80/20 Time Team Leverage

Use this skill to move people, time, and team capacity toward the highest-value work. It is based on 80/20 Sales and Marketing by Perry Marshall.

Source Traceability

Primary source: 80/20 Sales and Marketing, chapters 15-19.

• Chapters 15 and 16 apply 80/20 to time, value per hour, and talent zone.
• Chapter 17 covers audition-based hiring and outsourcing.
• Chapter 18 covers personal assistant leverage.
• Chapter 19 covers removing low-value customers and poor performance.

Workflow

1. Inventory Work By Value

List recurring tasks and estimate:

• Dollar value or strategic value.
• Required skill.
• Energy cost.
• Frequency.
• Whether only this person can do it.
• Delegation or automation difficulty.

Classify tasks as low, medium, or high leverage. Use explicit estimates when exact dollars are unavailable.

2. Identify The Talent Zone

For the person or team, capture:

• Work they are unusually good at.
• Work that creates disproportionate value.
• Work they hate or avoid.
• Work others can do well enough.
• Work that should be stopped entirely.

Do not delegate the highest-value judgment work just because it is hard.

3. Choose The Leverage Move

Recommend one:

• Stop the task.
• Automate the task.
• Delegate to an assistant.
• Outsource to a specialist.
• Trial a contractor or salesperson.
• Move the person into higher-value work.
• Remove a low-performing role, vendor, or customer relationship.

4. Design The Trial

For hiring or outsourcing, prefer a practical audition:

• Real task.
• Clear deliverable.
• Time box.
• Quality bar.
• Communication standard.
• Confidentiality or boundary requirement when relevant.

Output Format

# 80/20 Time And Team Leverage

## Work Inventory
| Task | Value | Frequency | Current Owner | Leverage Move |
|------|-------|-----------|---------------|---------------|

## Talent Zone
- Highest-value work:
- Low-value work:
- Work to stop:
- Work to delegate:

## Trial Plan
- Role/vendor/task:
- Trial deliverable:
- Time box:
- Pass criteria:
- Failure criteria:

## Next Actions
1. [Action]
2. [Action]
3. [Action]

Quality Bar

• Do not optimize low-value work before deciding whether it should exist.
• Do not recommend delegation without a quality bar.
• Do not ignore confidentiality, judgment, or boundary risk.
• Separate work the person dislikes from work that is genuinely low value.
• Preserve the highest-leverage work for the person best suited to do it.