Delegating Work To Employees - Beware Of THIS Mistake (Reverse Delegation)

do you always carry the monkey on your shoulder what do you work on tasks that your employees should actually do oh yeah in this video i'll show you what reverse delegation is and how to avoid it stay tuned for more leadership advice subscribe to my channel and click on the bell to be notified when i upload new videos has it ever happened to you that the task that you have delegated to an employee ends up back on your desk again does this happen to you a lot then you keep walking into the same trap again and again in this video i show you how to avoid this back delegation in the future when a task that you have delegated to an employee comes back to you and then you finish it this is called reverse delegation or monkey business if you as the boss work on delegated tasks then you do the work that your employees should actually be doing this is fatal because then you have no time for your actual tasks i've asked john to organize our staff outing and now now i have to wrap my head around the organization again i have to attend the board meeting in one hour and my presentation isn't finished either maybe we could go to spring break for our staff outing what has just happened how come that this simple task of organizing a staff outing ended up with a boss again now let's go back a few moments and see what happened the boss is mentally already on the way to an important meeting and then then john approaches him sorry boss i i need your help you told me to organize the staff outing i've already put some ideas here together but but somehow i'm not getting anywhere you've been in the company for a long time and you know you know what what has been well received by all the colleagues in the past so so could you maybe take a look at my ideas i chose several things but i'm not sure and how would you react as the boss your mind is actually somewhere else namely already at the board meeting yes sure you have a lot more experience but actually you have neither the time for this nor can you think about that right now so what do you think instead how can i get rid of john as quickly as possible so you reply okay just just hand it to me i'll take care of it later and whoosh just like that there's one more task on your task a task that you actually delegated to your employee right monkey business delegating work to employees is not easy even experienced managers often walk right into a trap called reverse delegation already in 1974 there was a nice article published in the harvard business review the title management time who's got the monkey the authors compared the task to be delegated to a monkey anyone who's currently working on the task and who's responsible for ensuring that this task progresses carries the monkey on his or her shoulder as long as they have the monkey they have to look after it and feed it that's complex and time-consuming if that becomes too much for them they try to get rid of the monkey and that's that's where the boss usually comes into play me if the boss delegates a task he puts the monkey on the employee's shoulder after a successful reverse delegation the monkey sits on the boss shoulder again and if the boss has a lot of employees and doesn't defend himself then there will soon be a lot of monkeys sitting on his shoulder it's like a zoo the boss as a bottleneck you will then no longer be able to work properly on important management tasks those who keep getting their employees task specs monkeys they are stuck in the so-called monkey business that means the boss deals with operational tasks that he's not supposed to do he does the job of his employees it even gets to the point where employees have to wait for their boss the boss becomes the bottleneck then the employees complain our boss can't get anything done he settles himself with way too much work we can't continue with our tasks at all work is piled up on the boss desk how did this guy become a manager actually how and why does reverse delegation happen now here's the situation you've delegated a task and your employee tries to give the delegated task back to you now the first question is why you may actually like that you feel that you are needed the employee knows that and bottoms you up if the employee does this correctly it will do your ego really good boss i have a problem with with the construction report i mean you're the best engineer around here would you mind taking a quick look well hand it to me my employees already know who's the expert at the company nobody is fooling me professionally here yes but that's not your job there are other courses as well for example it may be that your employee is on the great time pressure whether just failed or actually the workload is just getting too much for him he has taken on too much or promised too much but doesn't want to admit it and therefore tries to get rid of some of the work perhaps the employee has too little self-confidence in his or her abilities or feels overwhelmed yes he has accepted the task but in the course of time he realizes that it's getting too much oh dear oh dear the deadline is tomorrow and i can't find the software bug i didn't think it would be so complicated maybe i'll just ask the boss he's quite good at this in these cases your employee needs your help your help and your support yes but that doesn't mean that you just do his job you want the employee to be able to solve these problems himself in the future and not always come to you for help right don't solve but ask let's assume that you delegated the task correctly make sure the employee has the skills to solve the task if there are problems he can reach out to you but please not impossible leave the responsibility to your employee but make an appointment to have the problem explained to you and then you ask what would you do if i wasn't there what have you done so far to solve the problem what ideas do you have to solve the problem what decisions do you need to make to solve the problem what exactly do you need from me right now you coach your employee with these types of questions this way you can ensure that he won't be stuck on the problem side but comes up with his own solutions after all if you solve the problem directly i mean that doesn't train your employee's solving behavior you don't really help him you make him dependent because the next time he has a problem he'd rather come directly to you instead of working on the solution himself that's not what you want right therefore you should support him with questions don't talk a lot explain only a little but ask guide him on the right track by asking questions help your employees by coaching them to come up with the solution themselves and suppress your problem solving reflex why are so many being tricked many managers want to act as i have just described but somehow it doesn't work sometimes they keep finding out that somehow they seem to have been tricked yes suddenly the monkey is sitting on the boss shoulder again how could that have happened what you again some managers fear that their employees might find them weak or incompetent if they don't solve the problem for them immediately others cannot say no because they have a reflex of wanting to help or they are simply tempted to take on a complex task again how can you avoid reverse delegation so what's the best way to avoid that now simply blocking the conversation by saying john am i supposed to do your job well that's not constructive that's frustrating and only makes your employees feel like they are not getting any support from you you don't want that the solution is you make an appointment an appointment with your employee to discuss the problem without being in a hurry so the next time you are approached by someone in passing just say john i love to help you but i don't have time right now but we can discuss this in my office in half an hour this is how you kill two birds with one stone on the one hand you don't allow yourself to be controlled by others and also keep yourself from falling back into the expert role on the other hand you give your employee enough time to think about their problem again maybe he will come up with the solution without your help in order to protect yourself from the monkeys in the long term make sure to coach your employees to think and act independently try to avoid reverse delegation consistently not only in your interest but also in the interest of your employees thank you for watching and see you soon [Music] you

Channel: Bernd Geropp

Views: 1,647

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: how to delegate effectively, Reverse delegation, delegating, delegating work, delegating mistakes, monkey business, delegating successfully, delegating tasks, leading people, leading successfully, delegate effectively, learn to delegate, delegation tips, how to delegate work to employees

Id: T2p8lol-XGk

Length: 12min 1sec (721 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 22 2020