| Everyday inside the workplace leaders are tasked | | | | mission. These are the folks who get lots of |
| and traditionally trained to solve problems. Inside | | | | "negative" attention. |
| those same organizations the daily activities of | | | | The Middle 80% |
| manager's and leader's success is often based on | | | | The 80% in the middle represents the masses. |
| how well they can execute and solve those | | | | These are the people that come to work every |
| problems. The problems leaders face can be | | | | day doing their job. These employees come to |
| focused around production, logistics, and customer | | | | work every day on time and you seldom hear |
| service. The topic that will inevitably end up being | | | | complaints or issues. This group will put in a hard |
| discussed is the employee who is challenging to | | | | day's work and, from my own past experience, |
| the team and the organization. | | | | are sometimes the folks that get the least |
| As a corporate restaurant manager I had the | | | | attention from their bosses. |
| opportunity to work in a restaurant in New | | | | The positive 10% |
| Jersey. During the transition period into the | | | | These employees will do whatever and whenever |
| restaurant, I had an opportunity to sit down with | | | | you need it to be done. This group of employees |
| many employees and discuss how they felt about | | | | can be counted on to do whatever it takes to be |
| the restaurant and management team they | | | | personally successful while doing what's best for |
| worked for, what they would like to see, and | | | | their organization. These are the folks that other |
| what they needed to be successful. During the | | | | employees in the organization rely on for their |
| second day, I had the overwhelming feeling that | | | | success. |
| there were serious issues inside the restaurant. I | | | | In the restaurant I found myself focusing on the |
| heard many comments such as, "morale is bad | | | | negative 10% as a problem that needed to be |
| and no one did their job" and so on. Once I | | | | fixed. Although any organization needs to be |
| completed the transition, I focused on fixing the | | | | aware of the negative 10%, I found that by |
| morale issue. As a leader I saw it as a glaring | | | | focusing solely on them I shifted the balance of |
| issue that needed attention. Over the next | | | | the team. |
| several months, it seemed that no matter what I | | | | In a recent article around the value of appreciation |
| did morale was still a challenge. As I focused on | | | | and participation in the workplace, I outline how |
| the complaints and concerns of the employees it | | | | employees often speak of the importance of |
| appeared that the morale became worse not | | | | feeling appreciated and participating in the work |
| better. | | | | and decisions involved with their work as a way |
| We facilitate a leadership process called the 10/80 | | | | to motivate and encourage them. I had focused |
| 10 Model, which is a basic percentage breakdown | | | | all my energy around the negative 10% and the |
| of how employees behave/produce/get along in | | | | other 90% shared thoughts and feelings that |
| any organization. | | | | "those" people were getting all the attention, even |
| The Negative 10% | | | | though most were negative. Although this may |
| The bottom 10% is in almost every organization. | | | | happen from a basic or organic level, we focus on |
| This group of employees are folks who do not | | | | the negative and sometimes forget about the |
| meet their company's or leadership's standards. | | | | good folks who do it right. By simply shifting the |
| These employees are disruptive to the rest of | | | | focus to the more positive groups, I could have |
| the organization with negative comments or | | | | saved myself a lot of frustration and struggles in |
| behave not in line with the organization's vision and | | | | the workplace. |