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Winning #1
Winning
A champion manager of people, Jack Welch shares the hard-earned wisdom of a storied career in what will become the ultimate business bible With Winning, Jack Welch delivers a wide-ranging, in-depth, no-holds-barred management guidebook about the tough strategic, organizational, and personal challenges that face people at every stage of their careers. Loaded with candid personal anecdotes, hard-hitting advice, and invaluable dos and don’ts, Jack explains his theory of business, by laying out the four most important principles that form the foundation of his success. Chapters include: How to Get Promoted, How to Think about Strategy, How to Write a Budget that Works, How to Work for a Jerk, How Find Work-Life Balance and How Start Something New. Enlivened by quotes from business leaders that Welch interviewed especially for the book, it’s a tour de force that reflects Welch’s mastery of execution, excellence and leadership.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published April 5, 2005
About the author
Jack Welch
61 books440 followersJohn Francis "Jack" Welch Jr. was an American business executive, author and chemical engineer. He was chairman and CEO of General Electric between 1981 and 2001 presiding over a massive increase in the company's stock valuation.
He was coauthor with his wife Suzy Welch of a widely read weekly business column, The Welch Way, and launched the "Jack Welch Management Institute," an online MBA program.
He was coauthor with his wife Suzy Welch of a widely read weekly business column, The Welch Way, and launched the "Jack Welch Management Institute," an online MBA program.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 796 reviews
June 21, 2012
1) Keep your HR Director on the Senior Team.
2) The top 20% usually do a great job of managing their work-life balance because they've learned to cultivate relationships, budget time, set boundaries and absorb surprises. Crisis at home seldom spills over to work. By contrast, the other 80% usually have trouble keeping things in check because they lack these skills or cannot seem to translate them from one environment to the other.
3) Avoid people/weed out people who think/talk/act like victims. A few can be redeemed, but most will struggle with this as a lifestyle and quickly become a drain on the staff. Make the hard call.
4) There's something to merit rewards, even in a church setting.
5) Read, ask questions and surround yourself with others to do the same.
6) Energy is critical. A leader must not only bring energy to every transaction, she must also catalyze/draw out energy in the people she leads.
2) The top 20% usually do a great job of managing their work-life balance because they've learned to cultivate relationships, budget time, set boundaries and absorb surprises. Crisis at home seldom spills over to work. By contrast, the other 80% usually have trouble keeping things in check because they lack these skills or cannot seem to translate them from one environment to the other.
3) Avoid people/weed out people who think/talk/act like victims. A few can be redeemed, but most will struggle with this as a lifestyle and quickly become a drain on the staff. Make the hard call.
4) There's something to merit rewards, even in a church setting.
5) Read, ask questions and surround yourself with others to do the same.
6) Energy is critical. A leader must not only bring energy to every transaction, she must also catalyze/draw out energy in the people she leads.
October 6, 2010
UNDERNEATH IT ALL
Have a positive attitude and spread it around, never let yourself be a victim, and for goodness' sake -- have fun.
MISSION AND VALUES
Effective mission statements balance the possible and the impossible.
Setting the mission is top management's responsibility. A mission cannot be delegated to anyone except the people ultimately held accountable for it.
Example Value Statement: "We treat customers the way we would want to be treated" translates into:
*** Give customers a good, fair deal. Great customer relationships take time. Do not try to maximize short-term profits at the expense of building those enduring relationships. Always look for ways to make it easier to do business with us.
Communicate daily with your customers. If they are talking to you, they can't be talking to a competitor.
Don't forget to say thank you. ***
Example Value Statement: "We strive to be the low cost provider through efficient and great operations" translates into:
*** Leaner is better.
Eliminate bureaucracy.
Cut waste relentlessly.
Operations should be fast and simple.
Value each other's time.
Invest in infrastructure. ***
We should know our business best. We don't need consultants to tell us what to do.
In the most common scenario, a company's mission and its values rupture due to the little crises of daily life in business.
CANDOR, VOICE AND DIGNITY
Lack of candor blocks smart ideas, fast action and good people contributing all the stuff they've got. It's a killer.
To get candor, you reward it, praise it, and talk about it. Most of all, you yourself demonstrate it in an exuberant and even exaggerated way.
Some people have better ideas than the others; some are smarter or more experienced or more creative. But everyone should be heard and respected.
DIFFERENTIATING PEOPLE
A company has only so much money and time. Winning leaders invest where the payback is the highest. They cut their losses everywhere else.
Differentiate 20% top, 70% middle and 10% bottom performers. It may be demotivating for the 70% but revs the engines of the others.
LEADERSHIP
What leaders do:
*** 1. Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach, and build self-confidence.
2. Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it.
3. Leaders get into eveyone's skin, exuding positive energy and optimism.
4. Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency, and credit.
5. Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls.
6. Leaders probe and push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions are answered with action.
7. Leaders inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example.
8. Leaders celebrate. ***
Take every opportunity to inject self-confidence into those who have earned it. Use ample praise, the more specific the better.
Leaders never score off their own people by stealing an idea and claiming it as their own.
You are not a leader to win a popularity contest. You are a leader to lead.
If you're left with that uh-oh feeling in your stomach, don't hire the guy.
Just because you're the boss doesn't mean you're the source of all knowledge.
Work is too much a part of life not to recognise moments of achievment. Grab as many as you can. Make a big deal out of them.
HIRING
Look for positive energy, ability to energise the others, edge (the courage to make tough yes-or-no decisions), the ability to get the job done and passion.
For the top look for authenticity, the ability to see around the corners, the strong penchant to surround themselves with people better and smarter than they are, heavy-duty resilience.
Do not hire someone into the last job of his career, unless it's to be the head of a function or CEO.
PEOPLE MANAGEMENT
1. Elevate HR to a position of power and primacy and make sure HR people have the special qualities to help managers build leaders and careers. In fact, the HR types are pastors and parents in the same package.
2. Use a rigorous, nonbureaucratic evaluation system, monitored for integrety.
3. Create effective mechanisms: money, recognition, training -- to motivate and retain.
4. Face straight into charged relationships -- with unions, stars, sliders, and disrupters.
5. Fight gravity, and instead of taking the middle 70% for granted, treat them like the heart and sould of the organisation.
6. Design the org char to be as flat as possible, with blindingly clear reporting relationships and responsibilities.
Good evaluation systems are:
1. Clear and simple
2. Meare on relevant, agreed-upon criteria that relate directly to an individual's performance
3. At least one evaluation a year, preferably twice in format, face-to-face sessions
4. Should include a professional development component
Ideally, a star wil be replaced within eight hours. This sends the message that no single individual is bigger than the company.
Make the company flatter. Managers should have ten direct reports at the minimum and 30 to 50 percent more if they are experienced.
FIRING
No surprises. No humiliation. Every person who leaves goes on to represent your company. They can bad-mouth or praise.
Integrity violations are no-brainers. Don't hesitate for a moment and let everyone know why.
Layoffs are more complicated. They shouldn't come as a surprise. Every employee should know how a company is doing.
Firing for nonperformance is delicate. It shouldn't be a surprise. Use your instincts.
CHANGE
1. Attach every change to a clear goal.
2. Hire and promote only true believers and get-on-with-it types.
3. Ferret out and remove the resisters, even if their performance is satisfactory.
4. Look out for wrecks and exploit change.
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
Don't deny there's a problem, act. Implement change to prevent this in the future. The organisation will survive, ultimately stronger for what happened.
STRATEGY
Strategy means making clear-cut choices about how to compete. Ponder less, do more:
1. Come up with a big aha for your business -- a smart, realistic, relatively fast way to gain sustainable competitive advantage.
WHAT THE PLAYING FIELD LOOKS LIKE NOW
Who are the competitors in this business, large and small, new and old?
Who has what share, globally and in each market? Where do we fit in?
What are the characteristics of this business? Commodity or high value or something in between?
Is it long cycle or short?
Where is it on the growth curve? What the drivers of profitability?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor? How good are their products? How much does each one spend on R&D? How big is each sales force? How performance-driven is each culture?
Who are this business's main customers, and how do they buy?
WHAT YOUR COMPETITION HAS BEEN UP TO
What has each competitor done in the past year to change the playing field?
Has anyone introduced game-changing new products, technologies, distribution channels?
Are there any new entrants, and what have they been up to in the past year?
WHAT YOU'VE BEEN UP TO
What have you done in the past year to change the competitive playing field?
Have you bought a company, introduced a new product, stolen a competitor's key salesperson, or licensed a new technology from a start-up?
Have you lost any competitive advantages that you once had -- a great salesperson, a special product, a proprietary technology?
WHAT'S AROUND THE CORNER
What scares you most in the year ahead -- what one or two things could a competitor do to nail you?
What new products or technologies could you competitors launch that might change the game?
What M&A deals would knock you off your feet?
WHAT'S YOUR WINNING MOVE?
What can you do to change the playing field -- is it an acquisition, a new product, globalisation?
What can you do to make customers stick to you more than ever before and more than to anyone else?
2. Put the right people in the right jobs to drive the big aha forward.
3. Relentlessly seek out the best practices to achieve your big aha, whether inside or out, adapt them, and continually improve them.
BUDGETING
Link it to strategy, and focus on two questions:
How can we beat last year's performance?
What is our competition doing, and how can we beat them?
ORGANIC GROWTH
1. Spend plenty up front and put the best, hungries, and most passionate people in leadership roles.
2. Make an exaggerated commotion about the potential and importance of the new venture.
3. Err on the side of freedom; get off of the new venture's back.
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
When done right 1+3=3. Seven pitfalls:
1. Believing that a merger of equals can actually occur.
2. Ignoring cultural fit.
3. "Reverse hostage" situation, where the acquired ends up calling all the shots afterwards.
4. Integrating too timidly. A merger should be complete within niety days.
5. Conqueror syndrome where the acquired talent is lost.
6. Paying to much.
7. Resistance of the acquired team
SIX SIGMA
Six Sigma is a way to improve a copmany's operational efficiency, raise productivity, and lower costs.
A huge part of making your customers sticky is meeting or exceeding their expectations, which is exactly what Six Sigma helps you do.
Six Sigma is about variation and removing it from your customer's interface with you.
THE RIGHT JOB
Working for some companies is like winning an Olympic medal. For the rest of your career, you are associated with great performance.
Every job you take is a gamble that could increase your chances or shut them down.
Working to fulfill someone else's needs or dreams almost always catches up with you.
If a job doesn't excite you on some level -- just because of the stuff of it -- don't settle.
Authenticity may be the best selling point you've got.
If you are let go don't let yourself spiral into inertia and despair.
The job is for you if:
*** You like the people a lot -- you can relate to them, and you genuinely enjoy their company. In fact, they even think and act like you do.
The job gives you the opportunity to grow as a person and a professional and you get the feeling you will learn things there that you didn't even know you needed to learn.
The job gives you a credential you can take with you, and is in a business and industry with a future.
You are taking the job for yourself, or you know whom you are taking it for, and feel at peace with the bargain.
The "stuff" of the job turns your crank -- you love the work, it feels fun and meaningful to you, and even touches something primal in your soul. ***
The job isn't for you if:
*** You feel like you'll need to put on a persona at work. After a visit to the company, you find yourself saying things like, "I donj't need to be friends with the people I work with".
You're being hired as an expert, and upon arrival, you will most likely be the smartest person in the room.
The industry has peaked or has awful economics, and the company itself, for any number of reasons, will do little to expand your career options.
You are taking the job for any number of other constituents, such as a spouse who wants you to travel less or the sixth-grade teacher who said you would never amount to anything.
The job feels like a job. In taking it, you things like, "This is just until something better comes along", or "You can't beat the money". ***
GETTING PROMOTED
Do deliver sensational performance, far beyond expectations, and at every opportunity expand your job beyond its official boundaries.
Don't make your boss use political capital in order to champion you.
Do manage your relationships with your subordinates with the same carefulness that you manage the one with your boss.
Do get on the radar screen by being an early champion of your company's major projects or initiatives.
Do search out and relish the input of lots of mentors, realising that mentors don't always look like mentors. There is no one right mentor. There are many right mentors.
Do have a positive attitude and spread it around. You can win without being upbeat -- if every other star is aligned -- but why would you want to try?
Don't let setbacks break your stride.
A BAD BOSS
Generally speaking, bosses are not awful to people whom they like, respect, and need. Think hard about your performance.
In any bad boss situation you cannot let yourself be a victim.
WORK-LIFE BALANCE
The reality:
1. Your boss's top priority is competitiveness. Of course he wants you to be happy, but only insasmuch as it helps the company win. In fact, if he is doing the job right, he is making your job so exciting that your peronal life becomes a less compelling draw.
2. Most bosses are perfectly willing to accommodate work-life balance challenges if you have earned it with performance. The key word here is: IF
3. Bosses know that the work-life policies in the company brochure are mainly for recruiting purposes and that real work-life arrangements are negotiated one-on-one in the context of a supportive culture, not in the context of "But the company says ..!"
4. People who publicly struggle with work-life balance problems and continually turn to the company for help get pigeonholed as ambivalent, entitled, uncommited, or incompetent -- or all of the above.
5. Even the most accommodating bosses believe that work-life balance is your problem to solve. In fact, most know that there are really just a handful of effective strategies to do that, and they wish you would use them.
Best practices:
1. Keep your head in whatever game you're at, i.e. compartmentalise.
2. Have the mettle to say no to requests and demands outside your chosen work-life balance plan.
3. Make sure your work-life balance plan doesn't leave you out.
Have a positive attitude and spread it around, never let yourself be a victim, and for goodness' sake -- have fun.
MISSION AND VALUES
Effective mission statements balance the possible and the impossible.
Setting the mission is top management's responsibility. A mission cannot be delegated to anyone except the people ultimately held accountable for it.
