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to the 80/20 rule and how it relates to manag-ing work priorities, not thanking people enough and the danger of being your employees’ friend rather than their boss.

Making mistakes is an inevitable part of be-ing human, particularly for those who push the envelope in striving for success and making a diff erence for themselves and others. As such, leaders will naturally make mistakes. As dis-cussed in part one of this two-part series (Hen-rikson, 2011), productively managing a mistake is important for personal progress and growth. Knowing common mistakes managers make and how to avoid them can help infl uence a leader’s actions, thereby creating a less stressful work environment for the leader and her col-leagues. Th is article focuses on mistakes related

Mistakes Managers

Make Part Two

MARY HENRIKSON, MN

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Mary Henrikson, MN, is senior vice president and chief executive officer at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women in San Diego, CA. The author reports no conflicts of interest or relevant financial relation-ships. Address correspon-dence to: mary.henrikson@sharp.com.

DOI: 10.1111/j.1751–486X.2011.01687.x

Not Understanding the 80/20 Rule Th e 80/20 rule was coined in the early 1900s by Pareto, an economist who created a mathemati-cal formula that showed that 80 percent of the land in his country was owned by 20 percent of the people. He also commented that 20 percent of the pea plants in his garden produced 80 per-cent of the peas (I have some blueberry bushes that behave the same way). In the 1940s, the quality management pioneer Juran recognized the principle he called the “vital few and trivial many,” meaning that 20 percent of the some-thing always produces 80 percent of the results. For Juran it was 80 percent of a product’s prob-lems are due to 20 percent of a product’s de-fects. He attributed this rule to Pareto calling it Pareto’s Principle (Pinnacle Management, 2005; Reh, 2011)

Today, the Pareto Priniciple is most oft en re-ferred to as the 80/20 rule and it basically means that 80 percent of the results/impact come from 20 percent of the eff orts/causes. It can be ap-plied in both work and personal life. For exam-ple, in work, 20 percent of the tasks are going to consume 80 percent of your time; 20 percent of your staff (or physicians) cause 80 percent of the problems; or 20 percent of your employees can

take up 80 percent of your time. However, the 80/20 split is not to be taken literally. It could have been as easily called the 64/10 rule if 64 percent of the results are created by 10 percent of the inputs.

Using the 80/20 Rule to Your AdvantageHow can this rule help you as a manager? I en-courage you to use it in two ways: To help you focus on how you spend your time, and to max-imize the value you get from your employees. A complaint I hear oft en and has been uttered from my own mouth on occasion is, “I spent my entire day putting out fi res and got nothing done!” Or, “I’m running as fast as I can just to stay in the same place!” Our days are made up

of many time wasters like junk email, unnec-essary meetings and other distractions. We’re always busy but nothing ever seems get done. We wonder why we’re mentally and physically drained while that pile of work is still waiting to be done. When you feel this way, it’s time to consider sitting down and applying the 80/20 rule. Th e rule reminds you to focus on the 20 percent of your work that matters. Th at 20 per-cent produces 80 percent of your results. It’s a matter of not just working smart, but working smart on the right things.

So how do you know what makes up that 20 percent that matters? It comes from defi n-ing the core work of your job. What are the cen-tral actions and roles that make up your job? All jobs have lots of “to-do” activities, but the cen-tral tasks are the most important. Th ose include tasks that are driven by the vision and goals of your organization, which should be driving your unit and personal work goals and activities. In addition, it’s the things that will cause prob-lems if they don’t get done. It’s the things that if they’re done right mean you’re doing your job well, and will get the positive nod from your boss about your work (Mintlife, 2010).

In the Harvard Business Review, Goshal and Bruch (2004) noted from their research that

“truly eff ective managers are purposeful, trust in their own judgment and adopt long term, big picture views to fulfi ll personal goals that tally with those of the organization as a whole. Th ey break out of their perceived boxes, take con-trol of their jobs and become more productive” (2004, pg. 42). One way they do this is by man-aging demands. I encourage you to start with your to-do list and carefully scrutinize it. Are the listed activities supporting the core work of your job? For example, if one of your core responsibilities is employee satisfaction and a known method of improving employee satisfac-tion is rounding on your staff on a daily/regular basis, then it should be on your to-do list or slot-ted on your calendar. It shouldn’t be an optional

