Source

  • The time imposed by the supervisor and peers are hard to cut down. Therefore, we have to control how much time we spend on sobordinates, and many people spend way more than what they prefer or even realized
  • Progress report should be from the subordinates. This also means a manager tries not to “get back to you later” - It is now or never. In case a decision does take time, make that decision in a scheduled meeting with the owner together, ideally face-to-face.
    • At the end of such meeting, the problem owner (not the manager) and next meeting time must be explicitly set
    • This meeting should not take > 15 mins. Longer than that means subordinates are not prepared
    • The manager should NEVER make a decision on a subordinate’s problem alone!

On a side note, build a universal accountability culture to shorten the req-respose time and feedback loop, i.e., everyone should be able to hold each other accountable