Example Value Statement: "We treat customers the way we would want to be treated" translates into:
*** Give customers a good, fair deal. Great customer relationships take time. Do not try to maximize short-term profits at the expense of building those enduring relationships. Always look for ways to make it easier to do business with us.
Communicate daily with your customers. If they are talking to you, they can't be talking to a competitor.
Don't forget to say thank you. ***
Example Value Statement: "We strive to be the low cost provider through efficient and great operations" translates into:
*** Leaner is better.
Eliminate bureaucracy.
Cut waste relentlessly.
Operations should be fast and simple.
Value each other's time.
Invest in infrastructure. ***
We should know our business best. We don't need consultants to tell us what to do.
In the most common scenario, a company's mission and its values rupture due to the little crises of daily life in business.
CANDOR, VOICE AND DIGNITY
Lack of candor blocks smart ideas, fast action and good people contributing all the stuff they've got. It's a killer.
To get candor, you reward it, praise it, and talk about it. Most of all, you yourself demonstrate it in an exuberant and even exaggerated way.
Some people have better ideas than the others; some are smarter or more experienced or more creative. But everyone should be heard and respected.
DIFFERENTIATING PEOPLE
A company has only so much money and time. Winning leaders invest where the payback is the highest. They cut their losses everywhere else.
Differentiate 20% top, 70% middle and 10% bottom performers. It may be demotivating for the 70% but revs the engines of the others.
LEADERSHIP
What leaders do:
*** 1. Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach, and build self-confidence.
2. Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it.
3. Leaders get into eveyone's skin, exuding positive energy and optimism.
4. Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency, and credit.
5. Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls.
6. Leaders probe and push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions are answered with action.
7. Leaders inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example.
8. Leaders celebrate. ***
Take every opportunity to inject self-confidence into those who have earned it. Use ample praise, the more specific the better.
Leaders never score off their own people by stealing an idea and claiming it as their own.
You are not a leader to win a popularity contest. You are a leader to lead.
If you're left with that uh-oh feeling in your stomach, don't hire the guy.
Just because you're the boss doesn't mean you're the source of all knowledge.
Work is too much a part of life not to recognise moments of achievment. Grab as many as you can. Make a big deal out of them.
HIRING
Look for positive energy, ability to energise the others, edge (the courage to make tough yes-or-no decisions), the ability to get the job done and passion.
For the top look for authenticity, the ability to see around the corners, the strong penchant to surround themselves with people better and smarter than they are, heavy-duty resilience.
Do not hire someone into the last job of his career, unless it's to be the head of a function or CEO.
PEOPLE MANAGEMENT
1. Elevate HR to a position of power and primacy and make sure HR people have the special qualities to help managers build leaders and careers. In fact, the HR types are pastors and parents in the same package.
2. Use a rigorous, nonbureaucratic evaluation system, monitored for integrety.
3. Create effective mechanisms: money, recognition, training -- to motivate and retain.
4. Face straight into charged relationships -- with unions, stars, sliders, and disrupters.
5. Fight gravity, and instead of taking the middle 70% for granted, treat them like the heart and sould of the organisation.
6. Design the org char to be as flat as possible, with blindingly clear reporting relationships and responsibilities.
Good evaluation systems are:
1. Clear and simple
2. Meare on relevant, agreed-upon criteria that relate directly to an individual's performance
3. At least one evaluation a year, preferably twice in format, face-to-face sessions
4. Should include a professional development component
Ideally, a star wil be replaced within eight hours. This sends the message that no single individual is bigger than the company.
Make the company flatter. Managers should have ten direct reports at the minimum and 30 to 50 percent more if they are experienced.
FIRING
No surprises. No humiliation. Every person who leaves goes on to represent your company. They can bad-mouth or praise.
Integrity violations are no-brainers. Don't hesitate for a moment and let everyone know why.
Layoffs are more complicated. They shouldn't come as a surprise. Every employee should know how a company is doing.
Firing for nonperformance is delicate. It shouldn't be a surprise. Use your instincts.
CHANGE
1. Attach every change to a clear goal.
2. Hire and promote only true believers and get-on-with-it types.
3. Ferret out and remove the resisters, even if their performance is satisfactory.
4. Look out for wrecks and exploit change.
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
Don't deny there's a problem, act. Implement change to prevent this in the future. The organisation will survive, ultimately stronger for what happened.
STRATEGY
Strategy means making clear-cut choices about how to compete. Ponder less, do more:
1. Come up with a big aha for your business -- a smart, realistic, relatively fast way to gain sustainable competitive advantage.
WHAT THE PLAYING FIELD LOOKS LIKE NOW
Who are the competitors in this business, large and small, new and old?
Who has what share, globally and in each market? Where do we fit in?
What are the characteristics of this business? Commodity or high value or something in between?
Is it long cycle or short?
Where is it on the growth curve? What the drivers of profitability?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor? How good are their products? How much does each one spend on R&D? How big is each sales force? How performance-driven is each culture?
Who are this business's main customers, and how do they buy?
WHAT YOUR COMPETITION HAS BEEN UP TO
What has each competitor done in the past year to change the playing field?
Has anyone introduced game-changing new products, technologies, distribution channels?
Are there any new entrants, and what have they been up to in the past year?
WHAT YOU'VE BEEN UP TO
What have you done in the past year to change the competitive playing field?
Have you bought a company, introduced a new product, stolen a competitor's key salesperson, or licensed a new technology from a start-up?
Have you lost any competitive advantages that you once had -- a great salesperson, a special product, a proprietary technology?
WHAT'S AROUND THE CORNER
What scares you most in the year ahead -- what one or two things could a competitor do to nail you?
What new products or technologies could you competitors launch that might change the game?
What M&A deals would knock you off your feet?
WHAT'S YOUR WINNING MOVE?
What can you do to change the playing field -- is it an acquisition, a new product, globalisation?
What can you do to make customers stick to you more than ever before and more than to anyone else?
2. Put the right people in the right jobs to drive the big aha forward.
3. Relentlessly seek out the best practices to achieve your big aha, whether inside or out, adapt them, and continually improve them.
BUDGETING
Link it to strategy, and focus on two questions:
How can we beat last year's performance?
What is our competition doing, and how can we beat them?
ORGANIC GROWTH
1. Spend plenty up front and put the best, hungries, and most passionate people in leadership roles.
2. Make an exaggerated commotion about the potential and importance of the new venture.
3. Err on the side of freedom; get off of the new venture's back.
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
When done right 1+3=3. Seven pitfalls:
1. Believing that a merger of equals can actually occur.
2. Ignoring cultural fit.
3. "Reverse hostage" situation, where the acquired ends up calling all the shots afterwards.
4. Integrating too timidly. A merger should be complete within niety days.
5. Conqueror syndrome where the acquired talent is lost.
6. Paying to much.
7. Resistance of the acquired team
SIX SIGMA
Six Sigma is a way to improve a copmany's operational efficiency, raise productivity, and lower costs.
A huge part of making your customers sticky is meeting or exceeding their expectations, which is exactly what Six Sigma helps you do.
Six Sigma is about variation and removing it from your customer's interface with you.
THE RIGHT JOB
Working for some companies is like winning an Olympic medal. For the rest of your career, you are associated with great performance.
Every job you take is a gamble that could increase your chances or shut them down.
Working to fulfill someone else's needs or dreams almost always catches up with you.
If a job doesn't excite you on some level -- just because of the stuff of it -- don't settle.
Authenticity may be the best selling point you've got.
If you are let go don't let yourself spiral into inertia and despair.
The job is for you if:
*** You like the people a lot -- you can relate to them, and you genuinely enjoy their company. In fact, they even think and act like you do.
The job gives you the opportunity to grow as a person and a professional and you get the feeling you will learn things there that you didn't even know you needed to learn.
The job gives you a credential you can take with you, and is in a business and industry with a future.
You are taking the job for yourself, or you know whom you are taking it for, and feel at peace with the bargain.
The "stuff" of the job turns your crank -- you love the work, it feels fun and meaningful to you, and even touches something primal in your soul. ***
The job isn't for you if:
*** You feel like you'll need to put on a persona at work. After a visit to the company, you find yourself saying things like, "I donj't need to be friends with the people I work with".
You're being hired as an expert, and upon arrival, you will most likely be the smartest person in the room.
The industry has peaked or has awful economics, and the company itself, for any number of reasons, will do little to expand your career options.
You are taking the job for any number of other constituents, such as a spouse who wants you to travel less or the sixth-grade teacher who said you would never amount to anything.
The job feels like a job. In taking it, you things like, "This is just until something better comes along", or "You can't beat the money". ***
GETTING PROMOTED
Do deliver sensational performance, far beyond expectations, and at every opportunity expand your job beyond its official boundaries.
Don't make your boss use political capital in order to champion you.
Do manage your relationships with your subordinates with the same carefulness that you manage the one with your boss.
Do get on the radar screen by being an early champion of your company's major projects or initiatives.
Do search out and relish the input of lots of mentors, realising that mentors don't always look like mentors. There is no one right mentor. There are many right mentors.
Do have a positive attitude and spread it around. You can win without being upbeat -- if every other star is aligned -- but why would you want to try?
Don't let setbacks break your stride.
A BAD BOSS
Generally speaking, bosses are not awful to people whom they like, respect, and need. Think hard about your performance.
In any bad boss situation you cannot let yourself be a victim.
WORK-LIFE BALANCE
The reality:
1. Your boss's top priority is competitiveness. Of course he wants you to be happy, but only insasmuch as it helps the company win. In fact, if he is doing the job right, he is making your job so exciting that your peronal life becomes a less compelling draw.
2. Most bosses are perfectly willing to accommodate work-life balance challenges if you have earned it with performance. The key word here is: IF
3. Bosses know that the work-life policies in the company brochure are mainly for recruiting purposes and that real work-life arrangements are negotiated one-on-one in the context of a supportive culture, not in the context of "But the company says ..!"
4. People who publicly struggle with work-life balance problems and continually turn to the company for help get pigeonholed as ambivalent, entitled, uncommited, or incompetent -- or all of the above.
5. Even the most accommodating bosses believe that work-life balance is your problem to solve. In fact, most know that there are really just a handful of effective strategies to do that, and they wish you would use them.
Best practices:
1. Keep your head in whatever game you're at, i.e. compartmentalise.
2. Have the mettle to say no to requests and demands outside your chosen work-life balance plan.
3. Make sure your work-life balance plan doesn't leave you out.
Read
January 23, 2008Comments on "Winning" by Jack Welch
This is a very down to earth book; with lots of advices that are sensible and convincing. Also, this book is suitable for even job-starters. In fact, I think it is particularly valuable for our kids because it prepare them for what the real world looks like and what they should do in order to succeed (not just to climb the corporate ladder but to achieve job satisfaction).
For instance, it points out quite a number of key problems with most Chinese companies: no clear company vision, lack of candor, lack of differentiation, and lack of respect for the workers, to name just a few.
I highly recommend this book to MBA students because unlike other management books that usually sound theoretical, this book explores the real work environment and hence can stimulate a lot of real-life discussion. To stimulate your sharing during the bridge session, here are some questions that you can find some advices in the book:
1. What happened at Arthur Andersen and Enron that caused their demise?
2. How can any business-person in China practice candor and differentiation when “only the voice of the boss is allowed”?
3. What does a leader really do?
4. Can you be introverted, quiet, or just plain shy and still get results out of your people?
5. What is the one thing you should ask in an interview to help you decide whom to hire?
6. The budgeting process in my company is too entrenched to change. What can I do?
7. I am in manufacturing, but I want to move into marketing. Will I ever get out of the factory?
8. How should I deal with my bad boss?
9. My company is getting killed by China. How can we stay alive?
This is a very down to earth book; with lots of advices that are sensible and convincing. Also, this book is suitable for even job-starters. In fact, I think it is particularly valuable for our kids because it prepare them for what the real world looks like and what they should do in order to succeed (not just to climb the corporate ladder but to achieve job satisfaction).
For instance, it points out quite a number of key problems with most Chinese companies: no clear company vision, lack of candor, lack of differentiation, and lack of respect for the workers, to name just a few.
I highly recommend this book to MBA students because unlike other management books that usually sound theoretical, this book explores the real work environment and hence can stimulate a lot of real-life discussion. To stimulate your sharing during the bridge session, here are some questions that you can find some advices in the book:
1. What happened at Arthur Andersen and Enron that caused their demise?
2. How can any business-person in China practice candor and differentiation when “only the voice of the boss is allowed”?
3. What does a leader really do?
4. Can you be introverted, quiet, or just plain shy and still get results out of your people?
5. What is the one thing you should ask in an interview to help you decide whom to hire?
6. The budgeting process in my company is too entrenched to change. What can I do?
7. I am in manufacturing, but I want to move into marketing. Will I ever get out of the factory?
8. How should I deal with my bad boss?
9. My company is getting killed by China. How can we stay alive?
April 21, 2011
خلاصة تجربة رائعة لاحد اهم المدراء التنفيذين في القرن الحادي والعشرين . سوف يمدك الكتاب بنصائح رائعة عن بيئة العمل وما هي طرق النجاح فيها. انصح الجميع بقراءته فسوف يحدث فرقا في تفكيرك
March 21, 2009
I have to confess that I was a little biased in selecting this book as the next one for me to read. I thought it a good idea to get some ideas from the man that did so much to transform the company that employs me today. The GE of today is not the GE that Jack built, and yet in many ways it is in that Jack Welch provided the foundation for the culture that exists in the company today. A lot of what I see at work made so much more sense after reading what Jack wrote.
I say Jack because I felt almost like he was sitting down with me in a one-on-one setting, giving me his opinion about all things business in a rather personal setting. OK, perhaps not ALL things business, but he covers the main topics. And his approach was always down to earth and straightforward, which is just the way I like to do things. Here's a good example: "Be granular---know what each competitor eats for breakfast." More good examples: "You are not a leader to win a popularity contest--you are a leader to lead." "What good is beating targets you set in a windowless room?" "In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell." "Protecting underperformers always backfires. The worst thing, though, is how protecting people who don't perform hurts the people themselves." "Life goes on. There is no last best deal." "Every manager in the world knows what 'I resigned' or 'I left for personal reasons' really means." "Generally speaking, bosses are not awful to people whom they like, respect, and need. Think hard about your performance."
