Managing You Time - "who's Got the Monkey"

An analogy that underscores the value of

assigning, delegating and controlling

Richard T. Christensen, Management Consultant

In any organization, the manager's bosses, peers and subordinates, in return for their active support, impose some requirements, just as the manager imposes some requirements upon them when they are drawing upon his or her support. These demands constitute so much of the manager's time that successful leadership hinges on an ability to control this "monkey on the back" effectively.

Why is it that managers are typically running out of time while their subordinates are typically running out of work? In this article, we shall explore the meaning of management time as it relates to the interaction between managers and their bosses, their own peers and their subordinates. Specifically, we shall deal with three different kinds of management time:

Boss imposed time To accomplish those activities which the boss requires and which the manager cannot disregard without direct and swift penalty.

System imposed time To accommodate those requests to the manager for active support from his or her peers. This assistance must also be provided lest there be penalties, though not always direct or swift.

Self imposed time To do those things which 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 portion will be his or her 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 did not know the manager had intended to do in the first place.

The management of time necessitates that management get control over the timing and content of what they do. Since what their bosses and the system impose on them are backed up by penalty, managers cannot tamper with those requirements. Thus their self imposed time becomes their major area of concern.

The manager's strategy is therefore to increase the "discretionary" component of their self imposed time by minimizing or doing away with the "subordinate" component. They will then use the added increment to get better control over their boss imposed and system imposed activities. Most managers spend much more subordinate imposed time than they even faintly realize. Hence we shall use a monkey on the back analogy 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 he notices one of his subordinates, Jones, coming up the hallway. When they are abreast of one another, Jones greets the manager with "Good morning. By the way, we've got a problem. You see...." As Jones continues, the manager recognizes in this problem the same two characteristics common to all the problems his subordinates gratuitously bring to his attention. 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. Meanwhile, 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 subordinates. After they parted, on whose back was it? The manager's. Subordinate imposed time begins the moment a monkey successfully executes a leap 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 manager has voluntarily assumed a position subordinate to his subordinate. That is, he has allowed Jones to make him subordinate by doing two things a subordinate is generally expected to do for a boss the manager has accepted a responsibility from his subordinate, and the manager has promised her a progress report.

The subordinate, to make sure the manager 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 again, in concluding a working conference with another subordinate, Johnson, the manager'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 requested 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 a 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 become (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 manager agrees to provide all the necessary backing for a public relations proposal he has just asked Smith to develop. The manager's parting words to her are "Just let me know how I can help." Now let us analyze this. Here 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. From experience, she realizes her proposal will likely be sitting in the manager's briefcase for weeks waiting for him to eventually get to it. Who's really got the monkey? Who will be checking up on whom? Wheel spinning and bottlenecking are on their way again.

A fourth subordinate, Reed, has just been transferred from another part of the company in order to launch and eventually manage a newly created business venture. The manager has said that they should get together soon to hammer out a set of objectives for the new job, and that "I will draw up an initial draft for discussion with you."

Let us analyze this one too. The subordinate has the new job (by formal assignment) and the full responsibility