Several years ago, I got tired of repeating myself.
Not in the dramatic eye-roll way. More like the quiet realization that if the same friction keeps showing up, it's probably because I haven't been clear enough about how I expect work to flow.
So I wrote a document.
I called it "Working with Niki / How We Win." Glamorous title, I know. I share it with every single person I onboard. Contractors. Teammates. Anyone who's going to be in my orbit doing meaningful work.
It's part expectations, part philosophy, part survival guide.
And right in the middle of it sits one of my favorite Harvard Business Review articles of all time: "Who's Got the Monkey?"
If you've read it, you know. If you haven't, let me give you the short version without ruining the story.
Work is a monkey. Delegation is handing that monkey to someone else. Bad delegation is when the monkey casually climbs right back onto your back the moment things get uncomfortable.
The brilliance of the article is that it tells the story so clearly you can't unsee it. You start noticing monkeys everywhere. In Slack. In meetings. In "quick questions." In that innocent sounding "Can I run something by you?"
Next thing you know, you're carrying a zoo.
When I reference that article in my onboarding doc, I'm not saying, "Good luck, you're on your own." That's lazy leadership and not what this is about.
I'm saying something very specific.
If I delegate something to you, I am trusting you to own it. Fully. Thoughtfully. End to end.
That includes the roadblocks.
That includes the messy middle.
That includes the moment where it would be easier to hand it back to me and let me decide.
I'm happy to coach. I love coaching (obviously...right?). Ask me questions. Bring me context. Tell me what you're thinking and where you're stuck.
Just don't hand me the monkey.
Because the second I take it back, two things happen.
First, I train you to give it back next time. Second, I quietly resent that I'm doing work I already delegated.
Nobody wins.
This ties directly into one of the most powerful disciplines in EOS: Delegate and Elevate.
At first, delegating feels like relief. You hand something off and think, Great, that's off my plate.
Then the boomerang shows up.
The real work of Delegate and Elevate is not just letting go of tasks. It's letting go of control, decision ownership, and emotional responsibility for outcomes you've already entrusted to someone else.
That's hard. Especially for high-performing leaders who care deeply and move fast.
But being firm about not taking the monkey back is not cold. It's not rigid. It's not unhelpful.
It's respectful.
It respects the other person's capability to figure things out. It respects the agreement you made when you delegated. And it respects your own role as a leader who should be spending time where you create the most value.
When I hold that line, I'm not doing it to be difficult. I'm doing it because it's the right move for the system.
And when the system works, people grow. Confidence grows. Capacity grows.
Most importantly, the business stops depending on one person carrying all the monkeys.
Which, if we're being honest, is kind of the whole point.
Read the full HBR article: https://hbr.org/1999/11/management-time-whos-got-the-monkey
When's the last time you took back a task just because it was faster than coaching someone through it?
About Niki Wilson
As an EOS® Implementer, Niki Wilson serves as a teacher, coach, and facilitator, helping business leaders transform their companies and their lives through the Entrepreneurial Operating System®.