The 10/80/10 approach offers a simple way for a leader to manage their team without becoming involved in every detail of the business. Read our article to learn how Steve Job’s approach can help you lead, delegate and grow your business.
Good Leaders Know When to Step Back
As a business owner, it can be difficult to let go.
When you have built your business yourself, you know how things should be done. You care about the quality of the work and you want to make sure things stay on track.
But there is a difference between being involved and being involved in everything.
Micromanaging your team can quickly become a problem. Constantly checking work, making every decision and getting involved in small details can slow your business down and frustrate your people.
Good leadership is not about having control over every part of the business. It is about knowing when to lead, when to delegate and when to step back.
One approach worth considering is Steve Jobs’ 10/80/10 principle.
What is the 10/80/10 approach?
The idea is simple. Rather than being involved throughout every stage of a project, the leader is most involved at the beginning and the end.
The first 10%: Set the direction
Start by making sure your team understands what needs to be achieved.
Set the objectives, explain the desired outcome and make sure everyone understands why the work matters.
This is where your experience and leadership are particularly valuable. A clear brief at the beginning gives your team the context they need to make good decisions later.
The middle 80%: Let your team do the work
This is the part many business owners struggle with.
Once the direction is clear, give your team the responsibility for getting the work done.
That does not mean disappearing completely. Your team should know they can come to you when they need help. But you do not need to check every decision or tell them exactly how to complete every task.
Giving capable people ownership allows them to develop their skills, solve problems and take responsibility for the results.
It also frees you up to spend more time working on the business rather than being caught up in every operational detail.
The final 10%: Review and refine
Once the work is complete, step back in.
Review the outcome, provide feedback and make sure the final result meets the standards and objectives you set at the beginning.
This final stage is particularly important as businesses increasingly use AI and automation.
Technology can help your team complete work faster, but it does not remove the need for human judgement. AI can produce inaccurate or inappropriate information, so the final review remains an important part of maintaining quality.
Why delegation matters for growing businesses
Effective delegation is more than simply giving tasks to your employees.
It is about giving people enough responsibility and authority to actually own their work.
When you trust your team to take responsibility, you can create greater accountability, develop your people and reduce the number of decisions that need to come back to you.
For a growing business, this can make a significant difference.
If every decision still needs the business owner’s approval, the owner can quickly become the bottleneck. As the business grows, that becomes increasingly difficult to sustain.
The goal is not to remove yourself from the business. It is to make sure your time is being spent where it adds the most value.
Are you managing your business or managing every detail?
If you find yourself constantly checking on your team, making decisions that others could make or stepping into tasks that should sit elsewhere, it may be worth looking at how your business is structured.
Good people management starts with having the right people, clear responsibilities and the right level of accountability.
The 10/80/10 approach is one way to think about this. Set the direction, give your people room to execute and then step back in to review the result.
The more your business can operate effectively without everything coming back to you, the more time you have to focus on strategy, growth and the future of the business.
Step Back
If you are finding that too much of your time is still being spent in the day to day running of your business, it may be time to look at what you can delegate, systemise or change.
That is often an important step in building a business that can grow without everything depending on the owner.
So, if you are spending too much time working in the business and not enough time working on it, we’d love to help you identify where the bottlenecks are and what changes could make your business more efficient and scalable. Get in touch with us today.
Together we can achieve more.
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