President’s Message – April 4th

Opening Day is Here!  So What is Theo’s Secret to Success?

Even though it’s against protocol to talk sports, just this one time, I’d like to share a thought from an article I read about the World Champion Chicago Cub’s President, Theo Epstein.  In the CNBC.com interview, Theo talks about getting ahead by following what he calls the 20 Percent Rule.

The rule in a nutshell: figure out the 20 percent of your boss’s job that you know they hate doing and do it for them.  It makes sense on so many levels.  Done well, it gives one great experience.  Done really well, it makes one extremely popular with the boss. The power and simplicity of the concept is so brilliant, I just have to try it out!

Problem is, it’s been over fourteen years since I’ve had a boss; and honestly, that didn’t work out very well. So how can I flip this concept to grow the folks in my company, without having successfully practiced the rule myself?  My Executive Team already knows I don’t do that much “work”, so it’s got to be a bit more nuanced than simply dumping my stuff on their already busy schedules.

My solution is simple: delegate as much of my decision-making as is viably possible. There should be many long-term benefits:  reduced personal stress, more invested and experienced employees, and (believe it or not) better long-term decisions.

Think about that last one.  If I make a decision for one of my teams, there is a decent chance that I will get it wrong.  I’ve learned the hard way that there’s a 100% chance that my mistake will, unfortunately, never get corrected.  After all, I am the boss and my word goes.  On the other hand, if my team makes their own decisions, they might get some wrong too, but I’ve found that they almost always fix their mistakes. Ultimately, we have a higher success rate in our decisions and my teams get great leadership experience.  Win-win all around.

So, let's show our employees how to think like owners and make better decisions by having them attend an upcoming CFBC event. Let's show them the abundant resources provided by our organization and help them to learn, like we do, through the shared knowledge and experiences of the CFBC network.


Jeff Conner
Liners Direct
CFBC President 2016-2017




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This entry was posted in Blog and tagged . Posted on April 3rd, 2017 by CFBCatDePaul