20% Principle: Winning Strategies for Leaders
Readers of Sunday Sunshine know I often reference the Pareto Principle - that 20% of our work/effort generates 80% of our impact, which means that 80% of our work has only 20% impact.
Leading yourself from the 20% changes everything: where you spend your time, how you make decisions, and focus on quality over quantity of work. It also forces you to let go of what's not meaningful.
I evaluate my weeks and the weeks to come from this lens. (Email me if you want my calendaring template).
I recently learned how to play Texas Hold ‘Em a week after Beyonce dropped the song with the same name.
Growing up, I never learned how to play poker, let alone Texas Hold ‘Em.
Texas Hold ‘Em starts with two cards, known as hole cards, dealt face down to each player. Then, five community cards are dealt face-up in three stages.
Linda, a female Poker Power dealer from Vegas, quickly taught the rules, sharing all of the ‘inside baseball’ information to get us playing quickly. At my table sat 10 energetic women with a stack of chips to be played. We all wanted to win. Only one knew Texas Hold 'Em. Two had played poker before.
In the first two rounds, I quickly folded before the first bets were even made because my cards stunk.
If you know me well, you know I’m impatient. I wanted to get in the game. To play. Bet. Win.
Texas Hold ‘Em is a game of thoughtful decision-making, knowing the odds, and patience.
Even with 52 cards, the number of probable winning hands is less than 8. Linda also shared that a royal flush, the most coveted hand, appears only 1% of the time.
I was itching to get betting when the dealer shared that the most successful big-money winners of Texas Hold ‘Em fold 80% of the time.
Would I ever have the patience to fold 80% of the time?
The most successful poker players are deliberate, consistent, and intentional.
The most successful poker players take a seat at the table and play to the odds -- not from emotion, drama, excitement, or defense.
They know the odds, and they know themselves.
They fold 80% of the time, knowing that the 20% will have them winning more often with bigger pools that have compounding value over time.
The 80% doesn't win. The 20% wins big.
Knowing your 20% is powerful, which comes with auditing for the 20%. Knowing where you are making the most impact and where you could make more impact stacks the cards for success.
The 20% Audit:
✔️ Where do I need to be more patient?
✔️ What are the bottlenecks holding back my 20%?
✔️ What do I need to let go?
✔️ Where must I be ruthless with my time?
✔️ What does betting on my future look like?
✔️ What will be different when I bet on my future?
The 20% has a compounding effect over time.
In the game of life, the most successful make a deliberate bet on themselves.
The evening that we played Texas Hold ‘Em, Jenny Just, Founder of Power Poker, shared that men are taught the game of poker at an early age. Most women don’t learn until years later, if at all.
100 million people play poker. Fewer than 10% of them are women.
Jenny shared that poker's impact reverberates far beyond the poker table for women. Every hand played is a step towards a more confident, assertive, and resilient generation of young women.
Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. Ruth Bater Ginsberg
What will you do with your 20% this week?
What will your 20% say YES to?
What will your 20% say NO to?
Where will you take a seat at the table this week? And what will be different after doing so?
Shoot me back an email. I love to learn where you are making bold 20% moves.
P.S. I'm speaking on a panel about mental health at the HerMD Women's Health Summit at the Luminary in NYC this Wednesday. Most of us don't think about our mental health until we need medical intervention. Please join me in person or virtually.
Today, take a moment to mind your mind and begin building a daily practice. Your mental health needs you! I share more about my practice HERE.