And my personal favorite: He subtitles his chapter on crisis management with "From Oh-God-No to Yes-We're-Fine".
Some of the higher-up executive realm discussions did not interest me as much because I don't frequent those higher-up executive realms. I'm one of the grunt peons. But I always found his perspective interesting. Even more interesting was his perspective on the topics that grunt peons such as myself know very well.
Perhaps the best example from this category was the chapter on work-life balance. I am a huge believer in balance, and many people have had their shots at perpetuating a "perfect" vision of acheiving work-life balance. But after reading what Jack had to say about it, I came to realize that all the other people I ever heard talk about work-life balance did so from the employee's perspective. Jack does it from the employer's perspective, and I found that much more enlightening because it broadened my view of what exactly I am trying to achieve. Balancing work and life is really balancing what my employer wants with what I want. Jack also gives some best practices that, true to his style as illustrated by the previous quotes, are very practical in nature.
Overall, this book was a great read, not just because it helped me to understand a lot of the culture in my own workplace but also because Jack practices the candor that he preaches. His ideas are grounded in experience, and when he says that he doesn't know something completely, he tells you exactly that. I highly recommend this book to anyone. It's more than just food for thought; it's food for making a career that is part of a well-lived life.
I say Jack because I felt almost like he was sitting down with me in a one-on-one setting, giving me his opinion about all things business in a rather personal setting. OK, perhaps not ALL things business, but he covers the main topics. And his approach was always down to earth and straightforward, which is just the way I like to do things. Here's a good example: "Be granular---know what each competitor eats for breakfast." More good examples: "You are not a leader to win a popularity contest--you are a leader to lead." "What good is beating targets you set in a windowless room?" "In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell." "Protecting underperformers always backfires. The worst thing, though, is how protecting people who don't perform hurts the people themselves." "Life goes on. There is no last best deal." "Every manager in the world knows what 'I resigned' or 'I left for personal reasons' really means." "Generally speaking, bosses are not awful to people whom they like, respect, and need. Think hard about your performance."
And my personal favorite: He subtitles his chapter on crisis management with "From Oh-God-No to Yes-We're-Fine".
Some of the higher-up executive realm discussions did not interest me as much because I don't frequent those higher-up executive realms. I'm one of the grunt peons. But I always found his perspective interesting. Even more interesting was his perspective on the topics that grunt peons such as myself know very well.
Perhaps the best example from this category was the chapter on work-life balance. I am a huge believer in balance, and many people have had their shots at perpetuating a "perfect" vision of acheiving work-life balance. But after reading what Jack had to say about it, I came to realize that all the other people I ever heard talk about work-life balance did so from the employee's perspective. Jack does it from the employer's perspective, and I found that much more enlightening because it broadened my view of what exactly I am trying to achieve. Balancing work and life is really balancing what my employer wants with what I want. Jack also gives some best practices that, true to his style as illustrated by the previous quotes, are very practical in nature.
Overall, this book was a great read, not just because it helped me to understand a lot of the culture in my own workplace but also because Jack practices the candor that he preaches. His ideas are grounded in experience, and when he says that he doesn't know something completely, he tells you exactly that. I highly recommend this book to anyone. It's more than just food for thought; it's food for making a career that is part of a well-lived life.
November 4, 2014
This book is so great written by Jack Welch who is one of the most prominent CEOs of the last century. He has earned name recognition from people around the world.
It’s written clearly and simply it's not filled with "the same old stuff". Even the principles you've heard before are presented through his own interesting experiences.
Unlike many other authors who can be somewhat academic. Welch talks a lot about ethics and the need to win fairly while maintaining high ethical standards. He has a whole section devoted to the mission and values of a company and the need for them to be embodied in corporate culture … not just words on a wall. He also talks about winning at the personal level as well as the corporate level and how they are intertwined.
The book is really about how to win and Welch has some clear ideas about what it takes. He is a straight talker and advocates that for everyone … the term he uses is candor, and the need to foster candor in the corporate environment eliminating a lot of “politics”
Welch has opinions on just about every aspect of running a successful business, from Leadership to hiring & firing, from people management to crisis management. On strategy he talks about finding the “big idea”; about finding the right people and applying best practices
This is one of the most important business books I've readand one of the simplest to understand. This book inspire me and I am sure it will do the same for all of you I recommend it to everybody not only those in business field.
It’s written clearly and simply it's not filled with "the same old stuff". Even the principles you've heard before are presented through his own interesting experiences.
Unlike many other authors who can be somewhat academic. Welch talks a lot about ethics and the need to win fairly while maintaining high ethical standards. He has a whole section devoted to the mission and values of a company and the need for them to be embodied in corporate culture … not just words on a wall. He also talks about winning at the personal level as well as the corporate level and how they are intertwined.
The book is really about how to win and Welch has some clear ideas about what it takes. He is a straight talker and advocates that for everyone … the term he uses is candor, and the need to foster candor in the corporate environment eliminating a lot of “politics”
Welch has opinions on just about every aspect of running a successful business, from Leadership to hiring & firing, from people management to crisis management. On strategy he talks about finding the “big idea”; about finding the right people and applying best practices
This is one of the most important business books I've readand one of the simplest to understand. This book inspire me and I am sure it will do the same for all of you I recommend it to everybody not only those in business field.
August 10, 2012
Winning. Winning. Winning. Where do I even start with Winning? This is an audiobook/book that I listen to and read ALL THE TIME. Differentiation, 20-70-10, and who can forget CANDAH?
If you get the audiobook, keep in mind that this is narrated by Jack Welch. In full Bostonian accent. However, it adds a certain rawness and grit to a business book that really gives it nice dimension.
I'm a pretty big Jack Welch fan, but there are some down points. I feel that Six Sigma is a flawed methodology, a point that Welch would never agree with. He is very pro-6S, and more power to him.
Some people might shy away from the book because he's talking about GE and you might not have a business that big. Let me put that concern to rest -- EVERYONE can gain from "Winning". If you dream about hiring, Winning will also shape that. Wanting to switch careers or get into a new job? When the former CEO of one of the world's largest corporations tells you advice on that note -- listen. It is really that good.
When that fateful day comes that Mr. Welch is no longer here, this book will stand tall even after his passing.
If you get the audiobook, keep in mind that this is narrated by Jack Welch. In full Bostonian accent. However, it adds a certain rawness and grit to a business book that really gives it nice dimension.
I'm a pretty big Jack Welch fan, but there are some down points. I feel that Six Sigma is a flawed methodology, a point that Welch would never agree with. He is very pro-6S, and more power to him.
Some people might shy away from the book because he's talking about GE and you might not have a business that big. Let me put that concern to rest -- EVERYONE can gain from "Winning". If you dream about hiring, Winning will also shape that. Wanting to switch careers or get into a new job? When the former CEO of one of the world's largest corporations tells you advice on that note -- listen. It is really that good.
When that fateful day comes that Mr. Welch is no longer here, this book will stand tall even after his passing.
April 23, 2019
الكتاب صدر عن أحد أفضل الرؤساء التنفيذيين في القرن الماضي، يتطرّق فيه إلى عدّة مواضيع متعلّقة بقيادة منظّمة إلى النّجاح. أقود مع شركائي فريق عمل صغير نوعًا ما (25 شخص)، ووجدت الكتاب يلامس الكثير من التحدّيات والقضايا التي نواجهها بشكل يومي.الكتاب لا يكتفي بتناول مسائله بشكل تنفيذي واستراتيجي بل يدخل في تفاصيل مهمة.
أبرز ما جاء في الكتاب: تركيزه على وتكراره لفكرة أهمّية فريق العمل وطريقة اختياره وإدارته وتقييمه وترقيته.
ومن هنا أود مشاركتكم بعض ما جاء في هذا الباب
1. نظرًا لأهمّية القوى البشرية، فمن الضروري ارتباط مدير القوى البشرية مع الرئيس التنفيذي مباشرةً في الهيكل التنفيذي
2. دور القوى البشرية دور أبوي ونفساني: فعليهم ضبط الفريق واحتوائهم في نفس الوقت
3. راجع أداء الفريق بشكل دائم ومن دون توقّف
4. كافئ أفضل 20%، استثمر في متوسّطي الأداء، وتخلّص من أسوأ 10%. بل كقائد منظّمة، استثمر نصف وقتك لتطوير الفئة المتوسّطة.
5. عند مقابلة موظّفين محتملين ينبغي أن يكون أوّل فلتر هو: 1) النّضج، 2) والمصداقية، 3) والذّكاء. من أهم الأسئلة التي ستمكّنك من معرفة هذه الأمور الثّلاث: "لماذا تركتَ وظيفتك السّابقة؟"
6. بعد تعدّي الفلتر الأوّل ابحث عمّن: 1) لديه طاقة واضحة 2) أثبت أنّه يستطيع إمداد الآخرين بالطاقة والنشاط 3) لديه جودة عالية في التنفيذ 4) ينافس بشراسة 5) اهتمام وشغف صادق بالعمل
7. القيمة التي ينبغي لكل المؤسسات الناجحة تبنّيها: الصّراحة. هي أهم مما تتوقّع. والمجاملة بإمكانها أن تنخر مؤسستك أو فريقك
8. بسبب المراجعة الأداء المستمر، فعندما تفصل أحدًا ينبغي: أولاً) ألا يكون القرار مفاجئ لأنَّ لديهم دراية واضحة بأدائهم وثانيًا) القرار لا بُد أن يصل لصاحبه مع الحفاظ على كرامته
9. ثمانية صفات مهمّة للقائد: أولاً استخدم كل طريقة ووسيلة وفرصة لتطوير فريقك، لا يوجد شيء اسمه التطوير الزائد. ثانيًا: كرر رؤية الشّركة حتّى يعيشها الجميع. ثالثًا: كُن إيجابيًا وأشعل الجميع بطاقتك. رابعًا: ثبّت مصداقيّتك من خلال الصراحة والوضوح وأن تقول للمحسن أحسن، والمقصّر قصّرت. خامسًا: اتّخذ قرارتك مبكّرًا خصوصًا إن لم تعجب الجميع. سادسًا: اسئل كالطفل ولا تتوقّف حتّى تفهم. سابعًا: ألهم الفريق ليأخذوا مخاطرات مدروسة، وكن قدوة في ذلك. ثامنًا: احتفل في أوقات النجاح لن تتصوّروا أثر ذلك على فريقك
من دون مبالغة قد يكون هناك 100 درس يستحق الذّكر إذ يتحدّث عن التخطيط الاستراتيجي، والموازنة المالية، وإدارة التغيير، والتعامل مع التحديات، وموازنة الحياة مع العمل وغيرها الكثير
أبرز ما جاء في الكتاب: تركيزه على وتكراره لفكرة أهمّية فريق العمل وطريقة اختياره وإدارته وتقييمه وترقيته.
ومن هنا أود مشاركتكم بعض ما جاء في هذا الباب
1. نظرًا لأهمّية القوى البشرية، فمن الضروري ارتباط مدير القوى البشرية مع الرئيس التنفيذي مباشرةً في الهيكل التنفيذي
2. دور القوى البشرية دور أبوي ونفساني: فعليهم ضبط الفريق واحتوائهم في نفس الوقت
3. راجع أداء الفريق بشكل دائم ومن دون توقّف
4. كافئ أفضل 20%، استثمر في متوسّطي الأداء، وتخلّص من أسوأ 10%. بل كقائد منظّمة، استثمر نصف وقتك لتطوير الفئة المتوسّطة.
5. عند مقابلة موظّفين محتملين ينبغي أن يكون أوّل فلتر هو: 1) النّضج، 2) والمصداقية، 3) والذّكاء. من أهم الأسئلة التي ستمكّنك من معرفة هذه الأمور الثّلاث: "لماذا تركتَ وظيفتك السّابقة؟"
6. بعد تعدّي الفلتر الأوّل ابحث عمّن: 1) لديه طاقة واضحة 2) أثبت أنّه يستطيع إمداد الآخرين بالطاقة والنشاط 3) لديه جودة عالية في التنفيذ 4) ينافس بشراسة 5) اهتمام وشغف صادق بالعمل
7. القيمة التي ينبغي لكل المؤسسات الناجحة تبنّيها: الصّراحة. هي أهم مما تتوقّع. والمجاملة بإمكانها أن تنخر مؤسستك أو فريقك
8. بسبب المراجعة الأداء المستمر، فعندما تفصل أحدًا ينبغي: أولاً) ألا يكون القرار مفاجئ لأنَّ لديهم دراية واضحة بأدائهم وثانيًا) القرار لا بُد أن يصل لصاحبه مع الحفاظ على كرامته
9. ثمانية صفات مهمّة للقائد: أولاً استخدم كل طريقة ووسيلة وفرصة لتطوير فريقك، لا يوجد شيء اسمه التطوير الزائد. ثانيًا: كرر رؤية الشّركة حتّى يعيشها الجميع. ثالثًا: كُن إيجابيًا وأشعل الجميع بطاقتك. رابعًا: ثبّت مصداقيّتك من خلال الصراحة والوضوح وأن تقول للمحسن أحسن، والمقصّر قصّرت. خامسًا: اتّخذ قرارتك مبكّرًا خصوصًا إن لم تعجب الجميع. سادسًا: اسئل كالطفل ولا تتوقّف حتّى تفهم. سابعًا: ألهم الفريق ليأخذوا مخاطرات مدروسة، وكن قدوة في ذلك. ثامنًا: احتفل في أوقات النجاح لن تتصوّروا أثر ذلك على فريقك
من دون مبالغة قد يكون هناك 100 درس يستحق الذّكر إذ يتحدّث عن التخطيط الاستراتيجي، والموازنة المالية، وإدارة التغيير، والتعامل مع التحديات، وموازنة الحياة مع العمل وغيرها الكثير
January 17, 2021
This is basically a book on management by the former CEO of General Electric.
