Bill Canady Featured in HR.com Magazine: Most Of Your Team Members Are Underperforming

The Performance Paradox and the Power of Focus

Many leaders grapple with a frustrating reality: despite significant investment and effort, a substantial portion of their team may seem to be underperforming. This perception often isn't just a subjective feeling; it frequently reflects a fundamental misalignment between daily activities and the results that truly drive the business forward. This critical challenge—why many team members struggle to reach their potential and how to cultivate high achievers—was recently explored by Bill Canady in a featured article for the prestigious HR.com magazine's Talent Acquisition Excellence edition. The piece delves into creating and hiring high achievers using the powerful 80/20 rule.

While the specific dynamics of team performance differ across organizations, a universal principle offers profound clarity and a path forward: the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle. Bill Canady, a global business executive, Chairman of OTC Industrial Technologies, CEO of Arrowhead Engineered Products , and author of "The 80/20 CEO" and "From Panic to Profit" , champions this principle not merely as a tool for analyzing products or customers, but as a foundational operating system for driving profitable growth and enhancing organizational effectiveness. The widespread sense of underperformance often points less towards individual shortcomings and more towards systemic issues—a lack of strategic clarity, unfocused resource allocation, or ambiguous role definitions. These are precisely the areas where the 80/20 lens, central to Canady's Profitable Growth Operating System (PGOS) , can bring transformative focus and dramatically improve outcomes. This post explores how applying this principle can reshape your approach to team performance and talent strategy.  

The 80/20 Principle: Separating the Vital Few from the Trivial Many

At its core, the 80/20 principle observes that roughly 80% of results typically stem from only 20% of the inputs. In a business context, this commonly translates to 80% of profits originating from 20% of customers or products. Bill Canady advocates extending this powerful analytical lens much further. It suggests that 80% of the value generated by an organization likely comes from 20% of its activities, 20% of its processes, and potentially, 20% of the team's most impactful contributions. The fundamental objective, therefore, is "to separate the 'critical few' from the 'trivial many' and align everything and everyone in your business accordingly".  

This is not simply an exercise in cost reduction, although efficiency gains are often a byproduct. It is a strategic imperative focused on identifying and redirecting an organization's most valuable resources—time, capital, and crucially, talent—towards the activities that accelerate innovation, enhance operational efficiency, and drive profitable growth. It involves aggressively streamlining processes and relentlessly eliminating waste. When applied to team performance, the 80/20 analysis shifts the focus from merely evaluating individual effort to identifying the specific activities, roles, and contributions that generate disproportionate value. The goal becomes ensuring that the right talent is concentrated on executing these high-leverage tasks effectively. This requires a significant cultural adjustment, moving away from organizational habits that implicitly reward sheer busyness or involvement in numerous low-impact initiatives (the "trivial many"). Instead, the culture must actively celebrate and incentivize the achievement of impactful results aligned with strategic priorities (the "critical few"), thereby clarifying what truly constitutes valuable performance.  

Leadership's Mandate: Setting the Vision, Driving the Focus

The journey towards becoming an 80/20-driven organization begins unequivocally at the top. Leadership bears the primary responsibility for establishing the strategic direction and ensuring relentless focus. As Canady puts it, the CEO's job is fundamentally about setting the vision – identifying the strategic objective, the metaphorical "hill we need to take". This involves diligently spotting market trends, making decisive strategic choices , and defining clear, measurable goals derived from robust data and insights. The "80/20 CEO" framework underscores the urgency of this task, advocating for leaders to take command and establish focus on these critical few strategic priorities, often within the first 100 days of a new role or initiative.  

However, effective leadership in this context is not about autocratic control or dictating every tactical maneuver. It lies in clearly defining the what—the strategic objective, the critical priority—and then empowering the team to determine the how. Micromanaging the execution stifles the sense of ownership and accountability essential for genuine commitment and innovation. When leaders clearly articulate the strategic priorities identified through the 80/20 lens (for instance, prioritizing fixing a flawed customer-facing app based on clear data and user feedback), they create the necessary conditions for focused, effective execution by the team. If a significant portion of the team appears to be underperforming—meaning their efforts are not translating into desired strategic outcomes—it often signals that leadership has not sufficiently clarified the "critical few" priorities or has failed to shield the team from the constant distraction of the "trivial many."  

Canady's approach includes a distinct phase, typically occurring around 90 to 120 days into an implementation, where the organization actively begins to reorganize around the defined strategy. This involves tangible actions like reallocating resources, canceling projects misaligned with the core focus, and assigning clear responsibilities. This phase serves as a powerful forcing mechanism, moving beyond theoretical agreement to practical commitment. It inevitably reveals where true alignment exists and exposes individuals who may act as blockers—either because they disagree with the direction, lack the necessary skills, or are incapable of adapting. Identifying and addressing these performance issues, which are fundamentally about strategic fit and execution capability, becomes unavoidable at this stage.  

Aligning the Organization: Prophets, Engagement, and Execution

A clear, focused strategy is a prerequisite for high performance, but it is not sufficient on its own. Lasting transformation requires deep alignment throughout the entire organization. Bill Canady emphasizes the critical need for everyone to understand not only the 80/20 principle itself but also how their specific work connects to and advances the company's broader strategic goals. This clarity, this direct line of sight between individual contribution and overall objectives, is identified as a fundamental driver of employee engagement. Employees crave clarity and want to know their efforts make a tangible difference; when they see that connection, engagement rises dramatically. Engaged employees are not merely more satisfied; they are demonstrably more productive, more collaborative, and more committed to the organization's long-term success, ultimately reducing turnover.  