We wonder why we’re mentally and physically drained while that

pile of work is still waiting to be done. When you feel this way,

it’s time to consider sitting down and applying the 80/20 rule

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activity that’s only done when you have the time. If you don’t understand or quite know what your core responsibilities are, sit down with your boss and have a conversation. Start with, “I want to produce results that you are proud of and move our organization in a positive direc-tion. But I’m worried that I’m spending more time putting out fi res and on things that don’t matter than I am on the things that do matter. I know that the majority of my to-do list should be made up of those activities that are the core of my work, and I would like your help by re-viewing my list with me and helping me deter-mine if each activity listed is on the right track.” In my opinion, good bosses welcome that kind of conversation and admire the employee who steps up. She doesn’t want to wait until your performance review to point out what you’re doing right or wrong. Th is is a matter of taking ownership of your job.

Prioritizing Based on the 80/20 RuleOnce you know your core responsibilities and are making to-do lists that include those respon-sibilities, as well as one-time activities or proj-ects, prioritize the list on a regular basis. Th is prioritization can be as simple as labeling the

task with an “A” for the things most important, putting a “B” next to the ones less important, and so on. If you have multiple tasks (and who doesn’t) in each category, put a 1, 2 or 3 next to them to indicate order of importance. Focus on the A tasks fi rst, particularly those you have categorized as a 1. Th ese will be your 20 per-cent. Th en move on the Bs and so on. You will fi nd that your Bs and Cs will most oft en be fi ller tasks and you will probably not be any better or worse for doing them (or not). Th e 80/20 rule helps you know what to let slide when you don’t have time to do it all. Get the most important work done fi rst (Nees, 2011).

Applying the 80/20 Rule to EmployeesTh e 80/20 rule can also be applied to employees. In the business world the rule is applied in that 20 percent of the employees shoulder 80 percent of the responsibility and work. I have a hard time applying that to all the work in the hospital set-ting, in which our product is patient care. All employees must do their jobs and care for their assigned patients. A charge nurse cannot assign 80 percent of the patients to only 20 percent of the staff . Where it does apply in hospital work is forming the structure to determine what and

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how the work gets done. Th e 20 percent are the fl oor leaders who know what to do and oft en just take care of things. Th ey step up and volunteer for the com-mittees and task forces, assist in writing policies and procedures, volunteer to do quality projects, etc. Find out who these people are. Appreciate them regularly. Reward them oft en. Don’t put them on the back burner.

On the other side of the coin are the 20 percent problem employees who can take up 80 percent of your time. Th e best example of using the Pare-to Principle with employees is with change management. Th e rule is that approximately 20 percent of the people are change friendly. Th ey will be advo-cates and embrace the change. Another 50 percent of the staff will be the fence sitters. Th ey’ll take a neutral position trying to fi gure out which way to lean. Th ey’re not necessarily opposed but will tend to take a wait and see attitude. Th e remaining 30 percent are the resist-ers. Th ey are antagonistic toward the change and may deliberately make it fail. Th is is the group that will make 80 percent of the noise about the change. As the manager, use the 80/20 rule.

Spend your time where it will make the most diff erence. Spend it on the 50 per-cent and fi nd out why they are fence sitters, and work with them to buy in on the change. For the positive 20 per-cent, thank them for their eff orts and support but leave them alone. Th e same is true for the 20 percent resisters. Th is group gives you the least return on your eff orts. Your outcome will be frustra-tion and wasted eff ort (Faulkner, 2001; Strand 2011).

Th is same principle applies in your work for employees in general and it is commonly known as managing the high-, middle- and low-performers who respectively make up 20-50-30 percent of your employees. Each em-ployee should be evaluated as high, medium or low. Th e high performers should be thanked and encouraged to keep up the great work. Th e medium employees should have a growth plan that supports their development to a high performer. Th ese employees are where you should spend the major-ity of your time. Th e low performers should be informed of their status and, from the Human Resources perspec-tive, be given developmental plans, but

these are not the employees who will step up and be eager to grow, and do not deserve a great deal of your time. Th ese employees should be managed to ensure they don’t work against you in achieving unit goals and, most oft en, should be managed out of the organiza-tion (Studer, 2007).

Failing to Recognize and Reward EmployeesGallup (Crabtree, 2011) recently re-ported on a worldwide assessment of employee engagement. Th ey used a tool that has proved through decades of research those characteristics that distinguish the most productive and successful workplaces from the rest. More than 47,000 employed people from 116 countries responded. Th e re-sults showed that one of the two most poorly rated items among the 12 items assessed was, “In the last seven days, I have received recognition and praise for doing good work.”