It contains the kernel of Welchs views on what leadership is all about.
Its about finding the right people for the right job and giving them the right incentive to keep working. Having started my own business last year I needed some form of guidelines as to how to lead people to a success. This certainly gave me some inspiration but I would say its mostly for managers in larger companies.
It contains the kernel of Welchs views on what leadership is all about.
Its about finding the right people for the right job and giving them the right incentive to keep working. Having started my own business last year I needed some form of guidelines as to how to lead people to a success. This certainly gave me some inspiration but I would say its mostly for managers in larger companies.
Read
May 13, 2014Saw this a while ago while putzing about at the Denver library (there was a stack of 8 or so of this book, which caught my eye). I'm not particularly interested in business management on a practical level, but these corporate self-help books have always intrigued me. So I read it with a strange, almost voyeuristic fascination.
It's been a couple years, so I won't go into many specifics of the contents. If that's what you're looking for, I'm sure you can find more helpful reviews, or better yet, just read the book. This is straightforward, easily understood reading (which is to be expected from this type of book). Really, though, I'm more interested in the type of people who get excited from reading books like this. Because, while the parts of the book about improving corporate efficiency and quality are fine and dandy, much of the book focuses on, basically, how to get people to do what you want them to do. I just know there are people out there--business folk and otherwise--reading Welch's no-nonsense, unsentimental approach to management (Welch prefers "fair and effective") and all but salivating over these strategies and nuggets of wisdom, thinking. This is how I WIN!" And while I recognize that a lot of what he says probably works, I wonder if people who dig this sort of thing realize that they are reveling in ways to manipulate others. I wonder how comfortable these people are with the basic management mindset that how you treat another person is ultimately based on how you want them to act or respond; you do things for or to people to produce an outcome. Within this context, treating someone with kindness and decency is no longer a virtue unto itself, but just another tool to use when you believe it will produce the desired effect. How comfortable are you with this mindset?
Getting what you want. Isn't that the basic definition of winning?
It's been a couple years, so I won't go into many specifics of the contents. If that's what you're looking for, I'm sure you can find more helpful reviews, or better yet, just read the book. This is straightforward, easily understood reading (which is to be expected from this type of book). Really, though, I'm more interested in the type of people who get excited from reading books like this. Because, while the parts of the book about improving corporate efficiency and quality are fine and dandy, much of the book focuses on, basically, how to get people to do what you want them to do. I just know there are people out there--business folk and otherwise--reading Welch's no-nonsense, unsentimental approach to management (Welch prefers "fair and effective") and all but salivating over these strategies and nuggets of wisdom, thinking. This is how I WIN!" And while I recognize that a lot of what he says probably works, I wonder if people who dig this sort of thing realize that they are reveling in ways to manipulate others. I wonder how comfortable these people are with the basic management mindset that how you treat another person is ultimately based on how you want them to act or respond; you do things for or to people to produce an outcome. Within this context, treating someone with kindness and decency is no longer a virtue unto itself, but just another tool to use when you believe it will produce the desired effect. How comfortable are you with this mindset?
Getting what you want. Isn't that the basic definition of winning?
September 11, 2012
Winning is one of the book I like the best, due to its practicality. Although I finished reading this book since 6 years ago, I still remember the chapter on Strategy which is really practical. That chapter contains questions that you can use to run a workshop to develop a strategy for your company. It as well suggests the best practices of companies that win.
This book covers all the topics that management have to concern, starting from how to set corporate vision and values, candor as the best way to communicate internally, how to differentiate people, what good leaders should do. It also includes how to hire, manage, and even fire people, as well as "change before you have to change", crisis management, budgeting and evaluation, how to grow your business organically (in other word, horizontally), concerns and pitfalls in mergers and acquisitions, and Six Sigma as a quality improvement program.
The book even cover personal part on your career, including work-life balance that he admitted he could not do this well himself.
If you have not read this book yet, I strongly recommend it is really worth your time. Then you will read it not just once, but many times like me.
This book covers all the topics that management have to concern, starting from how to set corporate vision and values, candor as the best way to communicate internally, how to differentiate people, what good leaders should do. It also includes how to hire, manage, and even fire people, as well as "change before you have to change", crisis management, budgeting and evaluation, how to grow your business organically (in other word, horizontally), concerns and pitfalls in mergers and acquisitions, and Six Sigma as a quality improvement program.
The book even cover personal part on your career, including work-life balance that he admitted he could not do this well himself.
If you have not read this book yet, I strongly recommend it is really worth your time. Then you will read it not just once, but many times like me.
December 19, 2012
The Candor Effect:
1) Candor gets more people in the conversation, and when you get more people in the conversation, to state the obvious,, you get idea rich. By that, I mean any more ideas get surfaced, discussed, pulled apart, and improved. Instead of everyone shutting down, everyone opens up and learns.
2) Candor generates speed. When ideas are in everyone's face, they can be debated rapidly, expanded and enhanced, and acted upon.
3) Candor cuts costs - lots - although you'll never be able to put a precise number on it. Just think how it eliminates meaningless meetings and b.s. reports that confirm what everyone already knows. Think of how candor replaces fancy PowerPoint slides and mind-numbing presentations and boring off-site conclaves with real conversations, whether they're about company strategy, a new product introduction, or someone's performance.
Differentiation
One of the main misunderstandings about differentiation is that is only about people. That's to miss half of it. Differentiation is a way to manage people and businesses.
Basically, differentiation holds that a company has two parts, software and hardware. Software is simple - it's your people. If you are a large company, your hardware is the different businesses in your portfolio. If you are smaller, your hardware is your product lines.
Every company has strong businesses or product lines and weak ones and some in between. Differentiation requires managers to know which is which and to invest accordingly. To do that, of course, you have to have a clear-cut definition of "strong." At GE, "strong" meant a business was No. 1 or No. 2 in its market. If it wasn't, the managers had to fix it, sell it, or as a last resort, close it. Other companies have different frameworks for investment decisions. They put their money and time only into businesses or product lines that promise double-digit sales growth, for instance. Or they invest only in business or product lines with a 15 percent (or better) discounted rate of return (DCRR).
Now let's talk about the more controversial topic, differentiation among people. It's a process that requires managers to assess their employees and separate them into three categories in terms of performance: top 20 percent, middle 70, and bottom 10. Then - and this is key - it requires managers to act on that distinction. I emphasize the word "act" because all managers naturally differentiate in their heads. But very few make it real.
When people differentiation is real, the top 20 percent of the employees are showered with bonuses, stock options, praise, love, training, and a variety of rewards to their pocketbooks and souls. There can be no mistaking the stars at a company that differentiates. They are the best, and they are treated that way.
The middle 70 percent are managed differently. This group is enormously valuable to any company; you simply cannot function without their skills, energy, and commitment. After all, they are the majority of your employees. And that's the major challenge, and risk, in 20-70-10 - keeping the middle 70 engaged and motivated.
That's why so much of managing the middle 70 is about training, positive feedback, and thoughtful goal setting. If individuals in this group have particular promise, they should be moved around among businesses and functions to increase their experience and knowledge and to test their leadership skills. To be clear, managing the middle 70 is not about keeping people out of the bottom 10. It is not about saving poor performers. That would be a bad investment decision. Rather, differentiation is about managers looking at the middle 70, identifying people with potential to move up, and cultivating them. But everyone in the middle 70 needs to be motivated and made to feel as if they truly belong. You do not want to lose the vast majority of your middle 70 - you want to improve them.
As for the bottom 10 percent in differentiation, there is no sugar-coating this - they have to go. That's more easily said than done. It's awful to fire people, but if you have a candid organization with clear performance expectations and a performance evaluation process, then people in the bottom 10 percent generally know who they are. When you tell them, they usually leave before you ask them to. No one wants to be in an organization where they aren't wanted. One of the best things about differentiation is that people in the bottom 10 percent of organizations often go on to successful careers at companies and in pursuits where they truly belong and where they can excel.
Work-Out
These were two- or three-day events held at GE sites around the world, patterned after New England town meetings. Groups of thirty to a hundred employees would come together with an outside facilitator to discuss better ways of doing things and how to eliminate some of the bureaucracy and roadblocks that were hindering them. The boss would be present at the beginning of each session, laying out the rationale for the Work-Out. He or she would also commit to two things: to give an on-the-spot yes or no to 75 percent of the recommendations that came out of the session, and to resolve the remaining 25 percent within 30 days. The boss would then disappear until the end of the session, so as not to stifle open discussion, returning only at the end to make good on his or her promise.
What Leaders Do
1) Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach, and build self-confidence.
2) Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it.
3) Leaders get into everyone's skin, exuding positive energy and optimism.
4) Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency, and credit.
5) Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls.
6) Leaders probe and push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions are answered with action.
7) Leaders inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example.
8) Leaders celebrate.
You have to evaluate - making sure the right people are in the right jobs, supporting and advancing those who are, and moving out those who are not.
You have to coach - guiding, critiquing, and helping people to improve their performance in every way.
You have to build self-confidence - pouring out encouragement, caring, and recognition. Self-confidence energizes, and it gives your people the courage to stretch, take risks, and achieve beyond their dreams. It is the fuel of winning teams.
Hiring Process Tips
Three Acid Tests
1) The first test is for integrity. People with integrity tell the truth, and they keep their word. They take responsibility for past actions, admit mistakes, and fix them. They know the laws of their country, industry, and company - both in letter and in spirit - and abide by them. They play to win the right way, by the rules. Does the person seem real? Does she openly admit mistakes? Does he talk about his life with equal measures of candor and discretion?
2) The second test is for intelligence. It means the candidate has a strong dose of intellectual curiosity, with a breadth of knowledge to work with or lead other smart people. Don't confuse education with intelligence.
3) The third ticket to the game is maturity. The individual can withstand the heat, handle stress and setbacks, and, alternatively, when those wonderful moments arise, enjoy success with equal parts of joy and humility. Mature people respect the emotions of others. They feel confident but are not arrogant. In fact, mature people usually have a sense of humor, especially about themselves.
The 4-E (and 1-P) Framework
1) The fist E is positive energy. We just talked about this characteristic in the chapter on leadership. It means the ability to go go go - to thrive on action and relish change. People with positive energy are generally extroverted and optimistic. They make conversation and friends easily. They start the day with enthusiasm and usually end it that way too, rarely seeming to tire in the middle. They don't complain about working hard; they love to work. They also love to play. People with positive energy just love life.
2) The second E is the ability to energize others. Positive energy is the ability to get other people revved up. People who energize can inspire their team to take on the impossible - and enjoy the hell out of doing it. In fact, people would arm wrestle for the chance to work with them. Now, energizing others is not just about giving Pattonesque speeches. It takes a deep knowledge of your business and strong persuasion skills to make a case that will galvanize others.
3) The third E is edge, the courage to make tough yes-or-no decisions. Look, the world is filled with gray. Anyone can look at an issue from every different angle. Some smart people can - and will - analyze those angles indefinitely. But effective people know when to stop assessing and make a tough call, even without total information. Little is worse than a manager at any level who can't cut bait, the type that always says, "Bring it back in a month and we'll take a good, hard look at it again," or that awful type that says yes to you, but then someone else comes into the room and changes his mind.
4) The fourth E is execute, the ability to get the job done. Maybe this fourth E seems obvious, but for a few years, there were just the first three Es. Thinking these traits were more than sufficient, we evaluated hundreds of people and labeled a slew of them "high-potentials," and moved many of them into managerial roles. In that period, I traveled to personnel review sessions in the field with GE's head of HR, Bill Conaty. At the review sessions, we would refer to a single page that had each manager's photo on it, along with his or her boss's performance review and three circles, one for each E. Each one of these Es would be colored in to represent how well the individual was doing. Then one Friday night after a weeklong trip to our midwestern businesses, Bill and I were flying back to headquarters, looking over page after page of high-potentials with three solidly colored-in circles. Bill turned to me. "You know, Jack, we're missing something," he said. "We have all these great people, but some of their results stink." What was missing was execution. It turns out you can have positive energy, energize everyone around you, make hard calls, and still not get over the finish line. Being able to execute is a special and distinct skill. It means a person knows how to put decisions into action and push them forward to completion, through resistance, chaos, or unexpected obstacles. People who can execute know that winning is about results.
5) If a candidate has the four Es, then you look for that final P - passion. By passion, I mean a heartfelt, deep, and authentic excitement about work. People with passion care - really care in their bones - about colleagues, employees, and friends winning. They love to learn and grow, and they get a huge kick when the people around them do the same. The funny thing about people with passion, though, is that they usually aren't excited just about work. They tend to be passionate about everything. They're sports trivia nuts or they're fanatical supporters of their alma mater or they're political junkies. Whatever - they just have juice for life in their veins.
Hiring for the Top
Sometimes you need to hire a senior-level leader, someone who is going to run a major division or an entire company. In that case, there are four more highly developed characteristics that really matter.
1) The first characteristic is authenticity. Why? It's simple. A person cannot make hard decisions, hold unpopular positions, or stand tall for what he believes unless he knows who he is and feels comfortable with that. I am talking about self-confidence and conviction. These traits make a leader bold and decisive, which is absolutely critical in times when you must act quickly. Just as important, authenticity makes leaders likable. Their "realness" comes across in the way they communicate and reach people on an emotional level. Their words move them; their message touches something inside.
2) The second characteristic is the ability to see around corners. Every leader has to have a vision and the ability to predict the future, but good leaders must have a special capacity to anticipate the radically unexpected. In business, the leaders in brutally competitive environments have a sixth sense for market changes, as well as moves by existing competitors and new entrants.
