Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
Suggest You - Who's Got The Monkey Now? How to Find Out How Well You Manage Your Time
I remember, as a child, raptly watching a Saturday morning adventure TV show where the hero was captured by the “bad guys” who gave him the “Ancient Water Torture” in order to extract secret information. Seems our hero was tied down while an endless amount of water was dropped on his forehead, drop by drop, until he would capitulate and divulge the secrets. Of course, the hero managed to miraculously extract himself “just in the nick of time” and save the world as he did every Saturday morning.Today the “Ancient Water Torture” is still in use. It is an effective technique employed by mass marketers. They drip, drip, drip the same information in the same “voice” over and over until we, as consumers, can never forget it. The tech
How do you avoid catching monkeys and give yourself more discretionary time? The first step is to recognise that the monkeys are jumping onto your back!
Use the following checklist to see whether as a manager you are a collector of monkeys. Answer each with “Always”, “Often” or “Rarely”.
How often do I say . . .
“Leave it with me”
“Can I think about that?”
“I’ll get back to yo
Cookbook fundraising, also called a fundraising cookout is a widely-used method of fundraising especially in religious and charitable circles. A cookbook fundraiser is great not only because it is effective in raising funds, but more importantly because it gets everyone involved.Members of the organization and volunteers can all contribute family recipes for compilation. The theme, book size, fonts, and other details are all decided on by the team and a designated editor. Some organizations put together a committee that is responsible for schedules, recipe organization and testing, and even cover design and layout. The groups must meet regularly to report the progress of the cookbook and guide each subcommittee through the stages.<
How come you’ve worked hard all day but haven’t started the one task that was most important to you? As a manager, how come your daily work schedule often falls in a heap by mid-morning?
Who’s got the monkey? The answer is, you have - probably several!
“Management Time: Who’s got the Monkey” has been the second most popular management article ever published by the Harvard Business Review (“Management Time: Who’s got the Monkey”, by William Oncken and Donald Wass, first published by Harvard Business Review, 1974) and has been reprinted several times. Thirty odd years later, the message Oncken and Wass sent us on management, still holds true today.
They suggested that there are three types of management-imposed time pressure – Boss, System, and Self.
Boss-imposed time pressure
Activities, which must be accomplished, or we’ll suffer the consequences!
System-imposed time pressure
Those activities/requests which come from peers and colleagues. The penalties are not so severe or as swift, but we may still suffer if these things are not done.
Self-imposed time pressure
Those activities we ourselves initiate or agree to do – particularly those things which have been upwardly delegated from people who report to us. As managers, these activities impact heavily on our discretionary time, and the penalty for not doing these is stress.
Oncken and Wass used the monkey analogy to make their point. As the manager, when someone in our team talks about a “problem” they want to “run past us”, the monkey (in other words, the problem) is very clearly on their back. But when we respond with something like “Well, I haven’t got time right now, but leave it with me”, the monkey immediately leaps from their shoulders to ours. We have just been on the receiving end of an excellent piece of upward delegation!
If this happens to you every day (or at least more often than it should), you’ll soon be carrying a cagefull of monkeys on your back. Not only have you reduced your discretionary time, you also must feed and care for the monkeys you’ve acquired. For example, your people are probably pretty good at keeping track of their delegated task, when they say things like “Hey boss, how’s that issue going that I told you about the other day?”
The secret is to reduce the pressure of self-imposed activities to give us more discretionary time. You can then use this time to become more productive with your boss and the system and in the process, a better manager.
How do you avoid catching monkeys and give yourself more discretionary time? The first step is to recognise that the monkeys are jumping onto your back!
Use the following checklist to see whether as a manager you are a collector of monkeys. Answer each with “Always”, “Often” or “Rarely”.
How often do I say . . .
“Leave it with me”
“Can I think about that?”
“I’ll get back to you
Have you ever tried to detach your professional life from your personal life? Then you know how difficult it is to accomplish. Despite your best attempts to keep the two separate, the quality and stability of your personal life often have a direct impact on the quality and success of your professional life. In fact, it is said that for many people, their professional lives tend to reflect their personal lives.It’s quite all right for your professional life to mirror your personal life if that life is secure and fulfilling. You should have a productive and rewarding professional life because you will be able to bring the positive characteristics present in your personal life to your work life as you direct your energy and attentio
They suggested that there are three types of management-imposed time pressure – Boss, System, and Self.
