Applying the 80/20 Rule

You’ve heard the phrase, “the devil is in the details.” The idea that the details are important—that whatever one does it should be done thoroughly.

I’ve been knee deep in details of late. I am writing an e-book, Talent Management Toolkit. We want to provide a resource for small to mid-size organizations to help them with their talent management efforts since much of what is available focuses on large, global organizations.

I spent a great deal of time pulling together the content, writing the various chapters and updating the tools and templates. However, now I’m in the detail stage. Editing, refining, setting up the associated web pages, marketing, etc. I have definitely been overwhelmed with the details.

While I am a big believer in getting the details right, I was reminded of the 80/20 rule during this final stage of production. The principle of the “vital few and trivial many.” The 80/20 rule suggests that in anything a few (20 percent) are vital and many (80 percent) are trivial. And it definitely applies in my case. I accomplished 80 percent of the results with 20 percent of the effort. Now, I am spending 80 percent of my time on the 20 percent that remains.

The value of the 80/20 rule for a leader is that it reminds you to focus on the 20 percent that matters. The 80/20 rule is at work constantly in our management and leadership roles:

• 20 percent of your employees cause 80 percent of the problems
• 20 percent of the work consumes 80 percent of the time and resources
• 20 percent of your staff produce 80 percent of the results

So, pay attention to the details but, identify and focus on those things that really matter. Create that balance between “the devil is in the details” and the “80/20 rule.” When the details are dragging you down, when the firefighting is zapping your energy, remind yourself to focus on the 20 percent that makes a difference.

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