Leading to the Outlier, or the 20%

Many years ago in leadership course I was taking, offered by my employer, we were given a piece of wisdom that I carry with me today. 

The lecturer/ presenter drew a Bell Curve on the white board. She then drew three lines. One at the beginning of the curve one in the center and one at the end. The majority of our employees will fall in the big middle section between the two end lines. There will always be rockstars at one end and the unmotivated/"troublemakers" at the other. Nothing you can do will change who they are and what they will be. Who we really effect are those in the middle. The people teetering on either side of the middle line. That is where our influence lies, and yet- she revealed- as leaders we tend to spend most of our energy on the two ends of the Bell Curve instead of influencing the middle to be great. 

In retrospect, I'm not sure I would choose to use a Bell Curve, but it wasn't my presentation and the imagery still holds. 

What are the effects of leading to the outliers? Well if I lead a team of 10, and 2 people take all of my time and energy then I've let 8 go without guidance, encouragement, correction, or praise. Or worse, I'm correcting them all based on the actions of 1. We've all witnessed it, the strange new rule or expectation that the "boss" rolls out for seemingly no reason. I've used a really small sample here to simplify my point. But the same holds true when you increase to 100 and the split is 20 to 80 or if you increase to 1000 and the split is 200 to 800. 

 It gets really easy to get caught up in dealing with the "bottom" 20, basking in the achievements of the "top" 20, and forgetting there are 80 other people that need you. The increase in size makes those 20 -200 people feel significant.

But they are still only 20%. 20% of the people should not be taking 80% of your time. 

So the lesson is, don't lead to the outlier. Don't base your entire style on the fringe cases. 

If Life was a Dream and it was my dream, there are a lot of cases where it is tempting to focus on the extremes or the extreme examples of people. As leaders it is our calling to lead our entire organization (community), not just the outliers. See everyone. Lead everyone. Engage the 80%. 

"It's not fair"

There is no phrase in the english language that irks me like that phrase, "It's not fair." Actually that isn't true, "That's not fair," is equally irksome. 

Feeling analog- I pulled out my edition of the Webster's Pocket Dictionary (which wouldn't fit in any pocket...except for maybe the jenko's I owned in the 90's...but that's another story). 

And you know what? It only had the noun version of the definition. "An exhibit and sale of things often for charity." 

Well that's not what I was looking for. Guess we'll have to turn to our digital dictionary friends. The first definition that pops up on the Google search defines fair as this:

"In accordance with the rules and standards; legitimate." 

All I hear, when I the words "It's not fair" are uttered is "It's not fair that this situation isn't going according to the rules I have set up in my own personal narrative." 

To be clear. "It's not fair," and "It's not just," are two very different things. Systematic persecution is unjust. Manipulating people and praying on their fears is immoral. You not getting the toy you want is...life. Life is not fair which is why we strive to be just and moral.