Boss-imposed time pressure
Activities, which must be accomplished, or we’ll suffer the consequences!
System-imposed time pressure
Those activities/requests which come from peers and colleagues. The penalties are not so severe or as swift, but we may still suffer if these things are not done.
Self-imposed time pressure
Those activities we ourselves initiate or agree to do – particularly those things which have been upwardly delegated from people who report to us. As managers, these activities impact heavily on our discretionary time, and the penalty for not doing these is stress.
Oncken and Wass used the monkey analogy to make their point. As the manager, when someone in our team talks about a “problem” they want to “run past us”, the monkey (in other words, the problem) is very clearly on their back. But when we respond with something like “Well, I haven’t got time right now, but leave it with me”, the monkey immediately leaps from their shoulders to ours. We have just been on the receiving end of an excellent piece of upward delegation!
If this happens to you every day (or at least more often than it should), you’ll soon be carrying a cagefull of monkeys on your back. Not only have you reduced your discretionary time, you also must feed and care for the monkeys you’ve acquired. For example, your people are probably pretty good at keeping track of their delegated task, when they say things like “Hey boss, how’s that issue going that I told you about the other day?”
The secret is to reduce the pressure of self-imposed activities to give us more discretionary time. You can then use this time to become more productive with your boss and the system and in the process, a better manager.
How do you avoid catching monkeys and give yourself more discretionary time? The first step is to recognise that the monkeys are jumping onto your back!
Use the following checklist to see whether as a manager you are a collector of monkeys. Answer each with “Always”, “Often” or “Rarely”.
How often do I say . . .
“Leave it with me”
“Can I think about that?”
“I’ll get back to yo
IT pros are leaving the corporate world like traders at the closing bell on Wall Street--fast and en masse. That's the inside scoop from an IT executive friend of mine at a Fortune 500 bank. According to my source, in the last two months 70 percent of his IT employees that quit their corporate jobs are leaving to become consultants.The reasons are typical--consulting simply offers techies more money and personal flexibility than the corporate grind. While the gleam of freedom and riches is still bright in the eyes of newly minted contractors, I decided to ask a simple question: In the long run, will these contractors succeed?Five Best Practices for Consultants I've written in the past about the success factor
Those activities we ourselves initiate or agree to do – particularly those things which have been upwardly delegated from people who report to us. As managers, these activities impact heavily on our discretionary time, and the penalty for not doing these is stress.
Oncken and Wass used the monkey analogy to make their point. As the manager, when someone in our team talks about a “problem” they want to “run past us”, the monkey (in other words, the problem) is very clearly on their back. But when we respond with something like “Well, I haven’t got time right now, but leave it with me”, the monkey immediately leaps from their shoulders to ours. We have just been on the receiving end of an excellent piece of upward delegation!
If this happens to you every day (or at least more often than it should), you’ll soon be carrying a cagefull of monkeys on your back. Not only have you reduced your discretionary time, you also must feed and care for the monkeys you’ve acquired. For example, your people are probably pretty good at keeping track of their delegated task, when they say things like “Hey boss, how’s that issue going that I told you about the other day?”
The secret is to reduce the pressure of self-imposed activities to give us more discretionary time. You can then use this time to become more productive with your boss and the system and in the process, a better manager.
How do you avoid catching monkeys and give yourself more discretionary time? The first step is to recognise that the monkeys are jumping onto your back!
Use the following checklist to see whether as a manager you are a collector of monkeys. Answer each with “Always”, “Often” or “Rarely”.
How often do I say . . .
“Leave it with me”
“Can I think about that?”
“I’ll get back to yo
Timely medical claim reimbursement/payments for the medical provider are a serious problem by most of medical practices nowadays. How can a medical practice survive with slow revenue? too many claims denial and rejection? The solution here is to get the collection done as effectively as it can.Empirically, insurance companies will delay or deny claims payments! They are very slow on medical reviews, predetermination and processing claims. I think, that is one of their business strategies in doing business. They are too is running their own business’ revenues. But if you are a good medical biller, you are aggressive and can effectively collect payments in less than the time your provider expects.Having an effective office mana
If this happens to you every day (or at least more often than it should), you’ll soon be carrying a cagefull of monkeys on your back. Not only have you reduced your discretionary time, you also must feed and care for the monkeys you’ve acquired. For example, your people are probably pretty good at keeping track of their delegated task, when they say things like “Hey boss, how’s that issue going that I told you about the other day?”
