Supervisory Leadership

Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian Economist and Sociologist. Among other things, he derived something called the "Law of the Unequal Distribution of Results." You probably haven't heard of that. But you may have heard of the 80/20Rule.

That rule says that there are a small number of causes (say twenty percent) that account for most results (say eighty percent). In other words, some of the things you do give you more "bang for your buck."

This is really important, because no one, not even you, has the time or energy or resources to tackle everything that needs doing. If you figure out what the most important stuff is and then get the most important stuff done first, you'll be much more productive.

One of the things that you can do to help determine what's the most important for you is to use ranked lists. Here is where you will see the Pareto's Law Principles show up clearly.

Rank your customers by their sales or by their number of complaints, or just about anything else, and you will find that the very few folks at the top of the list account for a disproportionate number of whatever it is you are counting. Rank the people who work for you by the number of complaints or simply the quality of work, and you will find the same thing

Ranked lists will show you what is important and help you devote your efforts to that most important stuff. Now consider how you apply the Pareto Principle to your daily to-do list.

If you are not making a to-do list, now is a great time to start. It is the simplest way to make a major productivity improvement. But here are a couple of more things you can add to that list to make it work more effectively for you.

First, limit the number of items on your list. If your list runs to more than about eight items, it is probably too long, and you are probably either not getting things done and shifting them to the next day, or letting them drop off the list altogether.

Next, give some relative value to the items on your list. Make the one at the top twice as important as the second one and the second one twice as important as the third. If you are thinking that means that your top two or three items can account for most of your productivity for the day, that is exactly right.

Listen to Pareto. Spend time on the things that give you the most bang for your buck.

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