I used to think that great leaders were decisive: give them a problem and they would snap their fingers and come up with a piece of devastating and inspirational insight. Then I started to meet some leaders and my doubts started.

One leader was truly decisive. He made snap decisions on most issues because most of them did not matter to him. He cared and thought about a few big issues. If there was a very close decision to be made on less important matters, then he figured that either decision would be about as good as the other.

My doubts about decisiveness finally came to a head when I discovered the monkeys.

Every day, people came to me with problems and questions. I was the poor man’s Delphi Oracle: most of my answers were as incomprehensible as the Oracle. Then I realised what was happening. Everyone who visited me had a chattering monkey on their back, and they were offloading their monkey onto me. By the end of the day I had an office full of screaming, fighting monkeys.

The next day another person came with another monkey on her back. This time I refused to take her monkey. I listened to her problem, asked some questions and let her figure out what to do with her monkey. For good measure, I gave her one of mine to look after. Curiously, she was grateful: I had shown I trusted her judgement, I had empowered her and given her more responsibility.

Eventually, nearly all the monkeys left my office. The staff felt empowered and they grew in confidence and capability. They also started to make better decisions than I would have done:  they knew the detail better than I did.

The decisive leader carrying all the burdens of the organisation is a truly heroic, and ineffective, leader. Let others look after some of your monkeys.

Jo Owen

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