tiative. Once the manager takes it back, he
+will no longer have it and he can kiss his dis-
+cretionary time good-bye. It will all revert to
+subordinate-imposed time.
+
+Nor can the manager and the subordinate
+effectively have the same initiative at the
+same time. The opener, "Boss, we've got a
+problem," implies this duality and repre-
+sents, as noted earlier, a monkey astride two
+backs, which is a very bad way to start a
+monkey on its career. Let us, therefore, take
+a few moments to examine what we call
+"The Anatomy of Managerial Initiative."
+
+
+## Making Time for Gorillas
+
+by Stephen R. Covey
+
+When Bill Oncken wrote this article in 1974,
+managers were in a terrible bind. They were
+desperate for a way to free up their time, but
+command and control was the status quo.
+Managers felt they weren't allowed to em-
+power their subordinates to make decisions.
+Too dangerous. Too risky. That's why On-
+cken's message-give the monkey back to its
+rightful owner-involved a critically impor-
+tant paradigm shift. Many managers working
+today owe him a debt of gratitude.
+
+It is something of an understatement, how-
+ever, to observe that much has changed since
+Oncken's radical recommendation. Command
+and control as a management philosophy is all
+but dead, and "empowerment" is the word of
+the day in most organizations trying to thrive
+in global, intensely competitive markets. But
+command and control stubbornly remains a
+common practice. Management thinkers and
+executives have discovered in the last decade
+
+that bosses cannot just give a monkey back to
+their subordinates and then merrily get on
+with their own business. Empowering subor-
+dinates is hard and complicated work.
+
+The reason: when you give problems back
+to subordinates to solve themselves, you have
+to be sure that they have both the desire and
+the ability to do so. As every executive knows,
+that isn't always the case. Enter a whole new
+set of problems. Empowerment often means
+you have to develop people, which is initially
+much more time consuming than solving the
+problem on your own.
+
+Just as important, empowerment can only
+thrive when the whole organization buys into
+it-when formal systems and the informal
+culture support it. Managers need to be re-
+warded for delegating decisions and develop-
+ing people. Otherwise, the degree of real em-
+powerment in an organization will vary
+according to the beliefs and practices of indi-
+vidual managers.
+
+But perhaps the most important lesson about
+empowerment is that effective delegation-
+the kind Oncken advocated-depends on a
+trusting relationship between a manager and
+his subordinate. Oncken's message may have
+been ahead of his time, but what he suggested
+was still a fairly dictatorial solution. He basi-
+cally told bosses, "Give the problem back!" To-
+day, we know that this approach by itself is too
+authoritarian. To delegate effectively, execu-
+tives need to establish a running dialogue
+with subordinates. They need to establish a
+partnership. After all, if subordinates are
+afraid of failing in front of their boss, they'll
+keep coming back for help rather than truly
+take initiative.
+
+Oncken's article also doesn't address an as-
+pect of delegation that has greatly interested
+me during the past two decades-that many
+managers are actually eager to take on their
+subordinates' monkeys. Nearly all the man-
+agers I talk with agree that their people are
+
+HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW . NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1999
+This document is authorized for use only by Jillian Smith (smith@allinialglobal.com). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact customerservice@harvardbusiness.org or 800-988-0886 for additional copies.
+PAGE 5
+<!-- PageBreak [6] -->
+
+Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey? . HBR CLASSIC
+
+There are five degrees of initiative that the
+manager can exercise in relation to the boss
+and to the system:
+
+1\. wait until told (lowest initiative);
+
+2\. ask what to do;
+
+3\. recommend, then take resulting action;
+
+4\. act, but advise at once;
+
+5\. and act on own, then routinely report
+(highest initiative).
+
+Clearly, the manager should be professional
+enough not to indulge in initiatives 1 and 2 in
+relation either to the boss or to the system. A
+manager who uses initiative 1 has no control
+over either the timing or the content of boss-
+imposed or system-imposed time and thereby
+forfeits any right to complain about what he or
+she is told to do or when. The manager who
+uses initiative 2 has control over the timing but
+not over the content. Initiatives 3, 4, and 5
+leave the manager in control of both, with the
+greatest amount of control being exercised at
+level 5.
+
+In relation to subordinates, the manager's
+job is twofold. First, to outlaw the use of ini-
+tiatives 1 and 2, thus giving subordinates no
+choice but to learn and master "Completed
+Staff Work." Second, to see that for each
+problem leaving his or her office there is an
+
+agreed-upon level of initiative assigned to it,
+in addition to an agreed-upon time and place
+for the next manager-subordinate confer-
+ence. The latter should be duly noted on the
+manager's calendar.