3) The third characteristic is a strong penchant to surround themselves with people better and smarter than they are. Every time we had a crisis at GE, I would quickly assemble a group of the smartest, gutsiest people I could find at any level from within the company and sometimes from without, and lean on them heavily for their knowledge and advice. I would make sure everyone in the room came at the problem from a different angle, and then i would have us all wallow in the information as we worked to solve the crisis. A good leader has the courage to put together a team of people who make him look like the dumbest person in the room! I know that sounds counterintuitive. You want your leader to be the smartest person in the room - but if he acts as if he is, he won't get half the pushback he must get to make the best decisions.
4) The fourth characteristic is heavy-duty resilience. Every leader makes mistakes, every leader stumbles and falls. The question with a senior-level leader is, does she learn fro her mistakes, regroup, and then get going again with renewed speed, conviction, and confidence?
To Manage People Well, Companies Should...
1) Elevate HR to a position of power and primacy in the organization, and make sure HR people have the special qualities to help managers build leaders and careers. In fact, the best HR types are pastors and parents in the same package.
2) Use a rigorous, nonbureaucratic evaluation system, monitored for integrity with the same intensity as Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance.
3) Create effective mechanisms - read: money, recognition, and training - to motivate and retain.
4) Face straight into charged relationships - with unions, stars, sliders, and disrupters.
5) Fight gravity, and instead of taking the middle 70 percent for granted, treat them like the heart and soul of the organization.
6) Design the org chart to be as flat as possible, with blindingly clear reporting relationships and responsibilities.
Initiating Change
1) Attach every change initiative to a clear purpose or goal. Change for change's sake is stupid and enervating.
2) Hire and promote only true believers and get-on-with-it types.
3) Ferret out and get rid of resisters, even if their performance is satisfactory.
4) Look at car wrecks.
Anatomy of a Crisis: Plan of Action
Assumption 1) The problem is worse than it appears.
Assumption 2) There are no secrets in the world, and everyone will eventually find out everything.
Assumption 3) You and your organization's handling of the crisis will be portrayed in the worst possible light.
Assumption 4) There will be changes in processes and people. Almost no crisis ends without blood on the floor.
Assumption 5) The organization will survive, ultimately stronger for what happened.
Business Strategy
1) Come up with a big aha for your business - a smart, realistic, relatively fast way to gain sustainable competitive advantage.
2) Put the right people in the right jobs to drive the big aha forward,
3) Relentlessly seek out the best practices to achieve your big aha, whether inside or out, adapt them, and continually improve them.
Making Strategy Real: 5 Slides
Slide 1: What the Playing Field Looks Like Now
-Who are the competitors in this business, large and small, new and old?
-Who has what share, globally and in each market? Where do we fit in?
-What are the characteristics of this business? Is it commodity or high value or somewhere in between? Is it long cycle or short? Where is it on the growth curve? What are the drivers of profitability?
-What are the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor? How good are their products? How much does each one spend on R&D? How big is each sales force? How performance-driven is each culture?
-Who are this business's main customers, and how do they buy?
Slide 2: What the Competition Has Been Up To
-What has each competitor done in the past year to change the playing field?
-Has anyone introduced game-changing new products, new technologies, or a new distribution channel?
-Are there any new entrants, and what have they been up to in the past year?
Slide 3: What You've Been Up To
-What have you done in the past year to change the competitive playing field?
-Have you bought a company, introduced a new product, stolen a competitor's key salesperson, or licensed a new technology from a startup?
-Have you lost any competitive advantages that you once had - a great salesperson, a special product, a proprietary technology?
Slide 4: What's Around the Corner?
-What scares you most in the year ahead - what one or two things could a competitor do to nail you?
-What new products or technologies could your competitors launch that might change the game?
-What M&A deals would knock you off your feet?
Slide 5: What's Your Winning Move?
-What can you do to change the playing field - is it an acquisition, a new product, globalization?
-What can you do to make customers stick to you more than ever before and more than to anyone else?
Budgeting: A Better Way
-How can we beat last year's performance?
-What is our competition doing, and how can we beat them?
Compensation for individuals and businesses is not linked to performance against budget. It is linked primarily to performance against the prior year and against the competition, and takes real strategic opportunities and obstacles into account.
New Venture Guidelines
1) Spend plenty up front, and put the best, hungriest, and most passionate people in leadership roles.
2) Make an exaggerated commotion about the potential and importance of the new venture.
3) Err on the side of freedom; get off the new venture's back.
M&A Pitfalls (7) p. 220-1
Getting Promoted
-Deliver sensational performance, far beyond expectations, and at every opportunity, expand your job beyond its official boundaries.
-Don't make your boss use political capital in order to champion you.
-Manage your relationships with your subordinates with the same carefulness that you manage the one with your boss.
-Get on the radar screen by being an early champion of your company's major projects or initiatives.
-Search out and relish the input of lots of mentors, realizing that mentors don't always look like mentors.
-Have a positive attitude and spread it around.
-Don't let setbacks break your stride.
Work-Life Balance
1) Your boss's top priority is competitiveness. Of course he wants you to be happy, but only inasmuch as it helps the company win. In fact, if he is doing his job right, he is making your job so exciting that your personal life becomes a less compelling draw.
2) Most bosses are perfectly willing to accommodate work-life balance challenges if you have earned it with performance.
3) Bosses know that the work-life policies in the company brochure are mainly for recruiting purposes, and the real work-life arrangements are negotiated one-on-one in the context of a supportive culture, not in the context of "But the company says...!"
4) People who publicly struggle with work-life balance problems or continually turn to the company for help get pigeonholed as ambivalent, entitled, uncommitted, or incompetent - or all of the above.
5) Even the most accommodating bosses believe that work-life balance is your problem to solve. In fact, most of them know that there are really just a handful of effective strategies to do that, and they wish you would use them.
1) Candor gets more people in the conversation, and when you get more people in the conversation, to state the obvious,, you get idea rich. By that, I mean any more ideas get surfaced, discussed, pulled apart, and improved. Instead of everyone shutting down, everyone opens up and learns.
2) Candor generates speed. When ideas are in everyone's face, they can be debated rapidly, expanded and enhanced, and acted upon.
3) Candor cuts costs - lots - although you'll never be able to put a precise number on it. Just think how it eliminates meaningless meetings and b.s. reports that confirm what everyone already knows. Think of how candor replaces fancy PowerPoint slides and mind-numbing presentations and boring off-site conclaves with real conversations, whether they're about company strategy, a new product introduction, or someone's performance.
Differentiation
One of the main misunderstandings about differentiation is that is only about people. That's to miss half of it. Differentiation is a way to manage people and businesses.
Basically, differentiation holds that a company has two parts, software and hardware. Software is simple - it's your people. If you are a large company, your hardware is the different businesses in your portfolio. If you are smaller, your hardware is your product lines.
Every company has strong businesses or product lines and weak ones and some in between. Differentiation requires managers to know which is which and to invest accordingly. To do that, of course, you have to have a clear-cut definition of "strong." At GE, "strong" meant a business was No. 1 or No. 2 in its market. If it wasn't, the managers had to fix it, sell it, or as a last resort, close it. Other companies have different frameworks for investment decisions. They put their money and time only into businesses or product lines that promise double-digit sales growth, for instance. Or they invest only in business or product lines with a 15 percent (or better) discounted rate of return (DCRR).
Now let's talk about the more controversial topic, differentiation among people. It's a process that requires managers to assess their employees and separate them into three categories in terms of performance: top 20 percent, middle 70, and bottom 10. Then - and this is key - it requires managers to act on that distinction. I emphasize the word "act" because all managers naturally differentiate in their heads. But very few make it real.
When people differentiation is real, the top 20 percent of the employees are showered with bonuses, stock options, praise, love, training, and a variety of rewards to their pocketbooks and souls. There can be no mistaking the stars at a company that differentiates. They are the best, and they are treated that way.
The middle 70 percent are managed differently. This group is enormously valuable to any company; you simply cannot function without their skills, energy, and commitment. After all, they are the majority of your employees. And that's the major challenge, and risk, in 20-70-10 - keeping the middle 70 engaged and motivated.
That's why so much of managing the middle 70 is about training, positive feedback, and thoughtful goal setting. If individuals in this group have particular promise, they should be moved around among businesses and functions to increase their experience and knowledge and to test their leadership skills. To be clear, managing the middle 70 is not about keeping people out of the bottom 10. It is not about saving poor performers. That would be a bad investment decision. Rather, differentiation is about managers looking at the middle 70, identifying people with potential to move up, and cultivating them. But everyone in the middle 70 needs to be motivated and made to feel as if they truly belong. You do not want to lose the vast majority of your middle 70 - you want to improve them.
As for the bottom 10 percent in differentiation, there is no sugar-coating this - they have to go. That's more easily said than done. It's awful to fire people, but if you have a candid organization with clear performance expectations and a performance evaluation process, then people in the bottom 10 percent generally know who they are. When you tell them, they usually leave before you ask them to. No one wants to be in an organization where they aren't wanted. One of the best things about differentiation is that people in the bottom 10 percent of organizations often go on to successful careers at companies and in pursuits where they truly belong and where they can excel.
Work-Out
These were two- or three-day events held at GE sites around the world, patterned after New England town meetings. Groups of thirty to a hundred employees would come together with an outside facilitator to discuss better ways of doing things and how to eliminate some of the bureaucracy and roadblocks that were hindering them. The boss would be present at the beginning of each session, laying out the rationale for the Work-Out. He or she would also commit to two things: to give an on-the-spot yes or no to 75 percent of the recommendations that came out of the session, and to resolve the remaining 25 percent within 30 days. The boss would then disappear until the end of the session, so as not to stifle open discussion, returning only at the end to make good on his or her promise.
What Leaders Do
1) Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach, and build self-confidence.
2) Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it.
3) Leaders get into everyone's skin, exuding positive energy and optimism.
4) Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency, and credit.
5) Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls.
6) Leaders probe and push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions are answered with action.
7) Leaders inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example.
8) Leaders celebrate.
You have to evaluate - making sure the right people are in the right jobs, supporting and advancing those who are, and moving out those who are not.
You have to coach - guiding, critiquing, and helping people to improve their performance in every way.
You have to build self-confidence - pouring out encouragement, caring, and recognition. Self-confidence energizes, and it gives your people the courage to stretch, take risks, and achieve beyond their dreams. It is the fuel of winning teams.
Hiring Process Tips
Three Acid Tests
1) The first test is for integrity. People with integrity tell the truth, and they keep their word. They take responsibility for past actions, admit mistakes, and fix them. They know the laws of their country, industry, and company - both in letter and in spirit - and abide by them. They play to win the right way, by the rules. Does the person seem real? Does she openly admit mistakes? Does he talk about his life with equal measures of candor and discretion?
2) The second test is for intelligence. It means the candidate has a strong dose of intellectual curiosity, with a breadth of knowledge to work with or lead other smart people. Don't confuse education with intelligence.
3) The third ticket to the game is maturity. The individual can withstand the heat, handle stress and setbacks, and, alternatively, when those wonderful moments arise, enjoy success with equal parts of joy and humility. Mature people respect the emotions of others. They feel confident but are not arrogant. In fact, mature people usually have a sense of humor, especially about themselves.
The 4-E (and 1-P) Framework
1) The fist E is positive energy. We just talked about this characteristic in the chapter on leadership. It means the ability to go go go - to thrive on action and relish change. People with positive energy are generally extroverted and optimistic. They make conversation and friends easily. They start the day with enthusiasm and usually end it that way too, rarely seeming to tire in the middle. They don't complain about working hard; they love to work. They also love to play. People with positive energy just love life.
2) The second E is the ability to energize others. Positive energy is the ability to get other people revved up. People who energize can inspire their team to take on the impossible - and enjoy the hell out of doing it. In fact, people would arm wrestle for the chance to work with them. Now, energizing others is not just about giving Pattonesque speeches. It takes a deep knowledge of your business and strong persuasion skills to make a case that will galvanize others.
3) The third E is edge, the courage to make tough yes-or-no decisions. Look, the world is filled with gray. Anyone can look at an issue from every different angle. Some smart people can - and will - analyze those angles indefinitely. But effective people know when to stop assessing and make a tough call, even without total information. Little is worse than a manager at any level who can't cut bait, the type that always says, "Bring it back in a month and we'll take a good, hard look at it again," or that awful type that says yes to you, but then someone else comes into the room and changes his mind.
4) The fourth E is execute, the ability to get the job done. Maybe this fourth E seems obvious, but for a few years, there were just the first three Es. Thinking these traits were more than sufficient, we evaluated hundreds of people and labeled a slew of them "high-potentials," and moved many of them into managerial roles. In that period, I traveled to personnel review sessions in the field with GE's head of HR, Bill Conaty. At the review sessions, we would refer to a single page that had each manager's photo on it, along with his or her boss's performance review and three circles, one for each E. Each one of these Es would be colored in to represent how well the individual was doing. Then one Friday night after a weeklong trip to our midwestern businesses, Bill and I were flying back to headquarters, looking over page after page of high-potentials with three solidly colored-in circles. Bill turned to me. "You know, Jack, we're missing something," he said. "We have all these great people, but some of their results stink." What was missing was execution. It turns out you can have positive energy, energize everyone around you, make hard calls, and still not get over the finish line. Being able to execute is a special and distinct skill. It means a person knows how to put decisions into action and push them forward to completion, through resistance, chaos, or unexpected obstacles. People who can execute know that winning is about results.
5) If a candidate has the four Es, then you look for that final P - passion. By passion, I mean a heartfelt, deep, and authentic excitement about work. People with passion care - really care in their bones - about colleagues, employees, and friends winning. They love to learn and grow, and they get a huge kick when the people around them do the same. The funny thing about people with passion, though, is that they usually aren't excited just about work. They tend to be passionate about everything. They're sports trivia nuts or they're fanatical supporters of their alma mater or they're political junkies. Whatever - they just have juice for life in their veins.
