Das heutige Buch: The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey vonKenneth Blanchard, ISBN 0-688-10380-4 hat ganz viele gute Tipps für das Geschäftsleben.
About monkeys in this books
“Good morning boss, can I see you for a minute? We have a problem”. I need to be aware of my people’s problems, so I stand there listening, while he explains the problem in detail. After having discussed the problem for 30 minutes, I know just enough about the problem to know I have to be involved, but not yet enough about the problem to make a decision. So I say “This is a very important problem, but I don’t have any more time do discuss it right now. Let me think about it and I will get back to you”.
Where is the monkey?
Before the two of us met in the hall, the monkey was on my staff member’s back. While we were talking, the matter was under joint consideration, so the monkey had one leg on each of our backs. But when I said “Let me think it over and get back to you”, the monkey moved its leg from my subordinate’s back onto my back and my subordinate walked away thirty pounds lighter. Why? Because the monkey then had both legs on my back.
What happens when you take a monkey?
When I allowed that monkey to leap onto my back I volunteered to do two things a person working for me is generally expected to do:
- I accepted the responsibility for the problem from the person
- I promised the person a progress report
- Just to make sure I know who is the new boss, the next day my staff member will stop by my office several times to say “Hi boss, how is it coming?”
- What happens to the monkeys?
Finally, perhaps the greatest lesson I have learned about monkey management, at work and at home, is that there are always more monkeys clamoring for attention than we have time to manage. Unless we are extremely careful which ones we accept responsibility for, it is very easy to wind up caring for the wrong monkeys while the really important ones are starving for lack of attention. If we thoughtlessly try to handle all of them, our efforts will be diluted to the point where none of them are healthy.
Statements about monkeys
For every monkey there are two parties involved: One to work it and one to supervise it
The more you get rid of your people’s monkeys, the more you have time for your people
Rules of monkey management:
- Descriptions: The next moves are specified
- Owners: The monkey is assigned to a person
- Insurance Policies: The risk is covered
- Level 1: Recommend then act
- Level 2: Act, then advise
- Monkey Feeding and Checkup Appointments: The time and place for follow-up is specified
- All monkeys must be handled at the lowest organizational level consistent with their welfare
- Assigning invokes a single monkey; delegation invokes a family of monkeys
Statements about bosses
- It’s tough to work for a nervous boss, especially if you are the one who’s making your boss nervous
- If you always agree with your boss, one of you is not necessary
- One day I was bending my bosses ear about all my problems and asked him what I should do. He said, “You mean you don’t know what to do? Well I don’t know what you should do, either. That makes two of us who don’t know what you should do, and the company can afford only one of us!”
- Keeping bosses satisfied takes time, but dealing with dissatisfied ones takes even more time.
- How do I keep my boss satisfied with my work? Always do what your boss wants. If you don’t like what your boss wants, change what your boss wants, but always do what your boss wants.
Statements about management
- Why is it that some managers are typically running out of time while their staffs are typically running out of work?
- Things not worth doing are not worth doing well
- Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you
- The best way to develop responsibility in people is to give them responsibility
- Practice hands-off management as much as possible and hands-on management as much as necessary
- Never let the company go down the drain simply for the sake of practicing good management
- The purpose of coaching is to get into position to delegate
Die ganze Weisheit des Buches in einem Bloggeintrag! Und jetzt wissen endlich alle, wie ich wirklich funktioniere.