# How Much Do They Suffer?
Source: https://www.yegor256.com/2019/06/19/how-much-they-suffer.html
Remember the famous article
[_Who's Got the Monkey?_](http://hbr.org/1999/11/management-time-whos-got-the-monkey/ar/1)
The gist of it is simple: good managers always make their subordinates
responsible for their own results. When they attempt to send the monkey back
to the manager's shoulders by making excuses, the manager has to be on the alert and
not accept the monkey, always keeping workers fully accountable and responsible
for what they are doing. It's a terrific principle, but it doesn't work for most
managers. Here is why. Let me tell you a story.
{% jb_picture_body %}
I was having dinner yesterday with a friend of mine, long after work hours,
when she suddenly exclaimed, "Damn, I forgot something!" and she ran away. When she
came back half an hour later I asked what had happened. She said that her marketing
team of two guys were at an expo in another country and had asked her
to help them upload some videos to their YouTube channel. They needed
those videos for the upcoming conference next morning and she was the only
one who had access to the channel. I didn't get all the technical details, but
I asked her why she was worried about it so much. She said that if she didn't
help them, they would not be able to complete their expo mission properly,
which would mean a failure for her, a co-founder of the startup. It sounded
like this, literally:
> Me: "Why do you have to worry?" Her: "It's my startup, duh!"
Here is what happened in "monkey" terms:
She _delegated_ the expo job and gave them the monkey (the responsibility). They
asked her to help them and sent the monkey _back_ to her. She was sitting
with the monkey on her shoulders while having dinner with me. It was only
a matter of luck that she even remembered it. If she hadn't, the expo
job would have failed. Who would've been guilty? She would. They'd have the perfect
excuse: "We asked you for help and you forgot, don't blame us!"
I've seen many similar stories, haven't you?
{% quote Professional employees should always do everything possible to send monkeys back to their bosses %}
To be honest, professional employees should
[always]({% pst 2018/apr/2018-04-17-how-to-be-lazy %}) do everything possible to
send monkeys back to their bosses. Only those
[slaves]({% pst 2015/oct/2015-10-06-how-to-be-good-office-slave %}) who are junior and incompetent
always try to do everything
[the boss says]({% pst 2015/jan/2015-01-26-happy-boss-false-objective %}), making no attempts
to "fight back" and win some room for excuses. Seasoned experts
[know how]({% pst 2017/aug/2017-08-01-how-to-manage-a-manager %})
to manage their ~~owners~~ managers. Thus, those two expo guys did
everything right. The mistake was on the co-founder's side:
She didn't make them worry _enough_.
The result of the expo was very important for her and she was expecting it.
She hired two guys to attend the expo and bring back some leads, or whatever
else they had to bring back. She explained to them how important it was. Obviously,
however, it was not enough.
They still worried _less_ than she did.
That's why they were not calling her every minute asking for the videos
they needed. That's why they didn't plan it all properly upfront and instead left
it till the last moment. That's why she was the only one worrying.
By "worry" I mean two things that go together: reward and punishment---even though some people
prefer to call them consequences. No matter what you call them, there are
both positive and negative things that happen if you succeed or fail. My friend,
the co-founder, knew very well what the reward would be if the expo went well,
and what the punishment would be, for her personally, if the expo failed. However,
she didn't transfer these two things to her employees _proportionally_.
As she explained to me, they were getting [monthly salaries]({% pst 2015/jul/2015-07-21-hourly-pay-modern-slavery %})
and some bonuses for each lead they brought back. When I asked about the absolute
amounts, she told me that the bonuses are much smaller than the salary,
"_of course_." How can we expect them to worry about the leads, if we
clearly demonstrate our priorities: salary first, results second.
This is what was wrong.
{% quote Leaders decompose and delegate the scope of the work, but forget to decompose and delegate the consequences %}
The job of a _leader_ is to decompose a larger objective into smaller ones
and delegate them to subordinates. An objective means the _consequences_
those subordinates will have to face when they either fail or succeed. However, what
happens in most cases? Leaders decompose and delegate the scope of the work, but forget
to decompose and delegate the consequences. A monthly salary is _not_ the
right way to delegate consequences. Moreover, it is a particularly bad way, because
it sends a [false message]({% pst 2019/may/2019-05-28-trust-or-not %}) to subordinates:
you are doing great until I fire you, and there is nothing in the middle.
Most likely they won't be fired for the missed video. Instead they have
a good excuse: "We asked you to help us and you forgot; where are our paychecks?"
Simply put, good managers know how to make the suffering of their
subordinates more hurtful to them than the mistakes they make are
hurtful to the project. The same is true about the rewards.
Of course it's impossible to put the blame for the entire business failure
on a single employee, just like it's impossible to reward a single
employee for the overall success of the company. But it's necessary to make
all team members win and lose _proportionally_.
Otherwise, it's not a team.