Th anking and recognizing your staff is critical to engage and retain employees. Employee recognition has been positively correlated to the inten-tion of people to stay at their place of

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employment, and to feelings that the employee is contributing to the company’s mission (Th e Business Research Lab, 2007). In addition, it has been linked to improved morale and employee satisfaction, increased performance and produc-tivity and higher customer satisfaction and loy-alty. For the organization it brings an enhanced ability to attract new employees and higher profi tability.

Th ere is power in a simple thank you. Since the beginning of my career, I have saved almost every thank you or recognition note sent to me for a job well done. Each note has made me and the work I do feel valued. Th e latest note I re-ceived was from a physician who wrote, “Mary, Keep up the good work!” It couldn’t have been more short and simple, but it meant a lot to me and I placed it with pride on my fi ling cabinet. I oft en send notes of appreciation to employee’s homes. One evening at an event that includ-ed employees and their families, a young man came up to me and asked if I was the one who recently sent his mom a thank you note. When I replied that I had, he thanked me. He told me his mom was so proud of that note that she cried when she read it and put it up on the fi re-place mantle for all to see. He said no one had ever done anything like that for his mom and he wanted to thank me for what it meant to her.

Reward and recognition is a powerful instru-ment in the manager’s tool box. So why don’t we do it more oft en? It can be a combination of factors from not knowing how to believing we don’t have enough time. Th ere are plenty of re-sources to help us with ideas of how to reward and recognize our employees, and all are at our fi ngertips. A Google search will give you almost 2.7 million hits! Not having enough time is not knowing your core work responsibilities. If you have even only one employee reporting to you, employee satisfaction is one of your core respon-sibilities. People enjoy working and will thrive in organizations that create positive work environ-ments. Appropriate, individualized and frequent reward and recognition contributes to that envi-ronment and a successful organization.

Being A Friend Instead of a BossI once had a boss who became friends with one of my colleagues (as in my boss was my col-league’s boss). When I use the word friend I

am not using it as defi ned on Dictionary.com (2011), “a person attached to another by feelings of aff ection or personal regard or a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile.” No, I am defi ning it as the way we oft en think of our close friends, i.e., the person we would room with at the AWHONN Con-vention, ask to go shopping to help pick out a special occasion dress, lend clothes or ask to be at the birth of your child. My boss was the sec-ond kind of friend with my colleague. Th ey did shop together and lend each other clothes, and although they never discussed my other col-leagues, they had dinner at each other’s homes on holidays, babysat each other’s children and if their childbearing years weren’t over they would be at each other’s deliveries! We were convinced my boss favored our colleague with the largest capital budget and more FTE’s than she was en-titled to. Whether our suspicions were true or not, their friendship divided us as a team and made us highly distrustful of our boss.

If you search the literature you will fi nd a di-vision as to whether bosses can be friends with their employees. But digging a little deeper will reveal that it’s about how one defi nes friend. If you defi ne friend as described in the above paragraph then, no, you should not be friends with your employees. In the rules of manage-ment, if you can’t do for all what you do for one, then you shouldn’t do it. You can’t have that type of friendship with every employee unless there are only two or three of them. Despite how hard you work to ensure there is no favoritism, the relationship will not be perceived that way by others and will create a level of mistrust hard to overcome. In addition, being friends with an employee puts your decision making in jeop-ardy when it comes to coaching and counseling that person. And that puts you in jeopardy of not doing your job as a boss. Hill and Lineback (2011) point out that the boss-employee rela-tionship exists to accomplish work—the goals and mission of the organization. Th e friend to friend relationship is not a means to an end as is true in a boss-employee relationship. Th ey go on to point out that friends are equals, accept each other as they are and don’t have a responsi-bility for the development of each other. Not so with bosses. Bosses and employees are not equal in an organization. Bosses have the responsi-bility for guiding, evaluating and pressing their

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employees to change and grow, and sometimes to discipline. Eventually, as a boss, you will fi nd yourself in a situa-tion where you will disappoint, need to be critical, counsel, discipline or even fi re someone who works for you. Th is will seem like a betrayal to someone who thought she was your friend, and will damage or destroy that person’s commitment to her work. In addition, it will cause you to make huge with-draws from the trust accounts of not only that person, but many others who observe or learn of what happened.

