Monkey on Whose Back?
A recent client had a challenge: subordinates would ask questions of them, expecting the leader to either have answers or promise to find the answer and get back to them. Unfortunately, these requests kept growing and my client did not have time to get their own work done and be able to go home at a reasonable time.
This is a classic example of what William Onken, Jr. and Donald Wass documented in HBR’s “Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey?” While leaders have a lot of responsibilities, they only have the same 24 hours/day that everyone else does. It is critical that just like allocating resources to efforts, leaders allocate time to the most important items in their purview. Many times, responding to subordinates’ queries are not the most important items yet, due to psychological reasons, the leader feels they must respond to these items in the time they promised, impacting more important items.
Not only that, but by taking on the question (i.e., monkey) the leader precludes the subordinate from taking the initiative and thereby growing their skills and responsibilities!
So, by taking on the monkey, the leader causes two negative results: they don’t have the time they need for their responsibilities and they deny the subordinates the opportunity to grow.
What to do?
The first thing is to notice what is happening. The leader must proactively listen to the query, realize what is happening (the subordinate, consciously or not, is trying to move a monkey onto the leader’s back), and respond accordingly.
The subordinate comes to the leader and says “we have a problem…” Well, in reality, the subordinate has the problem not the leader. If the leader rather than pushing the problem (monkey) on the subordinate’s back takes it on, now the leader has the problem (monkey) on their back. Not only that, but the subordinate will expect a response. So who is working for whom now?
Taking notice is typically enough to stop this dysfunctional behavior.
But the subordinates, who have been used to putting monkeys on the leader’s back, may push back. The subordinate may argue that they don’t have the knowledge, ability, or authority to resolve the problem (monkey).
Six Domains of Leadership™ to help the situation
Here’s where the leader should use their Inspirational and Supportive leadership skills to help and encourage the subordinates to keep the monkeys. These are two of the six domains of leadership in the Six Domains of Leadership(SDL) model. I have published a few articles about this model: “Situational Leadership and the Six Domains of Leadership” and “Helping a ‘Storming’ Team” among others. See also Delta Leadership’s website: https://deltaleadership.com.
Using Inspirational leadership, the leader will promote this concept (innovation!), be enthusiastic about it and the subordinate’s ability to feed and care for the monkey, and have high expectations that the subordinate will be able to do it.
At the same time, using Supportive leadership, the leader will make it save (security) for the follower to take on the work, manage any blame (blame control), and explain to the subordinate how they have the skills and abilities (efficacy) to take care of the monkey.
Result
After I explained this concept to my client, they were able to keep the monkeys on the subordinates’ back, allowing the leader to do their work and have work-life balance.
Want to improve your leadership?
Contact me at jose@coachsolera.com to find out how to improve your leadership.
Subscribe to my stories
Interested in more of my Medium stories? Visit and subscribe at https://medium.com/@josesolera/subscribe.
Website
Visit my performance coaching website: https://coachsolera.com