Hiring for the Top
Sometimes you need to hire a senior-level leader, someone who is going to run a major division or an entire company. In that case, there are four more highly developed characteristics that really matter.
1) The first characteristic is authenticity. Why? It's simple. A person cannot make hard decisions, hold unpopular positions, or stand tall for what he believes unless he knows who he is and feels comfortable with that. I am talking about self-confidence and conviction. These traits make a leader bold and decisive, which is absolutely critical in times when you must act quickly. Just as important, authenticity makes leaders likable. Their "realness" comes across in the way they communicate and reach people on an emotional level. Their words move them; their message touches something inside.
2) The second characteristic is the ability to see around corners. Every leader has to have a vision and the ability to predict the future, but good leaders must have a special capacity to anticipate the radically unexpected. In business, the leaders in brutally competitive environments have a sixth sense for market changes, as well as moves by existing competitors and new entrants.
3) The third characteristic is a strong penchant to surround themselves with people better and smarter than they are. Every time we had a crisis at GE, I would quickly assemble a group of the smartest, gutsiest people I could find at any level from within the company and sometimes from without, and lean on them heavily for their knowledge and advice. I would make sure everyone in the room came at the problem from a different angle, and then i would have us all wallow in the information as we worked to solve the crisis. A good leader has the courage to put together a team of people who make him look like the dumbest person in the room! I know that sounds counterintuitive. You want your leader to be the smartest person in the room - but if he acts as if he is, he won't get half the pushback he must get to make the best decisions.
4) The fourth characteristic is heavy-duty resilience. Every leader makes mistakes, every leader stumbles and falls. The question with a senior-level leader is, does she learn fro her mistakes, regroup, and then get going again with renewed speed, conviction, and confidence?
To Manage People Well, Companies Should...
1) Elevate HR to a position of power and primacy in the organization, and make sure HR people have the special qualities to help managers build leaders and careers. In fact, the best HR types are pastors and parents in the same package.
2) Use a rigorous, nonbureaucratic evaluation system, monitored for integrity with the same intensity as Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance.
3) Create effective mechanisms - read: money, recognition, and training - to motivate and retain.
4) Face straight into charged relationships - with unions, stars, sliders, and disrupters.
5) Fight gravity, and instead of taking the middle 70 percent for granted, treat them like the heart and soul of the organization.
6) Design the org chart to be as flat as possible, with blindingly clear reporting relationships and responsibilities.
Initiating Change
1) Attach every change initiative to a clear purpose or goal. Change for change's sake is stupid and enervating.
2) Hire and promote only true believers and get-on-with-it types.
3) Ferret out and get rid of resisters, even if their performance is satisfactory.
4) Look at car wrecks.
Anatomy of a Crisis: Plan of Action
Assumption 1) The problem is worse than it appears.
Assumption 2) There are no secrets in the world, and everyone will eventually find out everything.
Assumption 3) You and your organization's handling of the crisis will be portrayed in the worst possible light.
Assumption 4) There will be changes in processes and people. Almost no crisis ends without blood on the floor.
Assumption 5) The organization will survive, ultimately stronger for what happened.
Business Strategy
1) Come up with a big aha for your business - a smart, realistic, relatively fast way to gain sustainable competitive advantage.
2) Put the right people in the right jobs to drive the big aha forward,
3) Relentlessly seek out the best practices to achieve your big aha, whether inside or out, adapt them, and continually improve them.
Making Strategy Real: 5 Slides
Slide 1: What the Playing Field Looks Like Now
-Who are the competitors in this business, large and small, new and old?
-Who has what share, globally and in each market? Where do we fit in?
-What are the characteristics of this business? Is it commodity or high value or somewhere in between? Is it long cycle or short? Where is it on the growth curve? What are the drivers of profitability?
-What are the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor? How good are their products? How much does each one spend on R&D? How big is each sales force? How performance-driven is each culture?
-Who are this business's main customers, and how do they buy?
Slide 2: What the Competition Has Been Up To
-What has each competitor done in the past year to change the playing field?
-Has anyone introduced game-changing new products, new technologies, or a new distribution channel?
-Are there any new entrants, and what have they been up to in the past year?
Slide 3: What You've Been Up To
-What have you done in the past year to change the competitive playing field?
-Have you bought a company, introduced a new product, stolen a competitor's key salesperson, or licensed a new technology from a startup?
-Have you lost any competitive advantages that you once had - a great salesperson, a special product, a proprietary technology?
Slide 4: What's Around the Corner?
-What scares you most in the year ahead - what one or two things could a competitor do to nail you?
-What new products or technologies could your competitors launch that might change the game?
-What M&A deals would knock you off your feet?
Slide 5: What's Your Winning Move?
-What can you do to change the playing field - is it an acquisition, a new product, globalization?
-What can you do to make customers stick to you more than ever before and more than to anyone else?
Budgeting: A Better Way
-How can we beat last year's performance?
-What is our competition doing, and how can we beat them?
Compensation for individuals and businesses is not linked to performance against budget. It is linked primarily to performance against the prior year and against the competition, and takes real strategic opportunities and obstacles into account.
New Venture Guidelines
1) Spend plenty up front, and put the best, hungriest, and most passionate people in leadership roles.
2) Make an exaggerated commotion about the potential and importance of the new venture.
3) Err on the side of freedom; get off the new venture's back.
M&A Pitfalls (7) p. 220-1
Getting Promoted
-Deliver sensational performance, far beyond expectations, and at every opportunity, expand your job beyond its official boundaries.
-Don't make your boss use political capital in order to champion you.
-Manage your relationships with your subordinates with the same carefulness that you manage the one with your boss.
-Get on the radar screen by being an early champion of your company's major projects or initiatives.
-Search out and relish the input of lots of mentors, realizing that mentors don't always look like mentors.
-Have a positive attitude and spread it around.
-Don't let setbacks break your stride.
Work-Life Balance
1) Your boss's top priority is competitiveness. Of course he wants you to be happy, but only inasmuch as it helps the company win. In fact, if he is doing his job right, he is making your job so exciting that your personal life becomes a less compelling draw.
2) Most bosses are perfectly willing to accommodate work-life balance challenges if you have earned it with performance.
3) Bosses know that the work-life policies in the company brochure are mainly for recruiting purposes, and the real work-life arrangements are negotiated one-on-one in the context of a supportive culture, not in the context of "But the company says...!"
4) People who publicly struggle with work-life balance problems or continually turn to the company for help get pigeonholed as ambivalent, entitled, uncommitted, or incompetent - or all of the above.
5) Even the most accommodating bosses believe that work-life balance is your problem to solve. In fact, most of them know that there are really just a handful of effective strategies to do that, and they wish you would use them.
October 21, 2012
This book came in a goodie bag in a new job orientation class. No prizes for guessing which company that was for! Jack W. has a hard lined approach to management. The biggest takeaway from this book is Welch's philosophy: GE doesn't hire the brightest because they don't buy his bulldozer style. GE hires those who are driven, ambitious and determined to succeed with grit, tenacity and unquestioning subordination to the GE way of life.
Welch managed GE in an era where American manufacturing led the country's economic growth. Earnings grew consistently at double digits every year. The GE Jeff Immelt inherited after Welch operated at a much more challenging and complex environment. Different times call for different management styles.
Welch's management philosophy worked well in the 80s-90s. Today's GE is banking on industrial innovation (i.e. wind energy, healthcare technology) and financial services. It's a paradigm shift and the company would need to loosen up the Welch era of rigid management style to promote more nimble and responsive units within the organisation that can respond quickly to changing market dynamics and promote a culture of business innovation.
Welch managed GE in an era where American manufacturing led the country's economic growth. Earnings grew consistently at double digits every year. The GE Jeff Immelt inherited after Welch operated at a much more challenging and complex environment. Different times call for different management styles.
Welch's management philosophy worked well in the 80s-90s. Today's GE is banking on industrial innovation (i.e. wind energy, healthcare technology) and financial services. It's a paradigm shift and the company would need to loosen up the Welch era of rigid management style to promote more nimble and responsive units within the organisation that can respond quickly to changing market dynamics and promote a culture of business innovation.
June 9, 2015
Wide-ranging business advice from someone who was very successful over the course of his career. Topics include performance reviews, mergers and acquisitions, strategy, budgeting, hiring, and firing.
My favorite part was the bit about building trust in the organization through candor. In social life we've learned to be polite, not be critical of others, etc. In business you have to be honest, direct, and straight-forward with people, especially when you have critical feedback for them. In a word, candor.
Unlike other books on business, this was not a meta-review of many great businesses (e.g. "Good to Great") or a consultant trying to peddle their wares (most of them). It's just a guy telling you what worked for him, and your mileage may vary.
My favorite part was the bit about building trust in the organization through candor. In social life we've learned to be polite, not be critical of others, etc. In business you have to be honest, direct, and straight-forward with people, especially when you have critical feedback for them. In a word, candor.
Unlike other books on business, this was not a meta-review of many great businesses (e.g. "Good to Great") or a consultant trying to peddle their wares (most of them). It's just a guy telling you what worked for him, and your mileage may vary.
November 14, 2010
This book is the heart of HR department, great book would give you some hits and ways to evaluate and choose your career. Nevertheless , Jack exaggerates the importuning of HR which is not the reality. Read Winning the Answers book as added value on top of the Winning book.
كتاب ممتاز ، اعتبره قلب قسم إدارة الموارد البشرية ، فيه بعض النصائح والإرشادات عن تقييم الوضع الحالي و المستقبلي للموظف
مال الكاتب إلى تضخيم أهميه وظيفية إدارة الموارد البشريه في قيادة الشركة ، مما أتوقع انه ليس واقعيا، حبيت الكتيب -
winning the answers
كتاب ممتاز ، اعتبره قلب قسم إدارة الموارد البشرية ، فيه بعض النصائح والإرشادات عن تقييم الوضع الحالي و المستقبلي للموظف
مال الكاتب إلى تضخيم أهميه وظيفية إدارة الموارد البشريه في قيادة الشركة ، مما أتوقع انه ليس واقعيا، حبيت الكتيب -
winning the answers
May 10, 2015
Хорошие и очень ценные уроки от одного из лучших топ-менеджеров мира.
Уэлч в свое время вытянул из кризиса компанию General Electric и сделал её одной из самых успешных в мире (с 1981 по 2001 гг., общая стоимость корпорации возросла в 30 раз - с 14 до почти 400 миллиардов долларов. General Electric стала второй компанией по прибыльности в мире). Теперь Джек ушёл на заслуженный отдых и делится своим богатым опытом со всеми кому это интересно и необходимо.
Хорошая книга и сам автор достоин уважения.
Уэлч в свое время вытянул из кризиса компанию General Electric и сделал её одной из самых успешных в мире (с 1981 по 2001 гг., общая стоимость корпорации возросла в 30 раз - с 14 до почти 400 миллиардов долларов. General Electric стала второй компанией по прибыльности в мире). Теперь Джек ушёл на заслуженный отдых и делится своим богатым опытом со всеми кому это интересно и необходимо.
Хорошая книга и сам автор достоин уважения.
May 12, 2011
When compared the the business books that claim to have a magic formula that applies to any business, person or situation, the opinionated perspective of one guy and his experience was a welcome relief. I admit, when I first started the book, the abrasive tone and grating voice of the author was offputting--I didn't think I was going to get through much. However, it wasn't long before I forgot all about the audio experience and became engrossed in the material.
Even at the times when I felt that the author was being harsh or I flat-out disagreed with the content, I could recognize the merit behind the underlying points. More often though I found the insights spot-on, and I often found that I had tuned out of the book because it got my mind racing in terms of how it applies to my situations. (Ironically, something that rarely happens with the "formula for success" type books.)
The book was packed with hard-earned wisdom from a lifetime of business and management experience. I finished the book feeling that I had gotten a lot for the time I spent on it.
Even at the times when I felt that the author was being harsh or I flat-out disagreed with the content, I could recognize the merit behind the underlying points. More often though I found the insights spot-on, and I often found that I had tuned out of the book because it got my mind racing in terms of how it applies to my situations. (Ironically, something that rarely happens with the "formula for success" type books.)
The book was packed with hard-earned wisdom from a lifetime of business and management experience. I finished the book feeling that I had gotten a lot for the time I spent on it.
Read
August 29, 20131. The HR Director must be at least as important as the CFO
2. Mismatch between mission statement and business- Enron Auditing vs Enron Consultancy
3.The GE Work-Out!!
4.Divide every organization into the top 20, middle 70 & bottom 10 percent. Treat the stars well- heavy bonuses, fat compensation & benefits, but let them stay grounded. Motivate the middle 70 percent to improve- they are your backbone and indispensable. Work towards slowly replacing the bottom 10.
5.The best place to be boss is when the people around you are smarter than you are. Doesn't mean you can't lead them
6.Firing- no surprise (frequent open formal & informal appraisals) & no humiliation (build his self confidence and make as much of a 'soft landing' as possible
7. In face of mergers- Look for a economic and most importantly, a cultural fit. Don't be held reverse hostage
8.Work-life balance is all about trading off. People with higher reserves of 'chits' can use them for benefits.
2. Mismatch between mission statement and business- Enron Auditing vs Enron Consultancy
3.The GE Work-Out!!
4.Divide every organization into the top 20, middle 70 & bottom 10 percent. Treat the stars well- heavy bonuses, fat compensation & benefits, but let them stay grounded. Motivate the middle 70 percent to improve- they are your backbone and indispensable. Work towards slowly replacing the bottom 10.
