With Skillful Hands

The Pareto Principle Applied to Volunteers

January 22, 2015 By Mike 4 Comments

I first learned of the Pareto Principle my freshman year in Bible college from a John Maxwell book when I wrote a paper on leadership for one of my classes. The Pareto Principle basically teaches that 20% of the people do 80% of the work, and that it then takes the other 80% of the people to do the other 20% of the work. There are many ways you can apply the Pareto Principle, but in this post we’ll apply it to spending time with volunteers in your church.

As leaders we all have a limited amount of time and energy. It would be awesome if we could spend equal amounts of time with each person in the church and with each volunteer, but the truth is, we can’t. We simply don’t have the time. Therefore, we have to be strategic by investing our limited time and limited energy with the 20% of volunteers that produce 80% of the results.

If you’re the lead pastor and have staff you need to invest your limited time and energy into your staff. If you’re the lead pastor without staff you need to invest your limited time and energy into the 20% of volunteers in your church that are doing 80% of the work. If you’re one of the pastors on staff you need to invest your limited time and energy into the 20% of volunteers in your department that are responsible for 80% of the work getting done.

Filed Under: Volunteers

Comments

  1. Yvette Gallagher says

    February 3, 2015 at 8:20 am

    Your Skillful Hands post have been very helpful. Thank you for sharing these resources 🙂

    Reply
    • Mike Sorcinelli says

      February 6, 2015 at 10:36 am

      You are most welcome! I’m happy to return what I learn 🙂 If you know of anyone else that might benefit from the blog feel free to pass it along. Have a great day Yvette!

      Reply
  2. Yvette Gallagher says

    February 3, 2015 at 8:20 am

    Your Skillful Hands post have been very helpful. Thank you for sharing these resources 🙂

    Reply
    • Mike Sorcinelli says

      February 6, 2015 at 10:36 am

      You are most welcome! I’m happy to return what I learn 🙂 If you know of anyone else that might benefit from the blog feel free to pass it along. Have a great day Yvette!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Fill out form to receive Mike’s latest posts via text

Recent Posts

  • Staying Fresh in the Pulpit
  • The Unenviable Job of a Leader
  • Core Four: Evaluate
  • A Thanksgiving Devotional
  • How to Respond Appropriately to Criticism

Categories

  • Culture
  • Failures
  • Finances
  • How To
  • Leadership
  • Management
  • Position Papers
  • Preaching
  • Resources
  • Scripture
  • Staff
  • Uncategorized
  • Vendors
  • Volunteers

Design

With an emphasis on typography, white space, and mobile-optimized design, your website will look absolutely breathtaking.

Learn more about design.

Content

Our team will teach you the art of writing audience-focused content that will help you achieve the success you truly deserve.

Learn more about content.

Strategy

We help creative entrepreneurs build their digital business by focusing on three key elements of a successful online platform.

Learn more about strategy.

Copyright © 2026 With Skillful Hands & Mike Sorcinelli