There is a phenomenon sweeping the business world. We are treating our best employees badly, and the problem is that we don’t even know it. I love The Peter Principle, the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and the 80/20 rule. If you want a road map to success, I recommend becoming familiar with all three. For this article, I will highlight the 80/20 rule.
What is the 80/20 Rule?
The basics of the 80/20 rule state that 20 percent of our customers give us 80 percent of our total sales. But when you look around, the rule applies to so many things. The back door of the rule is that 20 percent of your customers take 80 percent of your time, and you get nothing out of it. These are the customers you should “gift” to your competitors, giving you more time to take care of your real customers.
For the 80/20 rule to work, we need to look at some straightforward basics. If you put a bowl over any ten stores, two out of the 10 do 80 percent of the business. If you put the bowl over any 10 service writers, two out of the 10 sell 80 percent of the sales. If you put the bowl over any 10 technicians, two out of the 10 technicians do 80 percent of the work. If you have not been around a true 20-percenter, then you may not fully grasp the concept. If you have been around one and they worked with you, then you never want to be without one.
Understanding your own 80/20 rule
What makes a 20-percenter able to do so much more work than an 80-percenter? There are 24 hours in a day, and we sleep for eight. Twenty-four minus eight for sleeping leaves 16 hours for us to be productive. Twenty percent of 16 is about three hours. So, what someone accomplishes in three hours of his or her day will net him or her 80 percent of what they get done in a day. Look around you. Is this true for your employees as well?
How are your employees spending their time?
How much time is spent in the bathroom, smoking, and talking to the people around them? These things make people less productive. Disorganized work areas, lack of intensity, lack of focus, or just plain laziness... the list can go on and on. When you think about it, with some of the 80-percenters, it might even feel like a 90/10 rule. However, there is a truism that every business owner and manager needs to be aware of: people will go down to whatever level you allow them to go down to. Tattoo this fact on the inside of your eyelids, because it is the root problem when you treat your best employees the worst.
Treat every employee equally
When you need to get stuff done, do you go to your eighty percenters or twenty percenters? On a day-to-day, hour-by-hour basis, who do we rely on? With the employee shortage, are you afraid to hold the 80-percenter accountable for doing his or her job? Are we allowing the worst employees to skate by while we make our best work harder? When your best doesn’t perform well, don’t we hold them accountable and feel disappointed? When I talk to some of my members, they ask, “What choice do I have? If I try to make the 80-percenters do their job, they will quit.” My response is that there is not one answer that fits because we are dealing with humans.
Do your 20-percenters notice when you don’t treat everyone equally? Do they see when you are not doing your job to hold the team accountable? How do you think the 20-percenters — the movers and shakers of your store — feel when you let the 80-percenters slide?
We do engagement surveys with our members for their stores, and one of the biggest problems in the shop right behind communication is that “my supervisor does not tolerate poor performance,” right along with, “My teammates pride themselves on doing top-notch work.” There are others in the survey who point out the same thing. It is very noticeable if you lead with a fear mindset instead of a success mindset. If your response when asked why you tolerate poor performance is that if you hold them accountable, they will quit, you must ask yourself how far down you will let your team fall without doing anything about it.
Avoid employee burnout and extra pressure
How bad are you going to abuse your best employees and let your worst ones slack off? We keep putting more pressure on our best and burning them out. We are training them to be eighty percenters by showing them that it is acceptable and that we reward the eighty percenters by giving them less to do with fewer expectations. We like to complain about the state of the work and our employees when, if you look in the mirror, part of the cause of the problem sweeping the country can be traced back to the common business owner making decisions based on fear of losing an employee and not being able to replace them.
Lose the fear-based mindset
Your mindset can either be fear-based or success-based. Fear and success can’t live in your mind at the same time. If you lead with fear, your worse fears will be proven. If you lead with success, your greatest dreams will come true. Please don’t do it for yourself, do it for your best employees. Do it so that your culture is not toxic. Do it so that the nucleus of your team feels proud to be a part of the team. Ask yourself, would you like to be treated that way if you are the one trying the hardest?
I am not saying changing your culture is easy or fast, but you have to start somewhere. You must start thinking about your best employees and not ruining them. They need to be protected, not abused. They need to know that what they bring to the team is appreciated and not taken for granted and that every employee will be treated equally. You might even be able to make some of the 80-percenters a 20-percenter. What would your business look like then?