To embed this strategic alignment and ensure its sustainability, Canady introduces the vital concept of the internal "prophet". This individual is more than just a supporter of the strategy; they are an internal champion who deeply understands the 80/20 philosophy (the "gospel," as Canady terms it) and actively works to train, coach, and mentor others in its practical application. Developing these internal prophets is crucial for creating lasting capability and ensuring the strategy is genuinely lived throughout the organization, moving beyond initial reliance on external consultants. These prophets act as translators, converting the CEO's high-level vision into actionable, teachable processes, ensuring the strategy becomes embedded in the company's operational DNA. This model implies a deliberate approach to talent development: identifying individuals with high potential who not only grasp the strategy but also possess the aptitude to teach and multiply its adoption internally.  

The process of organizational alignment around the 80/20 strategy has direct implications for talent management. As resources are shifted towards the "critical few" priorities and non-strategic projects are curtailed—particularly during the action-oriented phase described by Canady —individuals' alignment, commitment, and capabilities are put to the test. Those who embrace the focus, adapt to the new priorities, and drive results emerge as leaders within the transformed structure. Conversely, those who resist the changes, fail to adapt their skills, or obstruct progress become identified as blockers. Addressing these situations, which may involve role changes or even departures, is not presented as a punitive measure, but as a necessary consequence of the organization's commitment to a rigorously focused strategy. The primary driver of engagement in this model is not workplace perks or amenities, but strategic clarity—the profound understanding each employee has of how their specific contributions matter in achieving the vital few objectives.  

Creating and Hiring High Achievers: An 80/20 Perspective

How does this framework directly address the challenge of creating and hiring high achievers, the central theme of the hr.com article? By rigorously implementing the 80/20 principle, an organization naturally cultivates an environment where high-impact work is not only possible but is actively defined, prioritized, supported, and rewarded. High achievers inherently seek environments where their efforts are directed towards meaningful, challenging goals and where they can see the tangible results of their contributions. This aligns perfectly with the 80/20 focus on the "critical few" – the work that truly moves the needle.

The strategic alignment process itself acts as a mechanism for identifying potential high achievers already within the organization. The individuals who emerge as "leaders" during the implementation phase—those who readily embrace the strategic focus and drive execution —are often the organization's latent high performers. Simultaneously, the clarity provided by the 80/20 framework makes performance expectations unambiguous. Underperformance is no longer a vague assessment but is clearly defined relative to contribution towards the vital few strategic objectives. This allows for more targeted development interventions or, when necessary, clearer conversations about misalignment. Performance management shifts from evaluating generic competencies to assessing an individual's concrete impact on the strategically crucial "20%".  

When it comes to hiring, an 80/20 perspective informs the entire process. It suggests prioritizing candidates who demonstrate a strong ability to discern priorities, maintain focus amidst complexity, and drive measurable results in key areas, rather than simply possessing broad, undifferentiated experience. Interview questions and assessment methods can be designed to probe past experiences where candidates successfully separated critical tasks from surrounding noise and achieved significant outcomes through focused effort. Furthermore, talent acquisition should strategically seek individuals with the potential to become internal "prophets"—those who not only excel in execution but also possess the communication and leadership skills to champion and teach the strategic operating system. The demanding nature of an 80/20 system—requiring focus, clarity, accountability, and results-orientation —also acts as a natural filter, attracting candidates who thrive on impact and potentially deterring those more comfortable in less defined or slower-moving environments.  

To further clarify the distinction between high-impact contributions and low-return activities within a team context, consider the following table:

This table serves as a practical guide for leaders and managers to identify the types of contributions that truly drive value and should be the focus of talent development, performance management, and hiring efforts within an 80/20 framework.

(Conclusion: Taking Command of Team Performance with 80/20

Addressing widespread team underperformance and successfully cultivating a workforce of high achievers is rarely about discovering a novel management fad. Instead, it requires the disciplined application of a proven, fundamental principle: focus. Bill Canady's passionate advocacy for the 80/20 rule, embedded within his Profitable Growth Operating System , offers leaders a powerful and practical methodology to cut through organizational complexity, eliminate wasteful activities, and align their teams around what matters most. By systematically identifying and relentlessly concentrating resources and effort on the vital few activities that generate disproportionate results, organizations create the clarity necessary to boost employee engagement  and foster a culture where high performance becomes the expected and natural outcome.  

To explore these concepts in the specific context of identifying underperformers and cultivating high achievers, readers are encouraged to seek out Bill Canady's original article published in HR.com magazine's April 2025 Talent Acquisition Excellence edition.

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To achieve this, HR.com offers a comprehensive suite of resources catering to HR professionals at all career levels. This includes an extensive library of articles and white papers, over 250 annual webcasts (often providing HR certification credits), in-depth research reports from the HR Research Institute, monthly themed digital magazines like Talent Acquisition Excellence, and robust certification preparation programs.  Furthermore, HR.com facilitates networking and community engagement through virtual events, online forums, and major in-person conferences. The platform also serves as a vital connection point between HR professionals and HR solution providers.  

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