How to Tame the 'Monkeys' Overrunning Your Management Time!

As an engineering team lead, I often find myself juggling tasks and struggling to manage my time efficiently. Like many others in my position, I'm constantly seeking advice and strategies to improve my management skills and create a more effective and productive team environment. Recently, during one of my quests for knowledge, I stumbled upon an article titled "Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey?" on the Harvard Business Review's website.

This classic piece, penned by William Oncken, Jr. and Donald L. Wass, tackles a common predicament: managers burdened with issues that should be handled by their subordinates. Known as 'monkeys,' these tasks often end up overloading managers, leaving their teams underutilized. Reading this insightful article has shed light on how I can mentor and empower my team members, helping them take ownership of their 'monkeys.' Let me share with you the essence of this article and how it's transforming my approach to team leadership.

The central idea of the article is about mentoring and empowering subordinates and their teams to make decisions and enabling them to achieve their goals. Managers are encouraged to set aside time to discuss the "monkeys" that their teams need to raise. At the end of each discussion, the Manager must ensure that the issue remains with its rightful owner – the subordinate or reporting team.

The article lays out a few rules for managing these "monkeys":

• Monkeys should be fed or shot. If the issue needs the Manager’s attention, the Manager must make time to discuss it with his/her subordinates.
• Monkeys should be fed by appointment only. Don’t encourage all-day “grazing,” or you will have no time to do your own work.
• Monkeys should be fed face-to-face or by phone. Avoid email; it just encourages the monkeys to keep jumping back onto your desk!
• Every feeding session should end with an agreed action plan and a scheduled next feeding time. Subordinates and teams should know clearly what they are expected to accomplish before the next review.
• Keep the monkey population your team needs your help with as low as possible. Set some guidelines for the degree of initiative you expect of your teams and empower them.

In the realm of software development, where continuous learning is part of the job, the concept of 'monkey management' becomes even more critical. Let's consider a scenario where a software engineer struggles to implement a new feature because they are unfamiliar with a specific technology or framework. Rather than taking the initiative to understand and learn it, they pass the problem, or the 'monkey,' to their manager, expecting them to provide a detailed solution. This 'monkey' is not ideal for the manager to take on. It's part of the engineer's role to continuously learn and adapt to new technologies and frameworks. By accepting this 'monkey,' the manager might inadvertently encourage dependency and stifle the engineer's growth.

On the other hand, there are 'monkeys' that managers should not only accept but actively seek out. Suppose the team is working on a critical feature but finds themselves blocked due to a resource bottleneck. They need access to specific infrastructure or resources, access that requires the intervention of upper management or another department. In such cases, the manager should step in to negotiate with the relevant parties or escalate the issue to upper management. This 'monkey' is ideally suited for the manager to handle as it involves cross-departmental negotiation and decision-making, aspects that are beyond the team's control.

The essence of 'monkey management' is about understanding who should own which 'monkey.' By ensuring that 'monkeys' remain with those who are best equipped to handle them, whether it's an individual contributor or a manager, we promote efficient use of time and resources. Moreover, it fosters a culture of ownership and personal growth within the team, which is invaluable in the dynamic field of software development.

Effective management of "monkeys" can lead to a more empowered team, where subordinates take responsibility for issues and managers have more time to focus on their own tasks. However, the article acknowledges that this approach may not solve all problems, but it encourages managers to consider how they manage, and this, in turn, can help the company better achieve its goals.