EP237: Stop Carrying Everyone Else’s Monkeys
It is 9:00 AM. You are at your desk, ready to tackle a major project. Then a coworker, Dave, walks over and says, “Could you just take a quick look at this?” (handing you a metaphorical monkey). You say yes. An hour later, your boss emails you another monkey. By lunchtime, your desk is buried in everyone else’s problems; consequently, your own work is untouched.
If that sounds familiar, you are not just being helpful; you are becoming a zookeeper for problems that are not yours, and it is costing you. Today, we are returning to the themes of Episode 8: The Art of Monkey Management.

AdvancedQualityPrograms, #JuanNavarro #MonkeyManagement, #TimeManagement

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Monkey management is a metaphor that helps us understand how to handle problems effectively. Every problem that belongs to us is described as a monkey on our back (something we can feed, take care of, or eventually set free). The trouble starts when, on top of your own monkey, you begin taking care of other people’s monkeys.
This is not about being a bad teammate; it is a pattern into which high achievers often fall. We see a problem, we know we can fix it, so we take the monkey. At first, you are the hero; soon, you are the bottleneck.
When you accept a monkey, you teach the other person that they do not need to solve their own problems. You train them to be dependent, and you sacrifice your focus to what is called “subordinate-imposed time” (doing your team’s work instead of your own). Your real job, which involves strategy and planning, gets pushed to nights and weekends. Stress increases, your team stops growing, and you are heading straight for burnout.
What Is the Monkey?
There is a proven way to give these monkeys back to their owners without being rude. It is called Monkey Management, a concept from a classic Harvard Business Review article by William Oncken Jr. and Donald Wass.
The “monkey” is not the whole problem; it is the next move.
Oncken and Wass wrote one of the best-selling HBR articles of all time: Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey? Kenneth Blanchard and Hal Burrows later expanded on the concept in the book The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey.
When you say, “Let me think about it,” that monkey has just jumped onto your back. You have accepted responsibility for the next move. The art of management is ensuring that the person who arrived with the problem leaves with that monkey (the next action) still on their shoulder. It is about empowering them and shifting from solver to coach.
It all comes down to four rules.
Rule 1: Describe the Monkey.
The next move must be crystal clear. “The client is unhappy” is a situation, not a next step. Ask questions until you define a specific action, such as: “Verify the sales figures in Table 3.”
Rule 2: Assign the Monkey.
Every monkey needs an owner; it should not be you by default. When the action is defined, the person who brought the problem keeps it. Instead of saying, “I’ll do it,” you say, “Great, you are the owner of that action.”
Rule 3: Insure the Monkey.
Support them without taking over. Provide “insurance” by setting their level of freedom.
 For a junior member: “Recommend a solution before you act.”
 For a senior member: “Act on your judgment, then update me.”
The next move is always theirs. You are coaching, not playing.
Rule 4: Schedule the Monkey’s Next Feeding.
Every monkey needs a follow-up. Do not say, “Keep me posted.” Be precise: “Let’s book 15 minutes on Thursday at 10:00 AM for you to show me your findings.” Until then, the monkey is not your problem.
Now, let us talk about the freedom you will gain.
The biggest mistake is saying, “Just leave it with me.” It feels faster, but it is a terrible long-term fix. Every time you say, “I’ll handle it,” you rob an employee of a chance to learn. You signal that you do not trust them, and you become the single point of failure. The team’s output becomes limited by your personal bandwidth; you turn into a super-powered individual contributor, not a leader.
Instead, replace “I’ll do it” with a question:
 “What have you tried so far?”
 “What do you think the next step is?”
This puts the monkey back on their shoulders.
The Benefits: A Life Without Other People’s Monkeys because You regain your time to work on your priorities.
Your team transforms. People start showing up with solutions, not just problems. They grow because they feel trusted.
Your value skyrockets. True leaders build teams that succeed without constant intervention. You leave work feeling accomplished, not drained.
Feeling overwhelmed is a sign you are carrying too many monkeys. Your job is not to solve every problem; it is to build a team that can.
Stop collecting monkeys. Start developing monkey handlers.
Remember the Four Rules:

1. Describe the monkey: Define the next move.
2. Assign the monkey: Keep ownership with your team.
3. Insure the monkey: Coach with clear autonomy.
4. Feed the monkey: Set a specific follow-up.
   This is how you reclaim your time and unlock your team’s true potential.
   That is it for today’s episode. Thank you for your ratings on my books: The Quality Mindset, Life Quality Projects, and Principles of Quality. If this was helpful, hit the like button and subscribe for more practical strategies. And do not forget your free Monkey Management Cheat Sheet (linked in the description). I will leave you with a quote from the late, great Kobe Bryant:“The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.”

Do not forget to subscribe. And before you check out, stay excellent, keep improving, and go get those monkeys off your back.
References:
 Blanchard, K. and Burrows, H. (1990) The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey. New York: William Morrow.
 Dettmers, J. and Clauß, E. (2018) ‘The relationship between workload and work engagement: The role of psychological detachment and boundary control’, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 23(4), pp. 471–482. doi: 10.1037/ocp0000105
 Ellinger, A.D., Ellinger, A.E. and Keller, S.B. (2003) ‘Supervisory coaching behavior, employee satisfaction, and performance’, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 18(4/5), pp. 326–336. doi: 10.1108/08858620310480277
 Heslin, P.A., Vandewalle, D. and Latham, G.P. (2006) ‘Keen to help? Managers’ implicit person theories and their subsequent employee coaching’, Personnel Psychology, 59(4), pp. 871–902. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-6570.2006.00057.x
 Macan, T.H. (1994) ‘Time management: Test of a process model’, Journal of Applied Psychology, 79(3), pp. 381–391. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.79.3.381
 Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W.B. and Leiter, M.P. (2001) ‘Job burnout’, Annual Review of Psychology, 52, pp. 397–422. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397
 Oncken, W. Jr. and Wass, D.L. (1974) ‘Management time: Who’s got the monkey?’, Harvard Business Review, 52(6), pp. 75–80.
 Perlow, L.A. (1999) ‘The time famine: Toward a sociology of work time’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(1), pp. 57–81. doi: 10.2307/2667031
 Yukl, G. and Fu, P.P. (1999) ‘Determinants of delegation and consultation by managers’, Journal of Organizational Behavior, 20(2), pp. 219–232. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1379(199903)20:2(219::AID-JOB882)3.0.CO;2-I
 Which specific part of this guide do you think your team would find most challenging to implement?