Judging the Success of Leadership Development (04/21/26)

April 21, 2026

Delegation - A Practical Use of the 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 Rule can be stated several ways:

• 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort
• 80% of the impact comes from 20% of the work
• 80% of the output comes from 20% of the inputs
• 80% of the revenue comes from 20% of the customers

But how often do people think of this rule as its related to delegation?

Consider these questions:

• What tasks am I doing that someone else could do 80% as well (and that is good enough)?
• What is the 80% of my to-do list could be delegated or deleted?
• Which 20% of my tasks drive 80% of my results?

If you want to be a better delegator, consider those questions carefully and act on your results. Get your ego out of the way, and you will find ways to become more productive, and help your team grow in value at the same time.

Effective delegation isn’t dumping tasks – it is consciously and intentionally considering what is best done by you, others, or not at all.

Judging the Success of Leadership Development

Much has been written about measuring the ROI of leadership development. While it is important to find quantitative ways to measure things, those measures are often tricky and time consuming to create for leadership development efforts. That’s why we need to consider observational measures too. Ultimately, your leadership develop efforts are working if you are getting the performance, behaviors and results you want from your leaders.

Here are some clear ways we can judge leadership development success by looking at behaviors.

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