5.The best place to be boss is when the people around you are smarter than you are. Doesn't mean you can't lead them
6.Firing- no surprise (frequent open formal & informal appraisals) & no humiliation (build his self confidence and make as much of a 'soft landing' as possible
7. In face of mergers- Look for a economic and most importantly, a cultural fit. Don't be held reverse hostage
8.Work-life balance is all about trading off. People with higher reserves of 'chits' can use them for benefits.
August 17, 2018
I have really enjoyed this book. Great read for just about anyone. Especially if you are in a leadership role.
This book offers the reader a distinct opportunity to 'read and learn' directly from someone who sacrificed, fought through major personal challenges, and not only made a tremendous impact on a company, but also had tremendous impact on a countless of personal careers, not to mention, made a fortune by applying his fierce management strategies.If you desire a prosperous career, make this book part of your arsenal of knowledge.
Winning is an attitude, it is preparation, it is application, and then, managing and doing what is necessary to succeed. This is such a powerful book of information, motivation, and most of all, business knowledge.
This book offers the reader a distinct opportunity to 'read and learn' directly from someone who sacrificed, fought through major personal challenges, and not only made a tremendous impact on a company, but also had tremendous impact on a countless of personal careers, not to mention, made a fortune by applying his fierce management strategies.If you desire a prosperous career, make this book part of your arsenal of knowledge.
Winning is an attitude, it is preparation, it is application, and then, managing and doing what is necessary to succeed. This is such a powerful book of information, motivation, and most of all, business knowledge.
November 25, 2010
I would recommend this book to anyone no matter if you are a business person or not. I really loved this book and kept talking to Shawn about it. I think his theories can apply to everyone in whatever they are doing in life. I kept thinking about the characteristics of a "winning person" and what I can do to improve. Basically his take home message is that a "winning person" is one who helps others succeed in life. What a great message. He gives lots of great practical advice for self-improvement.
September 24, 2014
A few pages into the book I was shocked at how American this book is. If employees don't deliver, get rid of them is one of the messages. If business units don't deliver (are number 1 or 2 in their sectors), shut them down. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this advice, it's just very difficult to implement. Not that I've had to, as of yet. Anywhow, Welch has been very succesful throughout his career and this book is his concise take on business. There is definitely constructive input to be had from this book, even for Scandinavians.
February 26, 2016
(Although a bit dated) This book is a good read on how to deal with -nearly- everything regarding business life. The author, being an experienced and also a well-known business leader, shares a ton of advice on corporate matters.
It was in 2006 when I first read this book, taking pages and pages of personal notes at the time. Today, I've passed through those notes (22 pages of personal notes in total -- I could not believe myself for those fabulous notes). In addition, I've made some partial reading from the book on topics that are relevant to my current business conditions.
It was in 2006 when I first read this book, taking pages and pages of personal notes at the time. Today, I've passed through those notes (22 pages of personal notes in total -- I could not believe myself for those fabulous notes). In addition, I've made some partial reading from the book on topics that are relevant to my current business conditions.
November 30, 2017
I was really surprised about how much I enjoyed this book. Straight forward, practical, no bs management book. Covers everything from leading people to setting budgets.
He isn’t afraid to disagree with contemporary corporate fluff, which takes a bit to adjust to—but you gain an appreciation for it. His primary philosophy is that organisations should be a meritocracy and cuts out anything that interferes with that.
He isn’t afraid to disagree with contemporary corporate fluff, which takes a bit to adjust to—but you gain an appreciation for it. His primary philosophy is that organisations should be a meritocracy and cuts out anything that interferes with that.
February 6, 2014
Easy to read, extremely useful and full of practical advises you'd like to apply once you read them. This is a must read directional guide not only for former executives, but also for those who are going to be a leader. Author enreached his book with plenty of stories and real life examples illustrating each advise or principle.
June 5, 2018
The book has a lot of great insights (and even more anecdotes). I think I picked the book up at the right time for me. It wouldn't have added much value if I had read it earlier in my career.
I'll suggest picking up this book when strategy, governance, and recruiting of seniors is a recurring pattern on your to-do list.
I'll suggest picking up this book when strategy, governance, and recruiting of seniors is a recurring pattern on your to-do list.
February 22, 2009
...Shall be read along with The Lexus and The Olive Tree-Thomas Friedman.
"Despite all the flags on First Avenue, there are no nations any more. Only companies. lnternational companies. lt's where we are. lt's what we are" - Kuman-Kuman from scene of "The Interpreter"
"Despite all the flags on First Avenue, there are no nations any more. Only companies. lnternational companies. lt's where we are. lt's what we are" - Kuman-Kuman from scene of "The Interpreter"
Read
April 29, 2012The journey of Jack Welsh in GE inspired me a lot to start up my own business, moreover I started my MBA after reading this book.
I recommend the book for all those who think of starting a business or being a future executive
I recommend the book for all those who think of starting a business or being a future executive
September 22, 2017
Polecam wszystkim początkującym adeptom sztuki zarządzania, są przeleciane w niej praktycznie wszystkie 'najgrubsze' tematy: Misja, zatrudnianie, etc. Bedzie dobre jako pierwsza ksiazka o zarzadzaniu w ogole.
January 7, 2023
Every company should have a vision and a mission clarified to the employees of the company and not just add it to the brochure or website of the company.
Values also are one of the most important ways you add to the company. Invest in the people, their education, and their improvement.
Honesty, and how to make honesty one of the most important things you make.
Mission and Values
According to the author Jack Welch in his book "Winning", the first step for those who want to win is to have their mission well defined, it must encompass exactly how you will win the challenge. Having clearly defined the path to be taken, decision-making becomes faster and more accurate.
In addition to the mission, another point needs to be well defined, the values. They are the necessary and acceptable behaviours for the established mission to be achieved.
Thus defined, both your mission and values must be able to impact all members of your team. With that, it is necessary to recognize those who are engaged and it is even the case to dismiss those who do not buy the idea.
Frankness
For Jack Welch, frankness is considered the biggest secret to success.
Well, let's explain why it's so important.
In order to achieve success, your company must have great ideas, right? But do you agree that it can't just come from leaders and directors?
It has to come from everyone in the organization. According to the word "Winning":
"Lack of openness blocks smart ideas slows down quick action and prevents capable people from contributing to their full potential. It is devastating."
Thus, when it is part of our business, it is possible to give people the freedom to say what they really believe, making them contribute to the development of the organization.
The 3 key points that frankness contributes to are:
Bring more people to talk, making ideas clearer and richer;
Increase speed;
Reduce costs.
Great! But how can we achieve frankness?
Jack explains:
"To be frank, it is necessary to praise, reward and talk about it. Above all, it is important to demonstrate it in an exuberant and even exaggerated way."
Keep in mind that consolidating these behaviours is quite profound, making the process difficult and time-consuming.
Differentiation
All human beings are different, and so are your employees. Thus, in order to reach the best of your team, it is necessary to be different from them too.
Thus, one of the solutions found by the author was to use the meritocracy system, adhering to the 20-70-10 management model. It consists of the every year:
Reward 20% of employees (those with high performance);
Keep 70% of employees (those with average performance);
Dismiss 10% of employees (those with the worst performance).
According to Jack Welch in "Winning", this is not the perfect system, but it is the one that generated the greatest results throughout his journey.
Overview: Your Company
Leadership
When you take a leadership role, your attitudes and behaviours are required to be transformed. After all, success now depends on the growth of others, and you are responsible for bringing it to them.
For you to manage your team, there is no cake recipe. Because each leader has a different way of leading his team, each one has a list of leadership rules that works.
So the author Jack Welch tells you to build your rules and stick to them. During his experiences with GE, he used 8 rules and says that he believed it was the right way to lead in all his contexts. The rules are:
Leaders are relentless in improving the team, using all meetings as opportunities to assess, train and reinforce self-confidence;
Leaders strive to make people not only understand the vision but also experience and breathe it;
Leaders put themselves in everyone's shoes, exuding positive energy and optimism;
Leaders earn trust with frankness, transparency, and recognition of the merits of others;
Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and act on instinct;
The leaders question and instigate, by means of a constant curiosity that approaches skepticism, striving for their questions to be answered with action;
Leaders inspire risk-taking and constant learning, setting an example;
Leaders celebrate.
Staff Selection
In this part, we will understand how to put the right players on the pitch.
Know that friendship and experience are not enough to make you successful. Many other attributes are needed, after all it is an extremely important stage and presents a high degree of difficulty.
The author Jack Welch tells us in his book "Winning" that, in order to get great people in certain roles, he used two strategies:
The first strategy is called "The evidence of the nine":
Integrity test: people with integrity tell the truth and keep their promises. They take responsibility for their past actions, admit their mistakes and are corrected;
Intelligence test: the candidate must be endowed with a strong intellectual curiosity, with sufficient knowledge to work in the desired sector;
Maturity test: the ability to face situations of suffocation, to deal with stress and setbacks and, in the opposite direction, in those wonderful moments of enjoying success with the same dose of pride and humility.
The second strategy is based on the 4-E (and 1-P) model:
Energy: they are optimistic and positive people, they have a taste for life and work;
Energization: they have the capacity to inspire the team and accept great challenges;
Edge: they have the courage to make difficult decisions, even with low resources;
Execution: people who finish their tasks effectively and withstand any obstacle on the way;
Passion: they are people with great interest in your company and are happy and motivated with the team's achievements and learning in general.
People Management
Now that you have the right players on the field, it's time to manage them in order to get a winning team. With that, the author Jack Welch presents us with some people management practices, which are:
Raise HR to a position of power and primacy in the organization and ensure that HR personnel have special qualities to help managers build leaders and careers;
Use rigorous, non-bureaucratic assessment systems that emphasize, above all, personal integrity, with high rigor;
Create effective mechanisms (money, recognition and training) to motivate and retain staff;
Facing difficult relationships - with unions, with stars, with decadents and with troublemakers;
Fight gravity, and instead of treating 70% of the environment as a mass that follows the current, consider them the heart and soul of the organization;
Draw organization charts as horizontally as possible, with blinding clarity in subordinate relationships and assignment definitions.
Taking advantage of the fact that we are talking about hiring, let's talk about the reverse now, the layoffs. Do you know when to and how to properly resign?
Jack suggests in his book "Winning" that employees who are incompetent, perform poorly and violate company rules should not be part of the team.
The termination announcement should come as no surprise, as you will have already given the employee several feedbacks.
Change
Change is something that creates confusion and some disagreements, but it is essential for your business to be a winner.
To this end, the author Jack Welch says that everyone should understand the real reason for the change. In addition, in order for this process to become simplified, he revealed the 4 practices he uses:
Tie all change initiatives to a clear purpose or objective. Change just for the sake of transformation is stupid and irritating;
Hire and promote only convinced believers and types willing to change;
Eradicate and discard opponents, even if their performance is satisfactory;
Keep an eye out for road accidents (seize opportunities and learn from others' failures).
Overview: The Competitors
Strategy
Have you ever stopped to think about what a strategy really is?
Well, author Jack Welch tell us that:
"It means making clear choices about how to compete. You can't be everything for everyone, no matter the size of the business or the depth of your side."
Therefore, it can be understood as a real game, which must be fast and full of life. And for you to be victorious in this game, see the 3 steps covered in the book "Winning" that Jack uses to develop his strategies:
Create a great business idea, one that is smart, realistic and has a quick competitive advantage;
Selecting the right people for each function, this combination will speed up your idea;
Adopt the best practices to execute the idea and adapt them to the current internal and external context of the company.
In short, the strategy consists of finding the idea and creating the complete track, having the best people on your team, having one execution after another and finally, always focusing on continuous improvement.
Organic Growth
Growth is important in any business and at any time, especially when carried out organically.
For this, you will only be successful if you choose the best people and not those who are unoccupied, in addition to being motivated and grabbing this opportunity tooth and nail.
Remember too that you must provide all the necessary resources for growth to occur.
Finally, I leave with you the 3 guidelines presented by author Jack Welch and that contribute to this stage:
Spend enough at the beginning and assign the most capable, hungry and passionate people to leadership roles;
Exaggerate in the exaltation about the potential and importance of the new enterprise;
To err for excess of freedom; do not stay at the foot of the enterprise.
Overview: Your Career
The Right Job
Finding the right job is very satisfying, after all, doing what you like ends up not being a job, but a fun one.
However, according to the book "Winning", to find the ideal job, you will spend a lot of time and effort, as you need to qualify for your role.
Thus, it is necessary to strive and give your best, after all, the better you are, the greater the chance of finding the job you dreamed of.
Get Promoted
For you to be successful, you must want, and want a lot! After all, there is no such thing as "luck", you are the one who creates your opportunities.
See which practices you should start to perform and which ones you should abolish from your routine, so that you reach the desired position, based on the perspective of Jack Welch in his work "Winning":
Produce sensational results, well beyond expectations, and in every opportunity expand your position beyond the established borders;
Do not induce your boss to use political capital to boost you;
Manage your relationships with subordinates with the same care that you manage your relationships with your boss;
Have positive attitudes and spread them around you;
Do not allow obstacles to impede your progress;
Look for and enjoy the contributions of many mentors;
Be one of the first defenders of the company's main projects and initiatives.
Work-life Balance
One of the most difficult things in today's world is time management and staying focused, isn't it?
In your daily life, there will be thousands of distractions and various time saboteurs.
But you need to know how to allocate your family and work time well, time at work has to be 100% focused on it, and family time has to be 100% focused on family, that is, we have to keep focused in the game we're in right now.
Another point explained by the author Jack Welch in the book "Winning" is having enough capacity to say "no" to everything that doesn't fit your work-life purpose, after all, there are many things that just want to divert you from your objectives and add nothing.
Getting it to achieve all that balance is a time-consuming process and continuous repetition. Finally, remember that this balance must contribute to your happiness.
What do other authors say about it?
In the book "Sonho Grande", Cristiane Correa complements the idea of strategic planning and emphasizes the importance of maintaining a process of continuous improvement to achieve goals.