So does that mean, as a manager, you should carry the stick of author-ity and maintain a lengthy profession-al and personal distance between you and your employees? If you’re like me, you respond to that description by em-phatically stating, “Well, if that’s what it means to be a manager then count me out.” Here’s where we come to the para-dox of being a great manager. Managers who show genuine concern and caring about their employees as real human be-ings, not just as a means to an end, have staff who are more engaged, more pro-ductive and have higher job satisfaction (Rath, 2006). Go back and reread the dictionary defi nition of friend. Doesn’t that defi nition equate to showing genu-ine care and concern? Many of you have heard me state that one of the critical el-ements of success as a manager is to get to know your people and let them get to know you. Learn about your employ-ees beyond their work life. Do they have children, pets, a spouse, hobbies, etc?

Th e danger is in taking that caring and concern beyond the simple defi -nition of friend to the more complex defi nition of a relationship as described in the fi rst paragraph of this section. A way to help is ask yourself when devel-oping friendships and responding or

extending invitations is whether or not you can do with and for all what you would do with and for one. If you can’t or don’t want to invite every employee to your home for a backyard barbecue, or shopping, to the movies, etc., then don’t do it for one. Th is is a line you shouldn’t cross. But you can learn about every employee and care about their lives beyond the workplace and their genuine well-being.

In this way you truly can be friends with the people you supervise and con-tribute to a working environment that is positive and productive for not only the employee but the organization as well.

ConclusionTh e goal of this series was to discuss some of the mistakes managers can make and to give tips on how to avoid them. When you make a mistake, re-member this: Mistakes are feedback. Th ere is learning to be gleaned from ev-ery mistake. Treat each as a cherished teacher to help you grow and become even a better manager. Th ink of it as Luis Migel did when he said, “I think we all wish we could erase some dark times in our lives. But all of life’s expe-riences, bad and good, make you who you are. Erasing any of life’s experiences would be a great mistake” (Th inkexist.com, 2011). NWH

References Crabtree, S. (2011). What Your Employees

Need to Know. Th e Gallup Management Journal. Retrieved from http://gmj.gallup.com/content/146996/Employees-Need-Know.aspx?version=print

Dictionary.com. (2011). Friend. Retrieved from at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/friend

Faulkner, D. (2001). Leading through change: Th e 20-30-50 rule. Charleston

Regional Business Journal. Retrieved from http://www.mediabistro.com/portfolios/samples_fi les/544440_0WgqFFhZzXdVB8RaZHK33Xp7W.pdf

Goshal, S., & Bruch, H. (2004). Reclaim your job. Harvard Business Review, March 2004. Retrieved from http://hbr.org/2004/03/reclaim-your-job/ar/1

Henrikson, M. (2011). Mistakes manager make, part one. Nursing for Women’s Health, 15(5), 435–440.

Hill, L., & Lineback, K. (2011). Be the boss, not a friend. Re-trieved from http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/01/18/be-the-boss-not-a-friend/

Mintlife. (2010). Applying the 80/20 Rule At Work. Retrieved from http://www.mint.com/blog/how-to/the-pareto-principle-80-20/?display=print

Nees, J. (2011). Using the 80/20 Rule to Manage Your Life and Work. Re-trieved from http://www.offi cearrow.com/organization-and-workfl ow/using-the-80-20-rule-to-manage

Pinnacle Management. (2005). How the 80/20 Rule Helps Us to be More Eff ective. Retrieved from http://www.pinnicle.com/Articles/Pareto_Principle/pareto_principle.html

Rath, T. (2006). Can Employees Be Friends with the Boss? Retrieved from http://gmj.gallup.com/content/23893/can-employees-friends-boss.aspx

Reh, J. (2011). Pareto’s Principle: Th e 80-20 Rule. Retrieved from http://management.about.com/cs/gneralmanagment/a/Pareto081202.htm?p=1

Strand, D. (2011). Applying the 20-6-20 Rule to Leadership and Change Management. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?Applying-the-20-60-20-Rule-to-Leadership-and-Change-Management&id=4152175

Studer, Q. (2007). Results that Last, Hardwiring Behaviors that Will Take Your Company to the Top, Firestarter Publishing. Pages 3 -24.

Th e Business Research Lab. (2007). Reward, Recognition, Motivation and Turnover. Retrieved from http://www.busreslab.com/tips/tip57.htm

Th inkexist.com. (2011). Mistake quotes. Retrieved from http://thinkexist.com/quotations/mistakes/

If you can’t or don’t want to invite every employee

to your home for a backyard barbecue, or shopping,

to the movies, etc., then don’t do it for one