What?
75%?
I have been in the leadership business for over 40 years and have worked with thousands of leaders, and I have found people consistently struggle with the same three things:
Time;
Making Decisions; and,
Energy.
Well, Ladies and gentlemen -Drum roll- here for your leadership pleasure is the 75% solution:
Time:
A great friend of mine, Hugh Culver, used to speak a lot about time management. The first time I met Hugh, he gave me productivity advice that I started using immediately following the workshop and still use to this day.
Hugh made the point that, as leaders, we should not schedule more than 75% of the available time in our calendars.
Suppose you fill your calendar with back-to-back appointments. In that case, you will never have time to deal with all the things you need to do, from inevitable emergencies to walking around, talking, and checking in with team members, and using the bathroom.
Decisions:
One of my all-time favourite leaders is General Norman Schwarzkopf. He is best known as the Commander of all the Coalition Forces during the 1st Gulf War, and he said that the quality of your decisions would not increase beyond knowing 75% of the available information.
His point is that at a certain point, you have all the information you need to make a good decision. Trying to gather more information will seldom improve that decision. Common—sense decision—making avoids analysis paralysis.
Energy
Have you ever pushed yourself to your maximum discomfort and physical ability threshold?
Once you hit that threshold when your mind believes you are done, your body only uses 75% of your energy.
Special Forces soldiers know that when you think you are done, your body can still do 25%—40% more. Humans are evolutionarily designed to have energy in reserve, so when you are trying to run down a mammoth or escape a sabre-tooth tiger, you feel you have nothing left to give. You still have a reserve, hopefully enough to either escape or bring dinner home.