Subordinate-Imposed Time. The time you spend working on things your subordinates could work on but have given to you, thus making them "Boss-reliant" rather than "self-reliant members of an interdependent team";

Subordinates Are Also Part Of The Problem. When your subordinates’ monkeys wind up on your back, you have one more thing to do, they have one less, throwing you behind in their work as well as your own.

Solution: "Managing" Your Subordinates. The amateur boss takes on so much of the subordinate’s work (making his staff boss-reliant rather than self-reliant) that he/she inevitably runs out of time for them, himself, the boss, and the peers...everybody is dissatisfied.

The professional manager eliminates subordinate-imposed time by requiring that his subordinates become self-reliant members of an interdependent team, thus giving him/her more time for

(a) subordinates, boss, peers,

(b) planning, organizing, leading and seeing to it that things stay on track, and

(c) family and non-business related responsibilities.

Quotations of William Oncken Jr.

"If you are doing the work of two people, the chances are that one of them reports to you."

"One of the principal obstacles to the development of self-reliance in subordinates is the boss’s need to let them watch ‘genius in action’."

Historical Quotations

"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it." (Theodore Roosevelt)

"Never tell people how to do things; tell them what you want done and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." (General George S. Patton, Jr.)

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