Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey? (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)

William, Jr. Oncken | Donald L. Wass

1 Useless
As one who attended one of Oncken, Jr's seminars, and found that his instruction had a major positive impact on the effectiveness of management at all levels, this brief piece isn't even a good "Reader's Digest" version. Also, Covey's comentary shows that he never gained the original Oncken message. Oncken's message, properly put into action, was the essence of affective empowerment.

Please refund my seven bucks for this useless pamphlet.

2 How to manage time and delegate effectively
William Oncken Jr. was chairman of the William Oncken Corporation until his death in 1988; Donald L. Wass was president of the William Oncken Corporation Company of Texas when the article first appeared. He now heads the Dallas-Fort Worth region of The Executive Committee (TEC), an international organization for presidents and CEOs. This Harvard Business Review Classic article was originally published in the November-December 1974 issue. This On-Point version was reissued in November-December 1999 and contains a retrospective commentary from Stephen R. Covey, author of 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People' (1989).

The authors explore the meaning of management time as it relates to the interaction between managers and their bosses, their peers, and their subordinates. According to the authors most managers spend much more time dealing with subordinates' problems than they realize. Hence, the authors use the monkey-on-the-shoulder metaphor to examine how subordinate-imposed time comes into being and what the superior can do about it. "Get control over timing and content of what you do" is appropriate advice for managing time. First, the manager should enlarge his/her discretionary time by eliminating subordinate-imposed time. Second, the manager should use a portion of this newfound discretionary time to see to it that each subordinate actually has the initiative and applies it. Third, the manager should use another portion of the increased discretionary time to get and keep control of the timing and content of both boss-imposed and system-imposed time. All these steps will increase the manager's leverage and enable the value of each hour spent in managing management time. Stephen R. Covey comments: "Its vivid message is even more important and relevant now than it was 25 years ago. I've heard from executives time and time again that they're trapped in an endless cycle of dealing with other people's monkeys, yet they're reluctant to help those people take their own initiative. As a result, they're often too busy to spend the time they need on the real gorillas in their organization."

This truly great article still remains a powerful wake-up call for managers who need to delegate effectively. It should be read by everybody interested in management, and particularly people moving into management. It explains how you can avoid becoming snowed under by others' work and delegate effectively. The authors use simple US-English. Highly recommended!

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