The 80-20 rule, or the Pareto Principle, is defined as when 80% of the work, or effort, is done by 20% of the people. There are many, many variations.
Cowardly Leadership and the 80-20 rule
George Will wrote an interesting editorial in the Washington Post a few weeks ago entitled “Our Dangerous, Idiotic National Conversation.” I am a George Will fan for many reasons, not the least is which I will always read a word or two in one of his columns I’ve never seen before.
Anyway, he said, “At most moments, 312 million are not listening to excitable broadcasters making mountains of significance out of molehills of political effluvia.” Leaving aside effluvia, Mr. Will reminds us all that of the 325 million or so Americans, a relative very few are at the fringes, i.e. the 20% of the 80-20. We forget that because those few are, both by design and by necessity, loud, obnoxious, extreme, and outlandish. Otherwise, why would we pick them out to discuss (and simply cuss)?
We wouldn’t.
How that relates
Even cowardly leaders, at their worst, are not cowardly all the time. So, in totaling up the cowardly leaders in this country, and multiplying by the percentage of time they are, in fact, practicing cowardly traits (re-read some previous blogs if you want some reminders and examples), you will get something less than 20%.
The Daily Me
Mr. Will introduces a concept I had not heard of before, but which upon reading, makes profound sense: The Daily Me. MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte coined that phrase in his 1995 book “Being Digital”.
I think that relates to the cowardly leader. After all, what has more importance to a cowardly leader than…him? Those that are full of hubristic self-importance, where they are where they are due to their self-righteousness, operate from a “Daily Me” perspective. It’s about them, their priority of the day, which is often not the priority of yesterday or tomorrow. What will score the political points today? What will make us (him) look good to the boss, the press, the media?
What To Do?
As an employee in the Daily Me world of the cowardly leader, it is imperative to realize the message from the ivory tower is not necessarily wisdom or truth. If 80% is of the cowardly variety, designed to make the leader look good, there is still the 20% that has value.
There is a dictated political message, to be sure, but there is a difference in what is directed, and what is right. And just as Mr. Will reminds us that only at the fringes are people really yelling and screaming at each other (and just as likely, to each other), it is at those same fringes that cowardly leaders operate. Unfortunately, they are in positions of power, and those who answer to them are in a quandry and in limbo on a daily basis, wondering how to separate the 20% wheat of value from the 80% chaff of political nonsense and political power concentration.
As clear-thinking employees, it is incumbent upon us all to separate the party line from what is real. The kool-aid is there for the drinking. I advise against it.
II-54
