But are you the kind of person who finds yourself saying “leave it with me” or “I’ll think about it and get back to you” and then you let that person walk out of the room monkey free? That’s how your metaphorical office becomes a monkey zoo - caring for monkeys that aren’t yours. People will come to you and talk to you about their monkeys, that’s natural and part of your job. If you’re a team manager, you’ll have your own personal monkeys, but your team will have their monkeys too. It could be what needs doing next to resolve a problem or make the most of an opportunity. In this book, a monkey is defined as “ the next move required to progress something”. We see something that needs doing, that we know we could do, and we want to get it done. Some of us are compulsive monkey-picker-uppers. I asked her if she was running a monkey zoo, which of course made no sense to her, so I explained… The conversation focused on her willingness to help and yet the time pressure she felt trying to get everything done. The reason I picked the book up again was a mentoring conversation I had with a HR professional. I read the whole thing in one afternoon recently. This book (The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey, by Ken Blanchard) was written in 1990, and is definitely a bit dated in places, but it shares some valuable insights that all of us who manage others could benefit from reflecting on now and again. Do you ever look around at the monkeys in your “office” and check to see whether they are really all yours?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |