Do More of What Drives Business Success

Perhaps better recognized as the 80/20 Rule, The Pareto Principle is essentially this: only a few key things contribute to the majority of results. Here are a few examples of how this applies to business situations:

• 80 percent of results comes from 20 percent of efforts
• 80 percent of revenue comes from 20 percent of customers
• 80 percent of profit comes from 20 percent of the product range

In addition: 80 percent of your business success relies on 20 percent of your organization's talents.

It's deceptively simple, but an incredibly powerful insight. Maintaining a focus on how The Pareto Principle operates in your business will increase your success in many areas, including talent management.

According to The Pareto Principle, if you and your employees apply ten individual talents each to accomplish your work today, those 10 talents will not all be equally effective. In fact, the 80-20 rule states that only 2 of your talents will account for 80% of your success. The other 8 will be much less effective. Identifying which talents are most productive takes a person a long way in achieving greater personal and professional results.

Apply The Pareto Principle to Your Leadership Talent
Everyone is capable of exceptional performance in certain talents. As a business leader, which 20% of your talents contribute to 80% of your success? Consider your effectiveness in leadership.

• Which of these appear in your top 20%?

- Influencing others - the ability to personally affect others' actions, decisions, opinions or thinking to achieve buy-in and progress

- Self-management - the ability to leverage personal strengths to prioritize and complete tasks within allotted time frames

- Goal achievement - the ability to set, pursue and attain personal, professional and team goals regardless of obstacles or circumstances

• Which other leadership talents are your most powerful?
• How can you focus MORE of your efforts on doing MORE of what makes you most successful as a business leader?

Apply The Pareto Principle to Employee Talent
It takes a variety of talented people working together to grow your business success. Different jobs require a blend of different talents. Throughout your organization, approximately 20% of your employees in a variety of jobs are creating 80% of your business value.

• Who are those employees?
• Can you identify the 20% of their individual talents that contribute to 80% of their successful performance? Talents to assess might include:

- Conceptual thinking, problem solving, balanced decision making, long range planning, etc.

• How can you lead them into focusing MORE of their time on applying the 20% of their talents that create the most business value?

Use these questions as guidelines for putting The Pareto Principle to work in your business. They will provide you with new insights for maximizing the success of the talented people throughout your organization.

Author: Gayla Doucet, People Powered Solutions LLC. Success building coach for TTI Distributors. Copyright protected. All rights reserved worldwide.

First, define the term balance. So often, people seeking "balance" end up with a life something like both sides of a scale dragging the ground behind them. I suggest thinking of work-life balance as a Teeter-Totter, which is certainly possible to balance but is much more fun when it "seesaws" back and forth. In fact, that is the purpose of a teeter-totter!

My clients become less concerned with balance and more concerned with Purpose and Focus. Purpose comes from service, and you may have more than one purpose, for each of the vital few key roles you serve in life. When you have done the work necessary to discover your purpose then, and only then, it becomes possible to have an On-Purpose day. Purpose gives your day focus and meaning; it shapes your goals, your decision- making, and your use of time. Your purpose throughout the day may be to focus on the needs of your customers, then in the evening shift to the needs of your spouse, getting kids to hockey and dance classes, then to reading from a great book before bedtime.

Once you are clear on your purpose(s) in life, focusing on JUST the important things becomes possible - and it's fun!

Reprint permission granted by Mark Sturgell. All rights reserved worldwide.

If you want to remain or become a positive force in the workplace, you need a strategy. Follow the suggestions below to get yourself on your way:

• Ask three people you consider positive forces how they maintain their attitudes.
• Survey your use of language, and change it when necessary. This includes inner talk and outer talk. Change your negative words and thoughts into positive ones.
• Surround yourself with as many positive people as possible.
• Appreciate yourself. Accept yourself for who you are, not who you ought to be.
• Don't worry about something that has already happened. If there is a lesson to be learned, learn it and move on.
• Accept that you are going to make mistakes.
• For one entire day, commit yourself to using all of your energy to be positive.
• Realize that how you feel about something is your choice.
• Take charge of your life, and give yourself credit when you do.

- Adapted from The 6 Success Strategies for Winning at Life, Love & Business by Wolf J. Rinke

Most important, leaders can conceive and articulate goals that lift people out of their petty preoccupations and unite them in pursuit of objectives worthy of their best efforts.
- John Gardner

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
- Muriel Strode

One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks.
- Jack Penn

CCI's mission it to unleash passion and purpose in people and organizations. We accomplish this by engaging and developing successful leaders throughout an organization; teaching people to collaborate and work together effectively and by supporting the alignment and commitment to achieving both individual and shared goals in organizations.

We are a training, facilitation, speaking, and consulting organization.

Our goal is to bring out the very best in the people and organizations we work with. When people are passionate and on fire about their work everyone produces more. Let us show you how!

Collaborative Connections is proud to announce our association with CRK Interactive.

Today people are looking for fast and effective ways to learn on demand; when they want it. We are pleased to now offer several online 90 minute classes that keep people's skills up to date. Many of these online classes work inconjunction with assessements such as the DiSC Behavioral Style Profile or other assessments and several offer CEU Credits.

These programs are designed to engage learners and provide high impact training for employees available 24 hours a day. Classes are reasonably priced and can be used as a stand alone course or as part of a blended approach.

Online classes are available for:

1. Managers and Leaders
2. Teams
3. Sales Professionals
4. Customer Service Representatives

For a list of available courses, course descriptions, courses that qualify for CEU's or to sample a course for free, please call us at: 303-380-2550 or email info@collaborativeconnections.com

email: info@collaborativeconnections.com

phone: 303-380-2550

web: http://www.collaborativeconnections.com