The 20/60/20 Rule Of Leadership.
Don't Go Solving The Wrong Problems
by Brent Filson
Several decades ago, a passenger jet approached a Florida
airport with the pilot and co-pilot struggling to fix what
they thought was a malfunctioning landing gear. The landing
gear light was on, signaling that the gear was deployed; but
both men did not hear it actually deploy.
As the men sought to understand whether they had a defective
landing-gear light or a defective landing gear -- the co-pilot
actually taking up a hatch and getting down into the wheel well,
the aircraft kept losing altitude. Too late, a warning alarm
sounded and the plane crash, killing all aboard.
Quite possibly that tragedy has subsequently saved many lives.
For the pilot and co-pilot's actions have been used in flight
simulation training programs to demonstrate how NOT to troubleshoot
problems in the cockpit.
The incident has become known as the Landing-gear Fix, a diligent
attempt to solve the wrong problem. Of course, they had a landing
gear problem on their hands. But unbeknownst to them, they faced
a far more serious problem, a pending crash.
The Landing-gear Fix is a leadership lesson. In the quest to
get results, many leaders often focus on Landing-gear Fixes
putting their time, resources and talents into solving wrong
problems. In fact, it's been my experience working with thousands
of leaders during the past 20 years that most leaders are either
working on the wrong problems or working on the right problems
in the wrong ways.
In this issue, I'll give you a tool to avoid getting involved
in a leadership Landing-gear Fix. It's a tool that will help
you avoid wrong problems and focus on the right ones. It's
called the 20/60/20 rule. And it will save you aggravation and
help you avoid wasting time.
When you are leading a group of people of whatever size to get
results, understand that roughly about 20 percent of the people
are intractable; they won't do -- or at least won't want to do
what is required. Another 20 percent will be your ardent cause
leaders in getting it done. And 40 percent will be on the fence.
How does this rule help you focus you on the right problem?
For one thing, it gives you a template of where to put your
time and resources.
I wish I had known about the 20/60/20 rule early in my
leadership endeavors. In the military and later in other
venues, I often gave inordinate amount of attention to people
at the intractable end. That people were upset with me and my
leadership and the direction I wanted to take organizations
upset me – more than it should have.
I did not know that if you are not getting a portion of the
people upset with you, you are not challenging them enough as
a leader. I did not know that the anger of the people you lead
is the door prize of leadership.
Apply the 20/60/20 rule to a project you undertook in the past.
(Remember, those are not exact percentages but approximations.)
Which category did you focus your time, attention, and resources
on? Was it the right category to do so? What would you do
differently? How might you have moved people from the intractable
end to the highly motivated end? How did you deal with the people
in the middle, the 60 percent? What category demanded your best
resources and efforts? What could you have done differently to
improve your results?
What are the lessons you learned in applying the rule to a past
project? List at least three specific ones.
Now apply the 20/60/20 rule to a present leadership effort.
This rule is about saving you time, money, and resources and
getting you more results to boot. There are several ways to
use it. First, as a straight up template.
How might the lessons you learned in applying the Rule to a
past project now help you apply it to this present one?
Focus on one of the three categories. How will you expend your
time and resources? It does not matter which category you focus
on. The importance of the rule is that you have the option.
Without this rule, most leaders scatter their focus.
Don't get caught applying diligent solutions to the wrong
problems. Apply the 20/60/20 Rule, and you'll focus on getting
the right results in the right way at the right time.
2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
About The Author
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The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are,
THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP
TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP
TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership
Group, Inc. – and for more than 20 years has been
helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious
results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free
white paper: "49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results," at
http://www.actionleadership.com
brent@actionleadership.com
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