{"id":32005,"date":"2018-03-15T19:17:04","date_gmt":"2018-03-15T23:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/?p=32005"},"modified":"2019-05-22T15:49:57","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T19:49:57","slug":"business-report-no-monkeys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2018\/03\/business-report-no-monkeys\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Report: No Monkeys"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_31533\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31533\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-31533 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2019\/01\/cruz-c-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2019\/01\/cruz-c-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2019\/01\/cruz-c.jpg 432w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-31533\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Cruz, president of Lighthouse Advisors LLC in Queensbury.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">For many years I had a picture on my office door.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It was a monkey with the universal \u201cNO\u201d sign. When someone asked about the picture, I replied, \u201cI do not like monkeys.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I don\u2019t feed them or care for them.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I give them no water.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>If you give me a monkey, I assure you that eventually, it will die.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">My job as a leader was to help people solve their work issues.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>That is the duty of any leader or manager. Too often people wanted to deposit their monkeys at my door.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>They came in and said something like \u201cI have a problem.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>They expected me to take on the task.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I did not. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">How often do people walk in and want to dump their monkey?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Recently I was with a client (\u201cBob\u201d). Bob and I had been discussing how Bob felt overwhelmed with work.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>An employee came in with a customer problem that he could not resolve.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Bob said he would call the customer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><!--more-->I asked Bob if he intended to follow up.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>He said, \u201cOf course!\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I told him my monkey story.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>After he stopped laughing, he gave the task back to the employee. Had he not delegated the tasks, there would have been three negative consequences.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>One, his sales representative would never learn how to solve the problem.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Two, he would have reinforced that he did, in fact, care for wayward monkeys.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>And worse, Bob would be even busier.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">How often have you sat in your office after every other employee had left, only to start on your large pile of \u201cTo Dos\u201d?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>If you want more time to do important things &#8211; you need to stop caring for monkeys.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The way to handle this is simple.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>When an employee walks in with his or her monkey, you invite them to sit down.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Ask them what they tried to do to solve the problem.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Then ask them what other things did they not try to fix the problem.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Suggest an idea or two.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Watch the brainstorming spur the employee\u2019s thought process onto solutions.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Then, encourage him to go try the best idea and let you know how it works out.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Creative problem solving keeps the monkeys from piling up at your door.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And, it gets you time to spend on the important things that will help you grow your business.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For many years I had a picture on my office door.\u00a0 It was a monkey with the universal \u201cNO\u201d sign. When someone asked about the picture, I replied, \u201cI do not like monkeys.\u00a0 I don\u2019t feed them or care for them.\u00a0 I give them no water.\u00a0 If you give me a monkey, I assure you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":31533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Business Report: No Monkeys - Glens Falls Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2018\/03\/business-report-no-monkeys\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Business Report: No Monkeys - Glens Falls Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For many years I had a picture on my office door.\u00a0 It was a monkey with the universal \u201cNO\u201d sign. When someone asked about the picture, I replied, \u201cI do not like monkeys.\u00a0 I don\u2019t feed them or care for them.\u00a0 I give them no water.\u00a0 If you give me a monkey, I assure you [&hellip;]\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2018\/03\/business-report-no-monkeys\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Glens Falls Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-15T23:17:04+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-05-22T19:49:57+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2019\/01\/cruz-c.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"432\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"648\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jake Van Ness\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jake Van Ness\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2018\/03\/business-report-no-monkeys\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2018\/03\/business-report-no-monkeys\/\",\"name\":\"Business Report: No Monkeys - Glens Falls Business Journal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-15T23:17:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-05-22T19:49:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/a11ec438b5f0e57f1156754ba3931b86\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2018\/03\/business-report-no-monkeys\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2018\/03\/business-report-no-monkeys\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2018\/03\/business-report-no-monkeys\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Business Report: No Monkeys\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/\",\"name\":\"Glens Falls Business Journal\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/a11ec438b5f0e57f1156754ba3931b86\",\"name\":\"Jake Van Ness\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8083519989e12032abdd06a668982ef4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8083519989e12032abdd06a668982ef4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jake Van Ness\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/author\/jakev\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Business Report: No Monkeys - Glens Falls Business Journal","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2018\/03\/business-report-no-monkeys\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Business Report: No Monkeys - Glens Falls Business Journal","og_description":"For many years I had a picture on my office door.\u00a0 It was a monkey with the universal \u201cNO\u201d sign. When someone asked about the picture, I replied, \u201cI do not like monkeys.\u00a0 I don\u2019t feed them or care for them.\u00a0 I give them no water.\u00a0 If you give me a monkey, I assure you [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2018\/03\/business-report-no-monkeys\/","og_site_name":"Glens Falls Business Journal","article_published_time":"2018-03-15T23:17:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-05-22T19:49:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":432,"height":648,"url":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2019\/01\/cruz-c.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jake Van Ness","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jake Van Ness","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2018\/03\/business-report-no-monkeys\/","url":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2018\/03\/business-report-no-monkeys\/","name":"Business Report: No Monkeys - Glens Falls Business Journal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-03-15T23:17:04+00:00","dateModified":"2019-05-22T19:49:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/a11ec438b5f0e57f1156754ba3931b86"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2018\/03\/business-report-no-monkeys\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2018\/03\/business-report-no-monkeys\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2018\/03\/business-report-no-monkeys\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Business Report: No Monkeys"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/","name":"Glens Falls Business Journal","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/a11ec438b5f0e57f1156754ba3931b86","name":"Jake Van Ness","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8083519989e12032abdd06a668982ef4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8083519989e12032abdd06a668982ef4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jake Van Ness"},"url":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/author\/jakev\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32005"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32006,"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32005\/revisions\/32006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}