“I don’t know,” Julio replied. “I try to delegate as often as I can, but it always ends up, back in my lap.”
“Does it seem like you delegate things to your team on Monday and then your team delegates back to you on Wednesday?” I asked.
“I never thought about it that way, but you’re right. It’s almost like reverse delegation. They get stuck with a problem, come to me for help and before you know it, they are out the door with their project on my desk.”
“How does that happen?” I pressed.
This made me think of a Harvard Business Review article from 1999. It’s title is “Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey?” It’s speaks to the managerial art called “The Care and Feeding of Monkeys.” It’s also a great visual – if you imagine folks walking around with monkeys on their backs.
Edi, that was a great article, I found it here: http://leadershipdevelopment.iiwiki.edu.au/file/view/Management+Time-Who's+Got+the+Monkey.pdf Also reminded me of one by Chris Ayrgis called “Good Communication that Blocks Learning”, well worth a read too.
Interesting observation. I was recently asked a similar question – “I wish my employees would show more initiative” which prompted me to write on this topic as well. You may be interested in some questions to help better understand why this is happening.
http://audacium.com/leaders-get-the-employees-they-deserve/