The 80/20 rule: application #256

 

It is right up there with the trusty Leatherman… the nifty thing you can count on: the 80/20 Rule.  While I am not a fan of “Rules”, this one works well often.  For example, for the past month or so I have been testing my own application of the 80/20 Rule in the field while working side by side with dozens of leaders.  My observations can be summed like this: 80 % of the “coaching” we offer our team members delivers 20% of the results.  Scanning my past 30 (gulp!) years of leadership experience, I found this “Rule” to hold true.  Hmmmmmm.

Reflect for a minute.  When does most of the “coaching” occur in your organization: “pre-game”, “during-game” or “post-game”?  Survey says: post-game.  I offer that the majority of “coaching” in our organizations is done AFTER the event, project, month, etc.  (annual reviews, anyone?)  So, if 80% of our coaching time is delivering 20% of the result, what is possible when we take on the “pre” and “during” coaching with intention?  Goldmine!  The nuggets in sum:

Pre and during

• Clarifies expectations and success metrics
• Defines milestones
• Celebrates small wins
• Navigates obstacles
• Helps team stay focused on the summit
• Results are created

Post

•  Offers recognition
• Identifies behaviors to replicate
• Highlights lessons learned
• Results are in

Don’t get me wrong.  “Post-game” reviews have benefit.  For bolder results, ask yourself this: what if 80% of the possible results your team may achieve is in your “pre” and “during” coaching hands?  I offer that it is.

Look, tens of thousands of hours of coaching take place well before that last minute play of the game.  The magic play drawn on the clip board with 1.6 seconds remaining cannot compare to the countless coaching moments it took everyone to get to that last important play.  I think we have some choices to make.  We can make commentary on the post-game scoreboard (a.k.a. ESPN at 3 a.m.) or we can bring our talent forward and radically improve the readiness and the execution capability of our team… coaching right there, in the mix, beginning well before the tip off.

20% of you will take action here… and that will likely deliver 80% of what’s possible.  I know where I am putting my money.  How about you?

Silent Steel

 

You are tough… you are strong… a business warrior with the mettle to withstand any challenge that does not kill you, right?  Do you really stand alone?  Let’s dig down deep for a minute.

In this week’s ramp up to Mother’s Day, I have been thinking about the confidence, perseverance and support it takes to push ahead.  What is beneath our feet and around us that steadies us when we question ourselves, our unique talent, our capability?  Often it is our Moms, our partners, our best friends, our colleagues who stand for and with us… and there are others.  The silent presence of those who believe in us propels us forward.  There are people who are not there but they are always there.

I submit that there are those who support you whom you don’t even know.  It is possible that you are currently unaware of an interaction you had with someone that impacted them so greatly that they have become a fervent supporter of YOU.  Think about Mitch Albom’s book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven.  (If you haven’t read it… do).  Unseen connections you are having with people now may be much more powerful than you realize.

Silently, there are people who stand for you.  They are a strength you don’t see.  You are one, too.  YOU are a source of strength for others… a presence of steel they can count on when fear or doubt overshadow them.  You may not know who they are.  It doesn’t matter.  Know this: you are someone’s steel.  Be ready.  Always be ready.

          “A warrior is not something you become.  It is something you are, in the moment, or something you are not.”   – Dan Millman

Remember who you are every moment.

… p.s. thank you, Mom, and others, for being my steel.

Pre-emergence: Work Now For a Green Tomorrow

 For every time that I plant a seed,

He said, “Kill it before it grows….”

-    I Shot the Sherriff by Bob Marley

 

It is spring by the calendar.  Is it spring for our economy?  Your business?  What should we be doing NOW as leaders to ensure our future is green and strong? 

This week, I went out to my yard to work and think.  After an unusually rough winter in Portland, I scanned my yard and thought, “what should I be doing here now?”  Weed, seed, feed, and throw down some pre-emergent.  Indeed.  Duh, Melone.  It is the tough work that I do with my clients every day.  It looks a lot like this:

WEED: Toss what does not serve you.  Get lean.  Eliminate dumb processes.  Crank up lower performers or cut them out.  Get down to core business.  Kill business as usual.

FEED:  Engage people.  Recognize creativity, resilience, agility, a will to win.  Celebrate small wins.  “Miracle-Gro” emerging leaders.  Help people see what is possible today.

SEED:  Use this opportunity to plant anew.  Build new ways to grow.  Untap talent that can help you create undiscovered opportunities.  Put people in thriving places.  Build new unlikely partnerships.  Be bold.  Think.  Create.

PRE-EMERGENT:  Stuff that you can do now to grow past the competition…that is my definition of pre-emergent. One of my favorite pre-emergents: learning.  Coolest learning this week: reading Ram Charan’s new book, Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty.  In true Charan form, he offers straight up, go-do-these-now actions such as: be visible, set shorter term milestones, change your company’s psychology, and my favorite: be bold!  Clearly, it is about action.  No, ACTION.

Yeah, it’s been a rough winter.  Green fields await for those who step up NOW.  My prediction: only the BOLD will thrive.  You got BOLD?