Yellow Pages Antarctica

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in
newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to
the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource
box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is
appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com

Word count: 777

Summary: Leaders often hamper their effectiveness by focusing on
solving problems that eventually turn out to be the wrong
problems. Here is a tool to help you focus on the right problems
and solve them in the right ways.

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.