+
+
+### The Care and Feeding of Monkeys
+
+To further clarify our analogy between the
+monkey on the back and the processes of
+assigning and controlling, we shall refer
+briefly to the manager's appointment
+schedule, which calls for five hard-and-fast
+rules governing the "Care and Feeding of
+Monkeys." (Violation of these rules will cost
+discretionary time.)
+
+Rule 1. Monkeys should be fed or shot.
+Otherwise, they will starve to death, and
+the manager will waste valuable time on
+postmortems or attempted resurrections.
+
+Rule 2. The monkey population should be
+kept below the maximum number the man-
+ager has time to feed. Subordinates will find
+time to work as many monkeys as he or she
+finds time to feed, but no more. It shouldn't
+take more than five to 15 minutes to feed a
+properly maintained monkey.
+
+Rule 3. Monkeys should be fed by appoint-
+ment only. The manager should not have to
+
+underutilized in their present jobs. But even
+some of the most successful, seemingly self-
+assured executives have talked about how hard
+it is to give up control to their subordinates.
+
+I've come to attribute that eagerness for con-
+trol to a common, deep-seated belief that re-
+wards in life are scarce and fragile. Whether
+they learn it from their family, school, or athlet-
+ics, many people establish an identity by com-
+paring themselves with others. When they see
+others gain power, information, money, or rec-
+ognition, for instance, they experience what the
+psychologist Abraham Maslow called "a feeling
+of deficiency"-a sense that something is being
+taken from them. That makes it hard for them
+to be genuinely happy about the success of oth-
+ers-even of their loved ones. Oncken implies
+that managers can easily give back or refuse
+monkeys, but many managers may subcon-
+sciously fear that a subordinate taking the ini-
+tiative will make them appear a little less strong
+and a little more vulnerable.
+
+How, then, do managers develop the inward
+security, the mentality of "abundance," that
+
+would enable them to relinquish control and
+seek the growth and development of those
+around them? The work I've done with numer-
+ous organizations suggests that managers who
+live with integrity according to a principle-
+based value system are most likely to sustain an
+empowering style of leadership.
+
+Given the times in which he wrote, it was
+no wonder that Oncken's message resonated
+with managers. But it was reinforced by
+Oncken's wonderful gift for storytelling. I got
+to know Oncken on the speaker's circuit in the
+1970s, and I was always impressed by how he
+dramatized his ideas in colorful detail. Like the
+Dilbert comic strip, Oncken had a tongue-
+in-cheek style that got to the core of managers'
+frustrations and made them want to take back
+control of their time. And the monkey on your
+back wasn't just a metaphor for Oncken-it
+was his personal symbol. I saw him several
+times walking through airports with a stuffed
+monkey on his shoulder.
+
+I'm not surprised that his article is one of
+the two best-selling HBR articles ever. Even
+
+with all we know about empowerment, its
+vivid message is even more important and
+relevant now than it was 25 years ago. Indeed,
+Oncken's insight is a basis for my own work on
+time management, in which I have people
+categorize their activities according to urgency
+and importance. I've heard from executives
+again and again that half or more of their time
+is spent on matters that are urgent but not
+important. They're trapped in an endless cycle
+of dealing with other people's monkeys, yet
+they're reluctant to help those people take their
+own initiative. As a result, they're often too
+busy to spend the time they need on the real
+gorillas in their organization. Oncken's article
+remains a powerful wake-up call for managers
+who need to delegate effectively.
+
+Stephen R. Covey is vice chairman of the Frank-
+lin Covey Company, a global provider of leader-
+ship development and productivity services and
+products. He is the author of The 7 Habits of
+Highly Effective People (Simon & Schuster, 1989)
+and First Things First (Simon & Schuster, 1994).
+
+HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW . NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1999
+This document is authorized for use only by Jillian Smith (smith@allinialglobal.com). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact customerservice@harvardbusiness.org or 800-988-0886 for additional copies.
+PAGE 6
+<!-- PageBreak [7] -->
+
+Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey? . HBR CLASSIC
+
+In accepting the monkey,
+the manager has
+voluntarily assumed a
+position subordinate to
+his subordinate.
+
+hunt down starving monkeys and feed them
+on a catch-as-catch-can basis.
+
+Rule 4. Monkeys should be fed face-to-
+face or by telephone, but never by mail.
+(Remember-with mail, the next move will be
+the manager's.) Documentation may add to
+the feeding process, but it cannot take the
+place of feeding.
