How to Succeed in Any Field Using the 10-80-10 Rule

What is the essence of the 10-80-10 rule

This is a kind of “offshoot” of the famous Pareto law, or the 20/80 principle. It is based on the observation of the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who once noticed that 20% of the planted peas give 80% of the harvest, and he deduced a pattern - 20% of the effort gives 80% of the result.

Later, engineer and management consultant Joseph M. Juran used Pareto's findings to trace the relationship between human behavior and performance, and formulated the rule a little differently - 80% of the success of the project is provided by 20% of the efforts of the team that is working on it working.

Gradually, the Pareto law expanded to the 10-80-10 rule. It says that people are divided into three categories: 10% are real leaders, 80% are able-bodied and responsible, and another 10% are unproductive workers.

If you apply this rule to employees of any company, the division will look like this:

• 10% - high-performing employees, the so-called elite, which is the core of the business. Such people are ready to work overtime, understand all the problems and generate the most effectiveideas.
• 80% — productive employees. This is the majority, which usually works from 9:00 to 18:00 and unquestioningly performs all tasks. Such people rarely offer something innovative, but they are responsible and decent.
• 10% are lazy employees. They are difficult to work with, they do not want to strain and usually take much more from the company than they give to it.

This concept can be applied to other areas as well. Take, for example, the moral foundations of society. Here, 10% are highly moral people, 80% are law-abiding citizens who rarely break the rules, 10% are criminals and those who could break the law.

How to Use the 10-80-10 Rule for Teamwork

Typically, leaders pay the most attention to those who are pulling the company down, trying to put them on the right track. However, it is important to understand that in this case we are talking about only 10% of the team. Giving your strength to such a small number of workers is simply unproductive. Instead, it is better to pay attention to the majority, namely 80%. For this group, leaders are the most influential, which means they can easily increase the level of productivity in it.

Of course, these 80% of employees are far from the same. Someone is closer to 10% of the “elite”, someone is more inclined towards 10% lazy people. However, if you make an effort, you will be able to increase the category of the most effective employees to 20 or even 30%.

Before we close this article and start thinking about how to achieve these results, it's worth understanding how to measure productivity. The leader must clearly understand how he wants to see his subordinates and even clients. A few questions help you figure this out:

• What development does the company need?
• To what level should she grow?
• What area needs change?
• What new clientele would you like to attract?

This knowledge will help formulate a plan of action. But what will motivate 80% of employees to come up with new ideas and work harder? It's worth starting with this.

American Gallup poll showedMajority of U.S. Employees Not Engaged Despite Gains in 2014 / Gallupthat in the US, a third of workers do not feel motivated. It can be assumed that this third includes 10% of lazy employees, as well as part of the 80% responsible. If we remove these 10%, it turns out that only a small number of employees out of 80% have no motivation.

The results of the Gallup study also show that managers are the most motivated. Most likely, this is due to the fact that they directly affect the future of the company.

However, motivation should not be confused with productivity. You can be as motivated as possible, but without the right strategy or the right direction, it will all be in vain. Managers are more motivated because they feel they are being heard, and they can be agents of change themselves. It's simple human psychology - we all want our ideas to be heard. When we are ignored, our sense of self-worth weakens and drags along our motivation.

Of course, this does not mean that everyone should be made managers. The bottom line is to make sure that everyone in the company knows how important their opinion is. When employees notice that their work is appreciated, they will begin to try even harder. And splash motivation among those same 80% will immediately become noticeable.

How to adapt the rule for individual work

The 10-80-10 rule works for groups, but it can also be used by a single person, such as a sole trader or self-employed person.

In this case, according to the 10-80-10 rule, abilities are divided. To do this, three questions must be answered:

• What are you most talented at?
• What are you good at, but not more than that?
• What do you keep putting off?

Imagine that you are a very successful writer. You're writing articles for famous websites and magazines, finishing a book, or working on a screenplay for Warner Bros. Writing, or perhaps not, but creativity and ideation is the "elite" 10%, what you do best. The writing process itself, that is, sitting at the computer, pressing keys, checking the material for errors, is 80%. Of course, you are good at this, but this is not your main strength. It remains to find the "lazy" 10%. Most likely, these include routine tasks, such as correspondence with the publisher, design tax deductions, dubbing audiobooks.

Try breaking down your real talents and activities into this pattern and start developing your 80%. Observe yourself and determine at what moments you demonstrate special success, and at what, on the contrary, you lose motivation and start making mistakes.

Once you've established workflows for the productive 80%, tackle the hardest, laziest 10%. Perhaps by this point you will be able to delegate these responsibilities to someone else. And if not, repeat the same as in the case of 80% - find your particular weaknesses and start working on them.

The essence of the 10-80-10 approach is not to strictly follow certain principles. This rule is a kind of lens through which you can look at human behavior, including your own. Such a look at the work of subordinates or your own allows you to understand in which areas you can get the maximum result with minimal effort. And to recognize opportunities for change that will help on the path to great success and development.