Who or how?

Colleagues,

Yesterday I asked who you should focus on growing:

• The super 2%?
• The excellent 20%?
• Or everyone else?

 
A variant of the Pareto Principle is the 20-60-20 rule. Twenty percent will be on the positive side, 60% in the middle, and 20% on the negative side.
 
This ratio is used a lot in change management. The idea is that you begin a change process with the first 20% of people. Once you have momentum you begin to bring along the 60%. At the point that 80% of the people have made the change, the final 20% will either follow or leave.
 
Yesterday was “who should we work with?”
 
Today, I think that was the wrong question.
 
We have an ethical obligation to help everyone in our organization grow and get better. Allowing someone to languish and rot is not acceptable leadership behavior.
 
What’s the right question?
 
It isn’t who, but how.
 
How should we work with people in different performance levels?
 
If you feel good about how to answer that question – yay! Kudos for you.
 
If you aren’t sure, consider checking out the features section on my resources page to learn more about nine-box and the cube of development. It may not fully answer your question, but it will help you get started.
 
Cheers!
 
Frederick