If you spend all of your time trying to turn strugglers into survivors you’ll have little time for the rewarding work of helping your good people become great.

As leaders we are often faced with the critical question of. “Who should we invest most of our time with?” Most of us are familiar with the Pareto Principle of 80/20. In the example of business, 20% of the people in the organization are responsible for 80% of the results/success – you may refer to those folks as your Top Guns.

Identify your top 20% and commit to investing a disproportionate amount of your time, energy, resources and rewards into their strengths.

Jim Collins in his book, Built To Last suggested a Mars Group. The concept is simple, but effective. It goes like this: if you were on a mission to Mars and were asked to duplicate your organization on Earth, who would be the few people you would take with you? These are the people you need to pour yourself into. Coach them, mentor them, develop them, and support them. By investing your time in them, they will be the ones who grow and build your organization.

Spend a few minutes and identify your Mars group. Who’s coming with you? Who can you not leave behind? Remember, people growth = organization growth. Lack of people growth = organization in decay.