Leadership Lessons

25

Jack Welch

John Francis "Jack" Welch, Jr. (born November 19, 1935) is an American chemical engineer, businessman and author. He was Chairman and CEO of General Electric between 1981 and 2001. Welch's net worth is estimated at $720 million.

Jack Welch, GE's former Chairman and CEO, is widely regarded as one of the best business leaders in history. Under his leadership, GE shifted its focus and exploded into one of the most valuable companies in the world. It's no surprise Fortune named him "Manager of the Century" in 1999. Here are 25 leadership lessons you can learn from the legendary executive :

Lesson 1 : LeadManagers muddle - leaders inspire. Leaders are people who inspire with clear vision of how things can be done better.

Lesson 2 : Manage Less“We are constantly amazed by how much people will do when they are not told what to do by management.”

Lesson 3 : Articulate Your Vision“Leaders inspire people with clear visions of how things can be done better.” The best leader do not provide a step-by-step instruction manual for workers.

Lesson 4 : SimplifyKeeping things simple. “Simple messages travel faster, simpler designs reach the market faster and the elimination of clutter allows faster decision making.“

Lesson 5 : Get Less Formal“You must realize now how important it is to maintain the kind of corporate informality that encourages a training class to comfortably challenge the boss’s pet ideas.“

Lesson 6 : Energize OthersGenuine leadership comes from the quality of your vision and your ability to spark others to extraordinary performance. Getting employees excited about their work is the key to being a great business leader.

Lesson 7 : Face RealityFace reality, then act decisively. Most mistakes that leaders make arise from not being willing to face reality and then acting on it.

Lesson 8 : See Change as an OpportunityChange is a big part of the reality in business.

Lesson 9 : Get Good Ideas from EverywhereNew ideas are the lifeblood of business. “The operative assumption today is that someone, somewhere, has a better idea; and the operative compulsion is to find out who has that better idea, learn it, and put it into action - fast.“

Lesson 10 : . Follow upFollow up on everything. Follow-up is one key measure of success for a business.

Lesson 11 : Get Rid of BureaucracyThe way to harness the power of your people is “to turn them loose, and get the management layers off their backs, the bureaucratic shackles off their feet and the functional barriers out of their way.”

Lesson 12 : Eliminate BoundariesIn order to make sure that people are free to reach for the impossible, you must remove anything that gets in their way. “Boundarylessness” describes an open organization free of bureaucracy and anything else that prevents the free flow of ideas, people, decisions, etc.

Lesson 13 : Put Values FirstDon’t focus too much on the numbers. “Numbers aren’t the vision; numbers are the products.”

Lesson 14 : Cultivate LeadersCultivate leaders who have the four E’s of leadership: Energy, Energize, Edge, and Execution

Lesson 15 : Create a Learning Culture“The desire, and the ability, of an organization to continuously learn from any source, anywhere - and to rapidly convert this learning into action - is its ultimate competitive advantage.”

Lesson 16 : Involve EveryoneBusiness is all about capturing intellect from every person. The way to engender enthusiasm it to allow employees far more freedom and far more responsibility.

Lesson 17 : Make Everybody a Team PlayerManagers should learn to become team players. Take steps against those managers who wouldn’t learn to become team players.

Lesson 18 : StretchStretch targets energize. “We have found that by reaching for what appears to be the impossible, we often actually do the impossible; and even when we don’t quite make it, we inevitably wind up doing much better than we would have done.“

Lesson 19 : Instill ConfidenceSelf-confident people are open to good ideas regardless of their source and are willing to share them.

Lesson 20 : Have FunFun must be a big element in your business strategy.

Lesson 21 : Be Number 1 or Number 2 “When you’re number four or five in a market, when number one sneezes, you get pneumonia. When you’re number one, you control your destiny.”

Lesson 22 : Live Quality"We want to change the competitive landscape by being not just better than our competitors, but by taking quality to a whole new level. We want to make our quality so special, so valuable to our customers, so important to their success that our products become the only real value choice."

Lesson 23 : Constantly Focus on Innovation “You have just got to constantly focus on innovation. And more competitors. You’ve got to constantly produce more for less through intellectual capital. Shun the incremental, and look for the quantum leap.”

Lesson 24 : Live Speed “Speed is everything. It is the indispensable ingredient of competitiveness.”

Lesson 25 : Behave Like a Small CompanySmall companies have huge competitive advantages. They “are uncluttered, simple informal. They thrive on passion and ridicule bureaucracy. Small companies grow on good ideas –regardless of their source. They need everyone, involve everyone, and reward or remove people based on their contribution to winning. Small companies dream big dreams and set the bar high - increments and fractions don’t interest them.”

Welch's philosophy has certainly paid off handsomely for GE. During his tenure Welch has generated more than $200 billion in new wealth for GE's shareholders. As Fortune once wrote, "Ten thousand dollars put into GE at the start of Welch's term in 1980 would be worth $367,479, two-and-a-half times the value of an identical investment in the S&P 500."

Thank You Very MuchSompong Yusoontorn

"As a manager, you've got to be nurturing flowers all the time," he said. If this is done right, companies will end up with magnificent gardens. But with a hint of the old neutron touch, Welch added, "If the flowers don't grow, you've got to cut them out."