a nice pat on the head...........

 

     In Ken Blanchard's book The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey, Blanchard calls these types of situations "other people's monkey."  As a leader, you must ensure you aren't accidentally taking on other people's monkeys (problems or projects).  Adam was (probably unintentionally) trying to put his monkey on my back.  I gave the monkey a nice pat on the head and told him to go back home.

     That's the basis for transformational leadership: start with the premise that this isn't your job, it's theirs.  You shouldn't be telling them how to do it because that is their role, and they own it.  Instead, they should be explaining to you the best way to solve it.

-Dan Martell, Buy Back Your Time