Looking around the room it became perfectly obvious why there was so much temptation to talk about internal matters, like policies and procedures, instead of the “real” business.

For some reason, during this particular top management meeting, it dawned on the CEO that core business team was outnumbered by those in support functions.

His management team has five support functions and two from business, which he defines as those that lead the product and customer facing part of the organisation.

The voice of ‘business’ was lost in the volume of words on the table and minutes of the day’s meeting. Sure, everyone argued they were talking for the benefit of the business. But we know that in reality executives argue from the perspective of their position.

Thinking through his discussion made me wonder, “Do you listen to the volume of voices?

The Pareto principle, also known as the 80–20 rule, states that, for many events, roughly 80 per cent of the effects come from 20 per cent of the causes. Business-management consultant Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed in 1906, that 80 per cent of the land in Italy was owned by 20 per cent of the population.

He developed the principle by observing that 20 per cent of the pea pods in his garden contained 80 per cent of the peas.

The 80-20 rule shaped the way that we think and became a common rule of thumb. For example, 80 per cent of your sales come from 20 per cent of your sales people.

The distribution is claimed to appear in several different aspects relevant to entrepreneurs and business managers. For example:

• 80 per cent of your profits come from 20 per cent of your customers.

• 80 per cent of your complaints come from 20 per cent of your customers.

• 80 per cent of your profits come from 20 per cent of the time you spend.

• 80 per cent of your sales come from 20 per cent of your products.

Effectively Pareto is saying that 80 per cent of your results come from 20 per cent, perhaps this is one of the early thoughts on high-performers.

That is 20 per cent outperform everyone else and generate 80 per cent of the results. So, the inverse is that the majority is average or worse. Yet because it is such a large majority that becomes the voice you hear.

It’s a bit like the CEO’s discovery at his top management meeting that the mass is loudest.

Guess where most of your employee complaints come from? That’s right, the 80 per cent. The voices you hear when you are setting your strategy, plans, talking about execution and every other aspect of performance come mainly from the majority, who, remember, are not the top-performers.

The average drowns out the high-performers’ voice.

While it is true that the law of the vital few deliver greater results. It is equally as true that you spend the majority of your time listening and responding to the volume of intake.

Even worse, the disproportionate volume makes you act on their words. Effectively, leaders act in the interest of the average without even realising who they are listening to.

You need to retrain your ear to hear the voice of the ‘business’, to hear the voice of the high-performers and to block the voice of the majority.

The CEO who had the epiphany that the voice of the support functions was drowning out the voice of the business took a drastic measure to make sure the voices were balanced.

He reduced his top management team and realigned it based upon purpose not function. Now it consists of Operations (the product and delivery of the company’s work), Revenue (winning work), Enablers (the historical support functions are now a single voice) and Control (finance, legal and governance) bringing an accurate representation to the top table.

In the same way that he rebalanced what was getting to his ear, you need to prioritise what words you allow to shape your view. It will either be the majority in volume — the 80 per cent — or the majority in performance — the 20 per cent.

You have easy access to dramatic improvements in profitability by focusing on the voices that you hear, the high-performers, and containing, ignoring, or retraining the rest.

While it is important to listen, it is more important what you listen to.

The writer is a CEO coach and author, which includes ‘10 Tips for Leading in the Middle East’ and other writings. Contact him at tsw@tommyweir.com.