Jack Welch’s Leadership
I was introduced to GE’s Two-Decade Transformation: Jack Welch’s Leadership paper during a management training program. There are many articles written about his leadership and it is impossible to capture even brief summary.
Following are few things which I found very unique:
Work-Out
Provided forum for employees to give suggestions to managers for improving processes and remove unnecessary bureaucratic work. This was on the spot decision making instead of managers procrastinating decisions.
Leadership
Chief Meaning Officer
Generosity Gene
Provide clear understanding of where we are going (mission) and how we are going there (Behaviors/ Values). Spent at-least 70% of time on people issues (mostly teaching and developing others). Providing freedom to team to be creative. Inspire performance instead of forcing.
Type 4 Managers
Instead of just looking at performance/ numbers, make sure company values are uphold. Evaluate leaders using two dimensions: Performance and extent to which they uphold company values Type 4 managers are the ones who deliver but do not share company values. They destroy open, trust-based culture.
Reverse Mentoring
With current fast paced technologies, I think this is really important. Pairing young employees with senior executes provides opportunity to share company values, strategic thinking process, new digital skills etc.