The secret is to reduce the pressure of self-imposed activities to give us more discretionary time. You can then use this time to become more productive with your boss and the system and in the process, a better manager.
How do you avoid catching monkeys and give yourself more discretionary time? The first step is to recognise that the monkeys are jumping onto your back!
Use the following checklist to see whether as a manager you are a collector of monkeys. Answer each with “Always”, “Often” or “Rarely”.
How often do I say . . .
“Leave it with me”
“Can I think about that?”
“I’ll get back to yo
With modern technology, Mexico can be an attractive base of operations for many people who operate their business over the Internet. With a little planning Mexico can offer a safe but exciting place to work from.There are several advantages to working from Mexico. The cost of living is lower particularly in the cost of housing. Homes that would cost millions of dollars in the U.S. often rent for less than $900 per month. The pace of life is often slower and for many people the chance to learn a new language and culture has benefits that go beyond any monetary value.Some types of work lend themselves to working from Mexico better than others. If most of your work involves using the Internet and phone conversations, Mexico may
How do you avoid catching monkeys and give yourself more discretionary time? The first step is to recognise that the monkeys are jumping onto your back!
Use the following checklist to see whether as a manager you are a collector of monkeys. Answer each with “Always”, “Often” or “Rarely”.
How often do I say . . .
“Leave it with me”
“Can I think about that?”
“I’ll get back to you on that”
“I’ve seen something like that a thousand times. I’ll look after it for you”
“I’ll get Bob to look after that”
“Send me an e-mail on that will you?”
“Don’t you worry about it”
If you found yourself answering “Always” or “Often” for most of these, then it’s probably too late. The monkey has just jumped! There’s a very good chance that you are taking on the problems of your people, rather than helping them solve the problems themselves and in the process, further developing their own skills and knowledge. In thirty years of running and designing management training programs, managers tell me that the one thing they would like to do better or more of, is delegate!
Want to try again? Use the same “Always”, “Often” or “Never” on the following questions.
How often do I say . . .
“Let me know if you have trouble”
“You know you don’t have to do it that way”
“That’s interesting. I’ve never seen anything quite like that before”
“I remember when that happened to . . . ”
“I think my last boss had something like that happen to him/her”
If you found yourself answering “Always” or “Often”, then the result is not as bad as the first list. However, beware! The monkey is about to jump! While the responses sound very supportive and helpful (which they are), starting out like this invariably ends up with you, the manager, taking on the problem to solve.
How did you score on both lists of questions? Do you use similar phrases to some of the ones in the checklists? If you found yourself ticking a number of “always” or “often” columns, or you use similar phrases regularly, then chances are you need to be careful about taking on too many monkeys. Think about what:
- you should and can do,
- then, what others could do for you.
What you “should do” is all about setting your priorities and sticking with them. What are the two or three things that you must achieve today, “come what may”. Do not be swayed from these!
What you “can do” has nothing to do with your ability, rather it is about the amount of time you have available and how you use that time – in other words, effective time management. As the manager, you are the “expert” – your people know that there are lots of things that you can do. Do not be trapped into doing things just because you know how. While it may take a little bit of you
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.suggestyou.com/article/23196/suggestyou-Whos-Got-The-Monkey-Now--How-to-Find-Out-How-Well-You-Manage-Your-Time.html">Who's Got The Monkey Now? How to Find Out How Well You Manage Your Time</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.suggestyou.com/article/23196/suggestyou-Whos-Got-The-Monkey-Now--How-to-Find-Out-How-Well-You-Manage-Your-Time.html]Who's Got The Monkey Now? How to Find Out How Well You Manage Your Time[/url]
Related Articles:
5 Surefire Ways to Get Your Brochure Thrown in the Trash
The 5 Biggest Mistakes People Make in Job Interviews - And How You Can Avoid Them!
How To Pick The Best Career For You, Part 1
Bookmark it:
|