25 Lessons from Jack Welch
By: Vadim
Kotelnikov
Management Insight and Leadership Secrets of the Legendary Former CEO of GE
The techniques and ideas that Welch has employed to move GE forward are applicable to any size corporations, small, medium, or large.
Our vision is to create the world's most competitive enterprise.
Jack Welch
Jack Welch's goal was to make GE "the world's most competitive enterprise". He knew that it would take nothing less than a "revolution" to transform that dream into a reality. In his self-proclaimed revolution, Welch waged war on GE's old ways of doing things where forms and approvals and bureaucracy ruled the day. Jack Welch reinvented the company from top to bottom.
Business Success 360
Creating an Extraordinary Organization ▪ GE Values Guide
Leading Organizational Transformation at GE ▪ 3Ss of Winning
Create Change ▪ 7-Point Change Program for Leadership
Lead more, manage less
1. Lead
Managers muddle – leaders inspire. Leaders are people who inspire with clear vision of how things can be done better...	More
What we are looking for are leaders at every level who can energize, excite and inspire rather than enervate, depress, and control.
Leadership Success 360
2. Manage Less
In the new knowledge-based economy, people should make their own decision. Managing less is managing better. Close supervision, control and bureaucracy kill the competitive spirit of the company. "Weak managers are the killers of business; they are the job killers. You can't manage self-confidence into people."
We are constantly amazed by how much people will do when they are not told what to do by management.
Manager++
3. Articulate Your Vision
The best leader do not provide a step-by-step instruction manual for workers. The best leaders are those who come up with new idea, and articulate a vision that inspires others to act... More
Leaders inspire people with clear visions of how things can be done better.
4. Simplify
Keeping things simple is one of the keys to business success. Have the courage to be simple. Simplicity is practically an art form, with many definitions. "Simple messages travel faster, simpler designs reach the market faster and the elimination of clutter allows faster decision making."... More
You can't believe how hard it is for people to be simple... Clear tough-minded people are most simple.
5. Get Less Formal
Harness the power of an informal place. "Today form isn't allowed. Global battles don't allow forms. It's all substance. Form means somebody is not intensely interested in the company."... More
Without needless rules, titles, and approvals people are not afraid to voice their ideas, even they go against conventional company wisdom.
6. Energize Others
Be energized and energize others. Genuine 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... More
The idea flow from the human spirit is absolutely unlimited.
All you have to do is tap into that well.
What It Takes To Be a Great Corporate Leader >> The Role
The Role of the Leader in the New Economy >> 6 Rules
Top Management Team ▪ GE Leadership Effectiveness Survey
7. Face Reality
Face reality, then act decisively. Most mistakes that leaders make arise from not being willing to face reality and then acting on it. Facing reality often means saying and doing things that are not popular, but by coming to grips with reality would things get better.
8. See Change as an Opportunity
Change is a big part of the reality in business. "Willingness to change is a strength, even if it means plunging part of the company into total confusion for a while... Keeping an eye out for change is both exhilarating and fun."... More
→ How To Overcome Resistance to Change: Kore 10 Tips
9. Get Good Ideas from Everywhere
New 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."
10. Follow up
Follow up on everything. Follow-up is one key measure of success for a business. Your follow-up business strategy will pave the way for your success.
Build a Winning Organization
11. Get Rid of Bureaucracy
The 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."... More
→ Inspiring People: 4 Strategies
12. Eliminate Boundaries
In 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. Informality, fun and speed are the qualities found in a boundaryless organization.
13. Put Values First
Don't focus too much on the numbers. "Numbers aren't the vision; numbers are the products." Focus more on the softer values of building a team, sharing ideas, exciting others... More
14. Cultivate Leaders
Cultivate leaders who have the four E's of leadership: Energy, Energize, Edge, and Execution; leader who share values of your company and deliver on commitments.
→ Leadership-Management Synergy
15. Create a Learning Culture
Turn your company into a learning organization to spark free flow of communication and exchange of ideas. "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."
Harness Your People for Competitive Advantage >>>
16. Involve Everyone
Business is all about capturing intellect from every person. The way to engender enthusiasm it to allow employees far more freedom and far more responsibility... More
17. Make Everybody a Team Player
Managers should learn to become team players. Middle managers have to be team members and coaches. Take steps against those managers who wouldn't learn to become team players. >>>
18. Stretch
Set stretch goals. Stretch 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."... More
19. Instill Confidence
Create a truly confident workforce. Confidence is a vital ingredient of any learning organization. The prescription for winning is speed, simplicity, and self-confidence. Self-confident people are open to good ideas regardless of their source and are willing to share them. "Just as surely as speed flows from simplicity, simplicity is grounded in self-confidence."
20. Have Fun
Fun must be a big element in your business strategy. No one should have a job they don't enjoy. If you don't wake up energized and excited about tackling a new set of challenges, then you might be in the wrong job... More
→ Life-Business Synergy
Build the Market-Leading Company >>>
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. The number fours keep merging; they have difficult times. That's not the same if you're number four, and that's your only businesses. Then you have to find strategic ways to get stronger. But GE had a lot of number ones."... More
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."
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." Now the fundamentals have got to be more education. More information knowledge, faster speeds, more technology across the board... More
24. Live Speed
"Speed is everything. It is the indispensable ingredient of competitiveness." Speed, simplicity and self-confidence are closely intertwined. By simplifying the organization and instilling confidence, you create the foundation for an organization that incorporates speed into the fabric of the company... More
→ Surprise To Win: 3 Strategies
25. Behave Like a Small Company
Small 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."... More