{"id":5680,"date":"2016-05-10T10:00:20","date_gmt":"2016-05-10T17:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.careersingovernment.com\/tools\/?p=5680"},"modified":"2016-05-10T10:00:30","modified_gmt":"2016-05-10T17:00:30","slug":"government-career-get-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.careersingovernment.com\/tools\/gov-talk\/career-advice\/on-the-job\/government-career-get-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Government Career: How to Get Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"leadership<\/a>In today\u2019s busy world where your career can swallow up your time and your very life it is increasingly important to focus on the \u201cVital Few\u201d and Ignore or Delegate the \u201cTrivial Many\u201d\u2014a model for leadership that\u2019s based on the Pareto Principle. The Pareto Principle is commonly known as the \u201c80\/20 Rule.\u201d Simply put it is the 20 percent of activities that drive 80 percent of results. In my firm\u2019s 56 years of experience, we\u2019ve learned that individuals who do this well accelerate their performance and advance their careers without sacrificing the other important aspects of their professional and personal life. Here are three ways to do that:<\/p>\n

Focus on the \u201cVital Few.\u201d <\/strong>The \u201cVital Few\u201d are those things that will make you successful in your job, specifically the activities that are directly tied to achieving your goals. For example, if you are responsible for managing a team\u2019s performance, when you are directly involved in doing this activity, you are focused on the Vital Few. This might sound simple, but leaders and managers really struggle here. In today\u2019s professional world, it\u2019s easy to get distracted and spend entire days without focusing on what really matters. When people fall into this trap, they waste precious time that could be better used in other important areas of their life.<\/p>\n

Deal effectively with the \u201cTrivial Many.\u201d <\/strong>In regard to all those responsibilities and activities that don\u2019t support your Vital Few, you\u2019ve basically got two options:<\/p>\n