“First rule of leadership: everything is your fault.” – A Bug’s Life
“Amy, have you seen the blue folder?”
It was an unwritten code shared between my executive assistant and me. Whenever I asked her if she’d seen the blue folder, it meant that I needed to be extricated from whatever was happening in my office. She’d wait five minutes, then tell me that the commanding general needed to see me. I’d make my apologies, and the inevitable exit soon followed.
She’d developed the system after noticing that one specific individual was occupying an inordinate amount of my time. On a near daily basis, the same individual would darken my doorway with some emergency or another, and we would spend at least an hour unraveling whatever mess they’d created. It didn’t matter how clear my guidance was or how much detail I provided, the end result was the same: I’d spend at least an hour explaining to someone how to do their job.
And not just anyone. Someone with nearly 20 years of experience. Someone on the cusp of senior level command. Someone who would tout their exceptionalism to anyone who would listen.
But it was also someone who epitomized the 95% Rule.
The 95% rule
Sometimes called the 95-5 Rule, the 95% Rule is an immutable leadership axiom. Broadly stated, it reflects a truism common to all leadership roles: 95% of your frustrations will be caused by 5% of your people. Across decades in the military and another in the civilian world, I have yet to find a role where the 95% Rule failed to prove true.
In his new book, The 95% Rule, attorney Todd Stanton leads with what is probably the most fundamental leadership idiom. While acknowledging that there’s no scientific data behind the axiom, it nonetheless proves foundational to leaders. “A small percentage of folks in the workforce occupy a bigly disproportionate amount of management’s time.”
In expanding on the concept, Stanton highlights three conveniently inconvenient facts that underpin the 95% Rule. First, “the same small group causes most of the chaos.” Second, coaching doesn’t work on these people; they either can’t, won’t, or don’t improve. Third, “the longer they stay, the worse it gets for everyone else.” Together, they add nuance and layering to the 95% Rule that frame its ubiquity in the workplace.
But there is a deeper challenge among those who exemplify the 95% Rule – their complete lack of self-awareness. They are confident idiots, as Stanton points out, “blind to their flaws and convinced they’re brilliant.” Like the individual who darkened my door on a daily basis, most of the 5%-ers suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect. As a result, no matter what you might say or do to push their behavior back onto the rails, their cognitive bias leads them to assume that the actual problem is with everyone else.
Road Rules
The 95% Rule is hardly the only leadership axiom. While Stanton offers 29 separate examples, most of those are focused on the legalese of human resources. Once you transition beyond the 95% rule, his proffered wisdom tends to aim more at the courtroom and less on the boardroom.
As a professional field of study, leadership is replete with examples of practical knowledge, much of which is preserved axiomatically and passed down through the generations. Listen closely enough, and you are certain to hear these pearls of wisdom from parents, coaches, prominent figures, and even the occasional college professor. And even if you don’t hear them, you’ll learn them in your own time. Hopefully, not the hard way.
1. Murphy’s Law.
“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” Murphy has existed since the dawn of mankind, making even the simplest things more difficult. It’s a safe bet that Murphy will be with you wherever you go, whatever you do.
2. The Pareto Principle.
Also known as the 80/20 Rule, the Pareto principle describes the statistical reality of power law. Put simply, 80% of results derive from 20% of the total efforts. You have to decide what to do with the remaining 80% of the available effort.
3. The 90% Rule.
You have to know when “good enough” will get the job done; in golf, it’s called the 90% rule. Too often, we obsess over perfection when good enough is, well… good enough.
4. The Law of Decision Paralysis.
The more data you have, the harder it is to decide. As with the 90% rule, part of leadership is knowing when to say, “good enough.”
5. Parkinson’s Law.
Work expands to fill the time available. Give someone a week, they’ll take a week. Give them a day, they’ll panic. Think ahead, plan accordingly.
6. The Peter Principle.
People rise to their level of incompetence; few know when they’ve peaked. This is where the fine art of influence without authority comes into play.
7. Hanlon’s Razor.
Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence. Don’t assume people are plotting to undermine your authority. They may just not be the sharpest tools in the shed.
8. The Law of Unintended Consequences.
Every brilliant solution spawns three new problems that need to be solved. Congratulations, you’ve now entered the world of systems thinking.
9. The Crisis Credibility Principle.
When utter chaos rules and everything seems to be falling apart, people will put their faith and trust in the person who looks the calmest holding a cup of coffee.
10. The Law of the Last Minute.
The most important decisions will be made five minutes before the actual deadline. Leadership is maintaining calm and knowing that everything will work out as intended.
There’s an eleventh axiom that I have learned through hard experience, the Law of Leadership Echo. Put simply, what you say once will be repeated forever, especially if it’s sarcasm. As Stanton notes with caution in his 19th axiom, “No jokes are funny when you’re telling them to a jury.”
