One day, our palm oil mill was visited by the HSSE Director from the United States. During his visit, he sought feedback on various safety-related matters. Among the issues raised were delayed tasks caused by gaps in competency and, more importantly, a lack of ownership among some of the team members.
He then introduced a term that caught my attention:
“Monkey Management.”
I was intrigued by the expression. After the visit, I went on to read and learn more about what monkey management really meant and how it applied to leadership and management.
The following day, I shared what I had learned with several engineers at work.
A year passed.
Then, somehow, the concept brought me back to my first year of working in my first palm oil mill—almost 22 years ago.
One day, my manager called me into his office. He asked me to prepare a letter to be sent to the Department of Environment regarding an issue that needed attention.
Without wasting any time, I returned to the engineers' office and started typing the letter on the desktop computer.
The engineers' office was separated from the weighbridge office, while the manager's office had a glass wall overlooking the engineers' room.
A few minutes after I started typing the first paragraph, I was called back into the manager's office.
As usual, he looked at me with a rather serious expression and asked,
“What are you doing?”
For a moment, I froze.
I replied, “I'm writing the letter you asked me to prepare, Sir.”
He looked at me and said:
“Why didn't you ask the clerk in the office to do it? Why are you typing it yourself? If you are going to do everything yourself, then we might as well get rid of all the clerks sitting in that office!”
Sharp.
Very sharp.
I did not say a word. I lowered my head and walked out of his office.
His words stayed with me.
They made me think deeply about the responsibilities of every individual within an organisation.
There are always plenty of reasons we can give ourselves.
“This letter is important, so I should do it myself.”
“If I ask the clerk to do it, I'll probably have to correct it several times.”
“It will be faster if I just do it myself.”
And eventually:
“Never mind. I'll just do it myself.”
Sometimes, especially when we are young and inexperienced, more senior staff or clerks may give us a thousand reasons why a simple task should not be delegated. And because we want things done quickly and correctly, we take the easy way out—we do the work ourselves.
The problem is that this habit can follow us as our careers progress.
As our positions become more senior, our responsibilities increase. Yet instead of developing our people and allowing them to take ownership, we continue doing their work ourselves.
Without realising it, we become collectors of “monkeys.”
One monkey comes from one person.
Another monkey comes from another department.
Another problem is passed to us.
Another task that should belong to someone else somehow ends up on our desk.
Before long, we are carrying a whole troop of monkeys on our shoulders.
And then we wonder why we are so busy.
Monkey Management is not about refusing to help people. It is about understanding who should own the problem.
A good manager does not simply take the monkey away.
A good manager teaches the person how to manage it.
That day, almost 22 years ago, I did not know anything about monkey management.
I was only a young cadet engineer, barely three months into my career.
But my manager had already given me one of the most valuable lessons in management:
Do not do everything yourself. Give people responsibility. Give them ownership. Let them learn.
Twenty-two years later, a simple conversation with an HSSE Director reminded me of that lesson.
Sometimes, the best management lessons are not found in management books.
They come from a manager looking through a glass wall and asking:
“Why are you doing it yourself?”
That was my lesson in Monkey Management.
That is my story tonight.
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