+
+Rule 5. Every monkey should have an as-
+signed next feeding time and degree of initia-
+tive. These may be revised at any time by mu-
+tual consent but never allowed to become
+vague or indefinite. Otherwise, the monkey
+will either starve to death or wind up on the
+manager's back.
+
+...
+
+"Get control over the timing and content of
+what you do" is appropriate advice for manag-
+ing time. The first order of business is for the
+
+manager to enlarge his or her discretionary
+time by eliminating subordinate-imposed
+time. The second is for the manager to use a
+portion of this newfound discretionary time to
+see to it that each subordinate actually has the
+initiative and applies it. The third is for the
+manager to use another portion of the in-
+creased discretionary time to get and keep
+control of the timing and content of both boss-
+imposed and system-imposed time. All these
+steps will increase the manager's leverage and
+enable the value of each hour spent in manag-
+ing management time to multiply without
+theoretical limit.
+
+Reprint 99609
+To order, see the next page
+or call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500
+or go to www.hbrreprints.org
+
+HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW . NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1999 This document is authorized for use only by Jillian Smith (jsmith@allinialglobal.com). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact customerservice@harvardbusiness.org or 800-988-0886 for additional copies.
+PAGE 7
+<!-- PageBreak [8] -->
+
+HBR CLASSIC
+
+Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey?
+
+
+### Further Reading
+
+ARTICLES
+What Effective General Managers Really
+Do
+by John P. Kotter
+Harvard Business Review
+March-April 1999
+Product no. 3707
+
+A gap has existed between the conventional
+wisdom about how managers work and the
+actual behavior of effective managers. Kotter
+explains that managers who limit their inter-
+actions to orderly, focused meetings actually
+shut themselves off from vital information and
+relationships. Seemingly wasteful activities like
+chatting in hallways and having impromptu
+meetings can, in fact, prove quite efficient
+when managers have an agenda on which they
+are always working. Unplanned encounters
+thus provide an opportunity to advance
+the agenda.
+
+
+### The Manager: Master and Servant of Power
+
+by Fernando Bartolomé and André Laurent
+Harvard Business Review
+November-December 1986
+Product no. 4215
+
+When workers' commitment to their jobs
+wanes, or when they allow resentments to-
+ward bosses, direct reports, and others to
+fester, the reason isn't that bosses are
+power-hungry or direct reports rebellious.
+Conflict and misunderstanding usually arise
+because of power dynamics. Many manag-
+ers can't see how their behavior toward di-
+rect reports and superiors alike is distorted
+by hierarchical differences. The result can be
+a lessening of trust between manager and
+subordinate, which inhibits open communi-
+cation and risk taking.
+
+
+### Pygmalion in Management
+
+by J. Sterling Livingston
+Harvard Business Review
+September-October 1988
+Product no. 88509
+
+Further substantiation of the manager's cru-
+cial role in developing initiative. Experiments
+and studies have demonstrated that manag-
+ers'expectations have a direct impact on their
+direct reports' productivity-the "Pygmalion
+effect." High expectations on the part of
+managers lead to the development of a
+"superstaff." Low expectations result in dam-
+aged egos and poor performers. The differ-
+ence in the behavior of these two groups is a
+direct result of how each of them is treated by
+the manager.
+
+
+### BOOK Harvard Business Review on Managing People
+
+Harvard Business School Press
+1999
+Product no. 9075
+
+The articles in this collection suggest ways to
+build organizations with judicious and effec-
+tive systems for managing people. Although
+each article presents a thought-provoking
+perspective on some aspect of people man-
+agement, two are especially applicable to
+the subject of time spent managing others.
+Writing on empowerment, Chris Argyris
+warns that using it as the ultimate criterion
+for success in an organization may cover up
+deeper problems that need to be addressed.
+Jay Conger argues that persuasion, defined
+as learning from others and negotiating a
+shared solution, is gaining importance as a
+management tool in post-command-and-
+control organizations.
+
+
+## Harvard Business Review
+
+
+### To Order
+
+For Harvard Business Review reprints and
+subscriptions, call 800-988-0886 or
+617-783-7500. Go to www.hbrreprints.org
+
+For customized and quantity orders of
+Harvard Business Review article reprints,
+call 617-783-7626, or e-mai
+customizations@hbsp.harvard.edu
+
+This document is authorized for use only by Jillian Smith (jsmith@allinialglobal.com). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact customerservice@harvardbusiness.org or 800-988-0886 for additional copies.
+PAGE 8
+<!-- PageBreak [9] -->