Full disclosure: i derive no benefit, financial or otherwise, if you subscribe to the harvard business review after reading this week’s e mail. whew. At one point during our leadership development workshop last week on managing time effectively. I heard myself say there’s an article that was published in the harvard business review that discusses that very issue.

after the workshop, i reflected on how many times over the years that i’ve referenced an article in hbr. it must be hundreds of times. the human moment at work written by boston area psychologist edward hallowell, this article from the late 1990s anticipates the challenges that e mail overload imposes on organizations, and reemphasizes the critical important of face to face contact. key quote: the absence of the human moment in an organization can wreak havoc. good people leave. those who remain are unhappy. You can obtain electronic copies of any of these articles by going to the harvard business review site at w.hbr.org. the download cost is about $6 per article a bargain when you consider the value. By lauren keller johnson you know that a key part of any executive's or manager's job is helping subordinates develop professionally 151 including honing their problem solving and decision making powers.

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Thus, you're well aware of the dangers that come with taking on all of your direct reports' problems. But what about when you're under immense time pressure and someone tries to hand you one or more monkeys 151 the memorable term for subordinates' problems that william oncken jr. Wass introduced in their classic 1974 harvard business review article, management time: who's got the monkey? in high pressure circumstances, accepting a monkey can seem a lot more efficient than taking time to coach your employee to resolve the problem himself. Returning monkeys to their rightful owners seems even more difficult today than it was in 1974.

For one thing, managers have come under increasing pressure to generate measurable results faster than ever. And as stephen covey, vice chairman of franklincovey salt lake city , maintains, some managers fear being viewed during tough economic times as unimportant or unnecessary if they delegate more to employees. They assume that there's only so much power and authority to go around and jealously guard their own.

New managers 151 promoted for their stellar performance as individual contributors 151 can find delegating especially challenging because they've scored major successes by handling problems themselves. But just as delegating has grown more difficult, it's also become more crucial for companies seeking to compete. In covey's words, twenty or thirty years ago, only 30 percent of the value added to goods and services came from knowledge work. So if companies hope to survive, they must empower people to think for themselves and draw on their experience and wisdom. Fortunately, experts and executives across a wide range of industries have continued developing techniques aimed at making delegation easier 151 and more effective at keeping the monkeys with their rightful owners. Make yourself let go for many executives, the path to more effective delegation begins with reexamining two basic assumptions about their roles. First, many managers continue to assume that it's faster and more efficient to take on employees' problems than to teach them to handle their own, notes patti hathaway, author and business adviser with the company the change agent, based in westerville, ohio.

These assumptions, hathaway says, only increase managers' desire to control problem solving and decision making rather than empower their employees. To help counteract this, she encourages her clients to think as leaders, not as managers. Managers, hathaway advises, manage details for example, by solving direct reports' problems. Leaders manage people by encouraging a sense of ownership and accountability among subordinates. By envisioning themselves as leaders, managers become more comfortable and open to delegating tasks initially and to passing monkeys back to their owners.

Kyle beaty, formerly first vice president of washington mutual national operations center, agrees. If i'm micromanaging my people, he frequently reminds himself, that behavior sends the message that i don't need them. Ask, don't tell letting go of problems is only as effective as the manner in which you delegate them. To that end, skilled delegators know to ask questions rather than dictate orders.

Asking 'what do you think should be done?' teaches people to come up with proposed solutions the next time they bring you a problem, says joyce gioia, president of the greensboro, north carolina based consulting firm the herman group. Additional open ended questions 151 such as what do you think led to this problem? what are things we might consider if we implement the solution you're proposing? or how did we handle this situation with customer b? 151 can reveal the degree to which subordinates have thought through their respective problems. Letting go of problems is only as effective as the manner in which you delegate them. As edward massood, president of mgm transport in north carolina, notes, when i ask my people how they plan to deal with a problem, we can then explore the ramifications of each idea and make sure we've covered every important consideration. Before i started asking questions, people used to be lined up outside my door, and i was staying at the office until seven or eight at night to clean up problems.

Harvard Business Review Articles on Delegation Text

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