The 80/20 rule, sometimes referred to as the Pareto Principle, is an observation that most things in the world are unevenly distributed. As a leader, understanding this ratio informs how I allocate my time, focus and energy.

The Pareto Principle finds its origin with Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, who observed that 80% of the land in Italy belonged to 20% of the people. This observation was from over 100 years ago, and it still holds in economics today. A small number of people process most of the wealth. Most capital resides in a handful of companies. At the companies, the majority of revenue is generated by a select group of products.

It's not just with money. Have you been on a team where most of the productivity comes from just a few members? Or think about spaces. Probably 20% of your home gets 80% of the use, at least before we all started working from home. Next time you're in traffic, consider how a small percentage of roads get most of the cars. 😬

What is Balanced?

Before getting into how we apply this principle, I want to address a mindset shift. You hear a lot of talk about having a balanced life or a balanced diet, or a balanced whatever. But what does balanced mean? Is it a 50/50 split?

Leverage is at the core of the 80/20 rule. There is a shift from "How do I make these things even?" to how do I leverage what's essential for the most significant impact?

Whether it’s the visual image of a scale or remembering when we played on a seesaw as a kid, I think most people default to this idea of balanced meaning 50/50. Finding a 50/50 balance can be quite tricky and elusive.

So what do we do? Let's look back at the seesaw. What happens when you move the pivot point away from the middle. Now, something small can lift something heavy.

Leverage is at the core of the 80/20 rule. There is a shift from "How do I make these things even?" to how do I leverage what's essential for the most significant impact?" This shift in mindset is critical to apply, or should I say leverage, the 80/20 rule

How to apply the 80/20 rule?

While the 80/20 rule can make for great dinner conversation, what you probably want is for it to help you get the results you want with less work. Here are three steps to take as you learn to apply the 80/20 rule.

1. Finding the focus.
2. Delegating down.
3. Going all in.

Finding the focus.

Not every 20% produces 80%. So just focusing on a subset of the overall group won't necessarily produce better results. So if the 80/20 rule doesn't predict which 20% will have most of the impact, how do I identify the critical 20%?

Or put another way, "Where do I need to focus to see the results I want?" The starting point here is actually at the end. You begin by identifying the outcomes you want. When you're clear on outcomes, you can then ask, "What behaviors, habits, or actions most influence these results?" If you could do only one thing today or this week to see this result, what would you do?

Sometimes the answer jumps out at you. Other times it's a bit more hidden. This is one of the reasons I advocate for building a habit of reviews. Regular reviews provide you with insight over time. You begin to see what is having the most impact.

Where do I need to focus to see the results I want?

If you’re trying to solve a problem as a team, consider using the tools of problem finding to identify the underlying root causes. This is the 20% you need to focus on.

Another place to look is other people. It's typically easier to observe patterns in other people's lives than it is in our own. Observe those alongside you in the journey or interview those ahead of you. Try to discover the small things they do that are producing significant results. Also, invite others in to do the same in your life. They will likely have insight that may feel invisible to you right now.

Delegating down.

Now that you've identified some of what is in the high impact 20%, what do you do about it? We can't just cut 80%. We still need those small roads that aren't driven 80% of the time. But maybe those roads don't need maintenance in the same way the highways do. There will be things you choose not to do.

As a leader, you need to consider what are the things that only you could do for your team or the project. Everything else can be delegated down. The book Procrastinating on Purpose by Rory Vader has been a great resource for me in delegating and choosing what not to do.

Now repeat this for your team. What are the things that team members should do to have the most significant impact? Everything else gets delegated down again.

What if there is nobody below to delegate to? Then you delegate to the floor. You drop it. You stop doing it.

To give your energy and attention to what's most important, you must first remove it from what isn't.

Choosing not to do things can be uncomfortable. You're probably going to disappoint someone or make someone upset. A friend once told me that leadership is disappointing people at a rate they can absorb. While that definition can seem a bit morose, it still has truth to it.

This pruning is part of the process. To give your energy and attention to what's most important, you must first remove it from what isn't. And this brings us to the third step of going all in.

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Going all in

You've identified what you will focus on and what you want. Now you must realign around your new focus. This first step is to look at your schedule. As you translate these priorities into your daily and weekly schedule, ask two questions:

1. What proportion of time should this receive?
2. When in the day should I do this?

The first has to do with priority. What is the 20% that should get most of your time? The second question has to do with your energy and attention. I'm a morning person. I do my best writing before my kids are up. The early afternoon is not a good window for me to do creative work. At Your Best is a great resource to learn to allocate your time in this way.

Now that you've realigned your schedule comes the most challenging part. Keep saying "no." It won't take long before someone is at your desk or in your inbox asking you or your team to do something you just decided wasn't in your 20%. This is where the real work of prioritization takes place. There were seasons where I made a not-to-do list. By pre-deciding what I would say "no" to, I relieved myself of having to decide at the moment.

You need to say "no" more often but feel that isn't going to go over well. I can empathize. A few years ago, I redesigned the workflow and project management for our creative department. When I looked at the past two years, they were averaging a new project request every workday. They needed to say "no" more, but there was a lot of organizational friction with this. So instead of a straight "no" we created two alternatives.

1. Pre-built solutions. We created a library of standard requests and developed editable templates.
2. DIY resources. If someone felt their request was too unique for these templates, we directed them to a curated list of resources to help them to design it themselves.

Do you know what happened? Most of those stakeholders decided it wasn't worth their time to do it. New and shiny ideas are exciting and always worth someone else's time. But when we redirected that responsibility back to them, they recognized it wasn't actually in the 20% of things worth giving time and attention to.

Keep adjusting

Prioritization is a journey, not a destination. Continue to iterate, learning what delivers the results you're looking for. Establish rhythms of evaluation and communities of feedback to provide the insight needed.

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