hwy120

Don't Shoot Yourself in the Foot with 'Top Gun' Management

In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that 20 percent of the people owned 80 percent of the wealth.

In the late 1940s, Dr. Joseph M. Juran inaccurately attributed the 80/20 Rule to Pareto, calling it Pareto's Principle. While it may be misnamed, Pareto's Principle or Pareto's Law, as it is sometimes called, can be a very effective tool to help us manage efficiently, but it can also be applied to virtually every facet of our lives.

The value of the Pareto Principle for a manager is that it reminds us to focus on the 20 percent that matters. Of the things we do during your day, only 20 percent really matter. Those 20 percent produce 80 percent of our results, so we should identify and focus on those things.

When our "time robbers" begin to sap our time, we need to remind ourselves of the 20 percent we need to focus on. If something in the schedule has to slip, if something isn't going to get done, we have to make sure it's not part of that 20 percent.

There is a management theory that interprets Pareto's Principle in such a way as to produce what is called "Top Gun" management. Advocates of this theory suggest that since 20 percent of our people produce 80 percent of our results, we should focus our limited time on managing only that 20 percent -- the so-called “superstars.”

In my opinion, the theory is seriously flawed because it overlooks the fact that 80 percent of our time should be spent doing what is really important, and that includes developing all of our people. Helping the good to become better is much more important than helping the great become terrific.

When we work to develop our subordinates, we should concentrate on converting what I term the "reactive mindset," because we can certainly apply Pareto’s Principle to reactive versus proactive mindsets. Or, to describe these two mindsets in a different way -- the “running towards” mindset versus the “running away” mindset.

Wireless Business Solution Zee Tawasha