Jonathan Shroyer is an 80-20 manager.
The chief customer experience innovation officer at Arise Virtual Solutions, he learned the value of the 80-20 approach when working for the customer service team at Microsoft, which was deep into analytics. Often called the Pareto Principle, it traces back to economist Vilfredo Pareto’s finding that 80 per cent of the land in Italy was owned by 20 per cent of the population. These days it has been extended to the notion that often 80 per cent of a company’s revenue comes from 20 per cent of its customers or 80 per cent of the profits result from the work of 20 per cent of employees.
Mr. Shroyer has applied the notion to the art of management itself, with these five prescriptions:
- Spend 80 per cent of your time on the 20 per cent that is your most important work.
- Spend 80 per cent of your time listening and 20 per cent speaking.
- Spend 80 per cent of your time coaching your top 20 per cent of performers.
- Spend 80 per cent of your time with others asking questions and 20 per cent providing answers.
- Spend 80 per cent of your feedback time praising and 20 per cent being critical.
Don’t get hung up on the exact percentages; focus on the powerful leverage you might gain from embracing such imbalances. “Often we spend our time in the wrong places,” he says in an interview, noting that prevents an optimum outcome. “You need to prioritize where you spend 80 per cent of your time to get that valued output.”
Most people, he finds, get stuck repeating what has been done before and as the landscape changes have trouble letting go. His first rule forces you to look at your work – say the top 10 things you do – and pick the two activities that create the most value or contribute the most to satisfying your key performance indicators. You should spend 80 per cent of your time on those items and determine whether you can eliminate some of those other activities.
In large organizations, it can be difficult to make these changes directly so sometimes you have to do it indirectly and seek forgiveness later, as he has in the past. In mid-sized companies or startups there can be a stronger urge for innovation, which this fits. But the big obstacle remains our own psychology: We prefer stability, doing what we have always done.
He used to be an 80 per cent speaker, thinking as a leader it was expected he would know everything and dominate discussion. But in order to learn, dialogue is vital. If five people attend a meeting and everybody speaks for about the same amount of time, he says it provides a well-rounded discussion and the issue is probed from varied perspectives. If the leader dominates the discussion, at the end they just confirm the idea in their head rather than advance their thinking. If you wish to change and become a 20 per cent speaker, he warns not to expect it to happen overnight.
In coaching, you want to focus where you can get the most return for your time. That select 20 per cent of your staff may not be the top people but instead those with the greatest potential to produce more. Then give them 80 per cent of the time you can devote to coaching. He recognizes this will infuriate those who believe a leader must give equal attention to all. “But at the end of the day, 20 to 30 per cent of your team are going to provide 60 to 70 to 80 per cent of the value,” he says. You still support and coach others, but intentionally devote extra time to a designated few.
As well as watching how much you speak in meetings and with others, you need to study what you are saying. Asking questions 80 per cent of the time will unlock more knowledge and ideas, especially when probing for the root causes of a problem, rather than supplying your answers up front. In particular, direct questions at people who don’t speak much. He stresses this rule requires being alert to context: In some meetings you need to ask more questions and in others you may be required to supply more direction.
Most people, he feels, know what they aren’t good at so it’s not effective to repeat that point in feedback conversations. It just reduces their confidence and doesn’t help them grow. Your role as a leader and human being is to support them and if you recognize they did something great, praise them. You still may want to give them constructive feedback at intervals, but be mindful of how often that occurs – and also tone.
Is there an 80-20 to his own prescriptions? He believes the second and fifth – spending 80 per cent of your time listening, and 80 per cent of your feedback praising – are the most important as they will have a greater influence on other people. Managers, after all, spend most of their life influencing others, and those will magnify your impact the most.
Cannonballs
- When reviewing a project or activity, Gillian Zamora, head of product and user experience at Charter information services, shares the four L’s format: What did we like, learn, lack, and long for?
- Human resources executive Ayesha J. Whyte recommends these probes to evaluate the intellectual curiosity of a job candidate: Tell me about something you recently taught yourself. What books have you read lately? Tell me about your hobbies. How do you strive for continual self-improvement? What interests you about this position?
- The Nielsen Norman Group says the winners of this year’s awards for best Intranet design supported back-to-office and hybrid work, with such features as a desk-booking tool for fair and efficient desk usage and mobile apps to reserve parking spots and check office occupancy before deciding whether to work in the office. AI-powered chatboxes provided innovative ways for employees to access information and services.
Harvey Schachter is a Kingston-based writer specializing in management issues. He, along with Sheelagh Whittaker, former CEO of both EDS Canada and Cancom, are the authors of When Harvey Didn’t Meet Sheelagh: Emails on Leadership.