How to get the "monkey" off your back?

A younger colleague of mine over a one-on-one discussion once broached an idea. It was a brilliant idea I thought. So, I called up one of my senior staff, setting the context explained the opportunity and prompted him to get in touch with the colleague who originally broached the idea. Hearing him say ‘perfect’, I hung up. All this happened while the colleague who gave the original idea was still sitting in front of me. “Sorry for keeping you waiting, but you gave a great idea, and I didn’t want it to go down the drain. So, I had to call and discuss. I am being forgetful these days, you see”, I said. “You are really fast in your action!” The colleague threw a gentle compliment at me. “Not really. I just wanted to get the monkey off my back”, I acknowledged with a smile as we moved on to discuss the remainder of our discussion.

No one would move around with a monkey at the back, literally! “Getting the monkey off the back” means getting a problem or irritant out of way. No strike that! It may not be a problem or irritant as such all the time. Sometimes, it may be a real good opportunity, but you may not be the right person to address it; someone else might be. Let us deliberate this in the context of what typically happens at a workplace.

Consider these four-workplace dilemma:

One –?you get an idea or proposal from one of your colleagues. Upon reflecting on it, you realize that the idea does not seem to make sense in the context of the ecosystem you are in. In that case it is your responsibility to dispel the myth after discussing with the concerned colleague and kill it then and there.?An idea unless acted upon or killed at the right time becomes a monkey!?It will linger in mind and keep troubling you, just like a monkey on your back.

Two –?you are given an idea, or you get an idea yourself, and you think it is indeed a brilliant one. But there are people in your team who are responsible for its conversion and understand it better than you do. It is right thing to explain the idea to the teammate as soon as possible, delegate effectively with all accompanying information and authority, and if possible, get some sort of commitment, and tentative timeline for getting it done. If you don’t, you are carrying the monkey (responsibility of getting something done) on your back and moving around. You cannot dispel it, because it is not really a monkey; it is an opportunity. It is just that you are not the right person to get it done.

Three –?you indeed are the right person who can put mind around the idea and frame a solution. But you chose not to do it, and delegate it instead. If the colleague whom you delegated has the right information, skill, resources, and most importantly, the motivation (instilled by you!), would hopefully get it done, else the monkey (responsibility) would roam around a bit and soon find its way back onto your back.

Four –?you get a non-value-added idea from your boss. You are not inspired to do it but cannot refuse it. It becomes a monkey on your back. Worse, you pass on the monkey to a staff of yours and make it a monkey on his/her back as well!

I am going to tell something that may put off some of my friends on this platform. Whenever you see a manager ‘appearing’ or ‘acting’ extremely busy, most likely, his/her direct reports would not have enough work on their desks. Because manager is carrying all the monkeys on his/her back. Converse may also be true; if manager is extremely relaxed and team is extremely busy, most likely, the manager has successfully passed on all the monkeys downstream!

In summary,

1. Act on an idea or kill it. Don’t allow it to grow and become a monkey on your back.
2. Accept real work from your boss, don’t accept his/her monkeys. It is not as hard as you think. Just say - "Really?" Most likely he/she will step back!
3. Please don’t pass on your monkeys to your team. They may not realize, they may not rebel, but it is the most pathetic way to torture a teammate on your team...?

Any views friends?