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Delegation meets the Monkey

The One Minute Manager meets the Monkey is, as the title suggests, another in the One Minute Manager series. Like the rest of the books, it is written in a narrative style with lessons along the way. This makes it easy to read but because the people are fictional you often wonder if a real person can implement everything taught the in book.

The storyline, for want of a better description, is about a manager who is over worked, doing long hours, stressed and as a result is a poor leader. He discovers that the reason for this is actually monkeys. Monkeys are tasks or problems that people below him should be handling and resolving, except he continues to say "I will sort that out for you".

The man in the story, learns to leave the problems and tasks on his people's back and helps them with direction. Effectively it is a story of delegation and coaching, so here are the 4 lessons of the monkey:

Rule 1: Describe the Monkey: the dialogue must not end until the appropriate "next moves" have been identifies and specified.

Rule 2: Assign the Monkey: All monkeys shall be owned and handled at the lowest organizational level consistent with their welfare.

Rule 3: Insure the Monkey: Every monkey leaving your presence on the back of one of your people must be covered by one of two insurance policies:

1. Recommend, the Act
2. Act, then Advise

Rule 4: Check on the Monkey: Proper follow-up means healthier monkeys. Every monkeys should have a checkup appointment.

In summary, it was an easy read with some timely reminders about getting your people to solve their own problems.

Book Summary

The One Minutes Manager meets the Monkey
Ken Blanchard

Genres          Management, Coaching, Delegation
Pages           130
Readability     2 (1 = Easy, 5 = Hard)
Enjoyment     4 (1 = Never Read, 5 = Remarkable)

74 of the toughest questions in business today

Jack Welch was chairman and CEO of the General Electric Company from 1981 to 2001.  He generally regarded as one of the top CEO's of his time and was recongised for his candid straight up view of doing business. This book follows on from his previous book "Winning" and answers just 74 of the questions that he has been asked as he has toured.

Many of the chapters serve as timely reminders, other chapters blew my mind with the scale of multinational business and a few chapters I just out right disagreed with.

Below is an excerpt taken from the last chapter:

Winning, actually, doesn't have anything to do with markets. Or we should say, it doesn't have to have anything to do with them. By our definition, winning is a personal journey. It's about you as an individual setting a goal and achieving it. That goal could be creating and supporting a happy, healthy family. It could be founding or funding a homeless shelter. It could be teaching children to read; it could be sailing around the world.

And then again, it could be building thriving company that succeeds in the global marketplace.

Winning is about reaching the destination you chose. It is not necessarily about profit, though it can be. But winning is, at its most fundamental, about making something of your life. It is about progress and meaning. It is about achievement.

If you enjoyed reading "Winning", then this book is a great follow on, and is worth reading.

Book Summary

Winning: The Answers: Confronting 74 of the Toughest Questions in Business Today
Jack and Suzy Welch

Genres         Business, Leadership, Winning
Pages           272
Readability   3 (1 = Easy, 5 = Hard)
Enjoyment    4 (1 = Never Read, 5 = Remarkable)

Winning - Leadership Development Booklet

Around 18 months ago I brought the majority of the staff in our company the book "Winning" by Jack Welch. The purpose for buying the book was to use it as a leadership development tool and to stretch their thinking, which in turn helps grow us as a business.

To assist in the learning I developed a booklet that people used to stay on track. People would read 2 -3 chapters a fortnight. We would then have a conference call with groups of 5 -7 people, discuss our obersations and learnings from the chapters.

Agoge is a small business with limited funds for training and leadership development and has staff based all over the country. I found that this process worked really well and we learned a lot as a business as a result. A key lesson for us was Candor, which has since become one of our values.

Below is a link to the PDF file. I hope you find it useful. If you would like a word copy please email Andrew Nicol (links in side bar)

Download winning_reading_plan.pdf

Really Factual Numbers

Two funny sets of statistics and use of numbers in the last 2 days.

Dolphin lands on boat
“A woman was crushed and seriously injured yesterday by a dolphin in an accident described by a marine biologist as ‘three million to one‘.” The NZ Herald report yesterday.

3,000,000 to 1.

So my question for  Dr Slooten who gave the quote is how did you work that out? Did you count all the times Dolphins jump over boats and determine it happens every 3 million times. Or is it every 3 million times that Dolphins swim next to boats?

Boatstack will handle a big earth quake.
“The Fort Nautilus boatstack, storing 180 five to 12-metre boats on five levels, is virtually completed, and in front of it the 12 luxury apartments on four levels are reaching the finishing stage.”

"It is not a symmetrical building and we had to do a lot of seismic work. I reckon it will stand a one in 100 year earthquake," said Mr Keogh.

So my question for Mr Keogh. When was the last 100 year earth quake exactly? If it was 96 years ago, I’m not that keen. If it is still standing afterwards will it withstand the tsumani that follows?

Both of these guys were caught off guard I’m sure. Dr Slooten wouldn’t have been expecting some reporter to ring him on boxing day and ask stupid questions about the odds that he would make up answers to. But that’s life.

Budgeting and numbers in business
I have the similar situations at work all the time. What is the Year to Date result looking like (mid way into a month)? Or what is our Year End outturn going to be? Or how much revenue will we do next year?

Most of the time I don’t know, so I look into my theoretical crystal ball and give a number. Sometimes it’s close, other times it 3,000,000 to 1.

What is amazing, is that having given a number (even if it’s a bad one), people seem to feel more comfortable.

People, it would seem, need numbers to make them content regardless of fact.

What is leadership?

• The manager administers; the leader innovates.
• The manager maintains; the leader develops.
• The manager accepts reality; the leader investigates it.
• The manager focuses on systems and structures; the leader focuses on people.
• The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust.
• The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.
• The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
• The manager has his or her eye always on the bottom line; the leader has his or her eye on the horizon.
• The manager imitates; the leader originates.
• The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.
• The manager is the classic good soldier; the leader is his or her own person.

I believe every business needs great leaders and great managers! Trying to segregate the functions of a leader from that of a manager is very problematic. Most people can have some qualities of leadership in one area, but not in others. Does that make them a leader or not?

I guess the key question as always is; what am I doing to become a better leader?

Quote from Warren Bennis

Agree, disagree, have a question? - Post a comment now.