These ideas were inspired by the visions of the trio of wealthiest entrepreneurs in Brazil. In addition, the trio considers that risks are essential to achieve extraordinary results, they already said that the greatest risk is not taking any risks.
In the book "Managing Tomorrow", the authors Sandro Magaldi and José Salibi Neto suggest that we use two engines of growth. Engine 1 is responsible for day to day and billing, making the company focus on its current operation. Engine 2 is what drives the company to focus on the future.
With this, we intend to align the continuous improvement of engine 1 with the disruptive innovation of engine 2.
Finally, in the bestseller "Good to Great", renowned author Jim Collins also addresses the importance of putting the right people in the right places.
Like Jack Welch, he believes that it is necessary to bring together the skilled people first and only then to formulate the right strategy. In addition, he says the right people are a company's greatest asset.
Okay, but how can I apply this to my life?
At this point, you already have the key insights needed to win. In this journey in search of success, it is essential that you keep your goal clear, with a lot of focus and persistence.
To recap the purposes of Jack Welch, for you to achieve victory, it is necessary that you understand:
Your mission tells you how you can win, and your values demonstrate what you have to get there;
Try different jobs until you find the one that most fits with your goals;
Deliver excellent results, do not be a rock in your boss's shoe;
Understand that crises can happen. Take the worst problem and try to get the best lesson.
Values also are one of the most important ways you add to the company. Invest in the people, their education, and their improvement.
Honesty, and how to make honesty one of the most important things you make.
Mission and Values
According to the author Jack Welch in his book "Winning", the first step for those who want to win is to have their mission well defined, it must encompass exactly how you will win the challenge. Having clearly defined the path to be taken, decision-making becomes faster and more accurate.
In addition to the mission, another point needs to be well defined, the values. They are the necessary and acceptable behaviours for the established mission to be achieved.
Thus defined, both your mission and values must be able to impact all members of your team. With that, it is necessary to recognize those who are engaged and it is even the case to dismiss those who do not buy the idea.
Frankness
For Jack Welch, frankness is considered the biggest secret to success.
Well, let's explain why it's so important.
In order to achieve success, your company must have great ideas, right? But do you agree that it can't just come from leaders and directors?
It has to come from everyone in the organization. According to the word "Winning":
"Lack of openness blocks smart ideas slows down quick action and prevents capable people from contributing to their full potential. It is devastating."
Thus, when it is part of our business, it is possible to give people the freedom to say what they really believe, making them contribute to the development of the organization.
The 3 key points that frankness contributes to are:
Bring more people to talk, making ideas clearer and richer;
Increase speed;
Reduce costs.
Great! But how can we achieve frankness?
Jack explains:
"To be frank, it is necessary to praise, reward and talk about it. Above all, it is important to demonstrate it in an exuberant and even exaggerated way."
Keep in mind that consolidating these behaviours is quite profound, making the process difficult and time-consuming.
Differentiation
All human beings are different, and so are your employees. Thus, in order to reach the best of your team, it is necessary to be different from them too.
Thus, one of the solutions found by the author was to use the meritocracy system, adhering to the 20-70-10 management model. It consists of the every year:
Reward 20% of employees (those with high performance);
Keep 70% of employees (those with average performance);
Dismiss 10% of employees (those with the worst performance).
According to Jack Welch in "Winning", this is not the perfect system, but it is the one that generated the greatest results throughout his journey.
Overview: Your Company
Leadership
When you take a leadership role, your attitudes and behaviours are required to be transformed. After all, success now depends on the growth of others, and you are responsible for bringing it to them.
For you to manage your team, there is no cake recipe. Because each leader has a different way of leading his team, each one has a list of leadership rules that works.
So the author Jack Welch tells you to build your rules and stick to them. During his experiences with GE, he used 8 rules and says that he believed it was the right way to lead in all his contexts. The rules are:
Leaders are relentless in improving the team, using all meetings as opportunities to assess, train and reinforce self-confidence;
Leaders strive to make people not only understand the vision but also experience and breathe it;
Leaders put themselves in everyone's shoes, exuding positive energy and optimism;
Leaders earn trust with frankness, transparency, and recognition of the merits of others;
Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and act on instinct;
The leaders question and instigate, by means of a constant curiosity that approaches skepticism, striving for their questions to be answered with action;
Leaders inspire risk-taking and constant learning, setting an example;
Leaders celebrate.
Staff Selection
In this part, we will understand how to put the right players on the pitch.
Know that friendship and experience are not enough to make you successful. Many other attributes are needed, after all it is an extremely important stage and presents a high degree of difficulty.
The author Jack Welch tells us in his book "Winning" that, in order to get great people in certain roles, he used two strategies:
The first strategy is called "The evidence of the nine":
Integrity test: people with integrity tell the truth and keep their promises. They take responsibility for their past actions, admit their mistakes and are corrected;
Intelligence test: the candidate must be endowed with a strong intellectual curiosity, with sufficient knowledge to work in the desired sector;
Maturity test: the ability to face situations of suffocation, to deal with stress and setbacks and, in the opposite direction, in those wonderful moments of enjoying success with the same dose of pride and humility.
The second strategy is based on the 4-E (and 1-P) model:
Energy: they are optimistic and positive people, they have a taste for life and work;
Energization: they have the capacity to inspire the team and accept great challenges;
Edge: they have the courage to make difficult decisions, even with low resources;
Execution: people who finish their tasks effectively and withstand any obstacle on the way;
Passion: they are people with great interest in your company and are happy and motivated with the team's achievements and learning in general.
People Management
Now that you have the right players on the field, it's time to manage them in order to get a winning team. With that, the author Jack Welch presents us with some people management practices, which are:
Raise HR to a position of power and primacy in the organization and ensure that HR personnel have special qualities to help managers build leaders and careers;
Use rigorous, non-bureaucratic assessment systems that emphasize, above all, personal integrity, with high rigor;
Create effective mechanisms (money, recognition and training) to motivate and retain staff;
Facing difficult relationships - with unions, with stars, with decadents and with troublemakers;
Fight gravity, and instead of treating 70% of the environment as a mass that follows the current, consider them the heart and soul of the organization;
Draw organization charts as horizontally as possible, with blinding clarity in subordinate relationships and assignment definitions.
Taking advantage of the fact that we are talking about hiring, let's talk about the reverse now, the layoffs. Do you know when to and how to properly resign?
Jack suggests in his book "Winning" that employees who are incompetent, perform poorly and violate company rules should not be part of the team.
The termination announcement should come as no surprise, as you will have already given the employee several feedbacks.
Change
Change is something that creates confusion and some disagreements, but it is essential for your business to be a winner.
To this end, the author Jack Welch says that everyone should understand the real reason for the change. In addition, in order for this process to become simplified, he revealed the 4 practices he uses:
Tie all change initiatives to a clear purpose or objective. Change just for the sake of transformation is stupid and irritating;
Hire and promote only convinced believers and types willing to change;
Eradicate and discard opponents, even if their performance is satisfactory;
Keep an eye out for road accidents (seize opportunities and learn from others' failures).
Overview: The Competitors
Strategy
Have you ever stopped to think about what a strategy really is?
Well, author Jack Welch tell us that:
"It means making clear choices about how to compete. You can't be everything for everyone, no matter the size of the business or the depth of your side."
Therefore, it can be understood as a real game, which must be fast and full of life. And for you to be victorious in this game, see the 3 steps covered in the book "Winning" that Jack uses to develop his strategies:
Create a great business idea, one that is smart, realistic and has a quick competitive advantage;
Selecting the right people for each function, this combination will speed up your idea;
Adopt the best practices to execute the idea and adapt them to the current internal and external context of the company.
In short, the strategy consists of finding the idea and creating the complete track, having the best people on your team, having one execution after another and finally, always focusing on continuous improvement.
Organic Growth
Growth is important in any business and at any time, especially when carried out organically.
For this, you will only be successful if you choose the best people and not those who are unoccupied, in addition to being motivated and grabbing this opportunity tooth and nail.
Remember too that you must provide all the necessary resources for growth to occur.
Finally, I leave with you the 3 guidelines presented by author Jack Welch and that contribute to this stage:
Spend enough at the beginning and assign the most capable, hungry and passionate people to leadership roles;
Exaggerate in the exaltation about the potential and importance of the new enterprise;
To err for excess of freedom; do not stay at the foot of the enterprise.
Overview: Your Career
The Right Job
Finding the right job is very satisfying, after all, doing what you like ends up not being a job, but a fun one.
However, according to the book "Winning", to find the ideal job, you will spend a lot of time and effort, as you need to qualify for your role.
Thus, it is necessary to strive and give your best, after all, the better you are, the greater the chance of finding the job you dreamed of.
Get Promoted
For you to be successful, you must want, and want a lot! After all, there is no such thing as "luck", you are the one who creates your opportunities.
See which practices you should start to perform and which ones you should abolish from your routine, so that you reach the desired position, based on the perspective of Jack Welch in his work "Winning":
Produce sensational results, well beyond expectations, and in every opportunity expand your position beyond the established borders;
Do not induce your boss to use political capital to boost you;
Manage your relationships with subordinates with the same care that you manage your relationships with your boss;
Have positive attitudes and spread them around you;
Do not allow obstacles to impede your progress;
Look for and enjoy the contributions of many mentors;
Be one of the first defenders of the company's main projects and initiatives.
Work-life Balance
One of the most difficult things in today's world is time management and staying focused, isn't it?
In your daily life, there will be thousands of distractions and various time saboteurs.
But you need to know how to allocate your family and work time well, time at work has to be 100% focused on it, and family time has to be 100% focused on family, that is, we have to keep focused in the game we're in right now.
Another point explained by the author Jack Welch in the book "Winning" is having enough capacity to say "no" to everything that doesn't fit your work-life purpose, after all, there are many things that just want to divert you from your objectives and add nothing.
Getting it to achieve all that balance is a time-consuming process and continuous repetition. Finally, remember that this balance must contribute to your happiness.
What do other authors say about it?
In the book "Sonho Grande", Cristiane Correa complements the idea of strategic planning and emphasizes the importance of maintaining a process of continuous improvement to achieve goals.
These ideas were inspired by the visions of the trio of wealthiest entrepreneurs in Brazil. In addition, the trio considers that risks are essential to achieve extraordinary results, they already said that the greatest risk is not taking any risks.
In the book "Managing Tomorrow", the authors Sandro Magaldi and José Salibi Neto suggest that we use two engines of growth. Engine 1 is responsible for day to day and billing, making the company focus on its current operation. Engine 2 is what drives the company to focus on the future.
With this, we intend to align the continuous improvement of engine 1 with the disruptive innovation of engine 2.
Finally, in the bestseller "Good to Great", renowned author Jim Collins also addresses the importance of putting the right people in the right places.
Like Jack Welch, he believes that it is necessary to bring together the skilled people first and only then to formulate the right strategy. In addition, he says the right people are a company's greatest asset.
Okay, but how can I apply this to my life?
At this point, you already have the key insights needed to win. In this journey in search of success, it is essential that you keep your goal clear, with a lot of focus and persistence.
To recap the purposes of Jack Welch, for you to achieve victory, it is necessary that you understand:
Your mission tells you how you can win, and your values demonstrate what you have to get there;
Try different jobs until you find the one that most fits with your goals;
Deliver excellent results, do not be a rock in your boss's shoe;
Understand that crises can happen. Take the worst problem and try to get the best lesson.
May 29, 2019
A book that was written almost 15 years ago could be considered old in today's fast-moving world but it was definitely a very enjoyable read - Jack Welch knows what he is talking about. In most business books there is quite a lot of unnecessary/irrelevant stuff but practically every chapter in this book was readable. One could argue that much of it is common sense but balancing all the different aspects of leading a winning organization is something remarkable. This book is less about theory and more about proven leadership philosophy and principles. I particularly liked the chapters about crisis management and M&A. I also liked the concept of leader's role being to ask all the questions.
“When you are an individual contributor, you try to have all the answers. That’s your job—to be an expert, the best at what you do, maybe even the smartest person in the room. When you are a leader, your job is to have all the questions. You have to be incredibly comfortable looking like the dumbest person in the room. Every conversation you have about a decision, a proposal, or a piece of market information has to be filled with you saying, “What if?” and “Why not?” and “How come?”
"Successful leaders are great at managing people: they evaluate them through a transparent and fair system, coach them to advance on their careers, and instill such a culture of candor and integrity that everyone wants to share their ideas and improve the way business is done. Get excited about what you’re doing and make sure your people are too"
"One reason employees hate change initiatives is because they often don’t understand the reasons behind the change. This makes every initiative seem like just another flavor of the month, to be ignored till it goes away."
"Your mission says how you intend to win, and your values demonstrate the behaviors that will get you there.
An effective mission statement basically just answers the question “How do we intend to win in this business?
If the mission statement is the goal, then values are the way to achieve that goal. Values are clearly-defined behaviors you want your employees to exhibit."
"Leadership is all about developing your people. Evaluate them, coach them and inspire them every chance you get. Tell them about your vision for the company, encourage them to live and breathe your vision, and reward those who do."
"Before you even consider hiring someone, ensure they pass three acid tests:
First, they must have integrity, meaning they are candid, honest and reputable.
Second, they must be intelligent so that they can work effectively with other smart people.
Finally, candidates must demonstrate maturity, meaning they can deal with stress and setbacks, and exhibit that certain mixture of confidence and humility that experience brings."
"Evaluate and differentiate your people with the 20-70-10 method, and make managing them a priority."
"Let ideas and opinions flow freely: encourage candor and give everyone a voice" (i.e. feedback meetings without managers in GE).
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”
“When you are an individual contributor, you try to have all the answers. That’s your job—to be an expert, the best at what you do, maybe even the smartest person in the room. When you are a leader, your job is to have all the questions. You have to be incredibly comfortable looking like the dumbest person in the room. Every conversation you have about a decision, a proposal, or a piece of market information has to be filled with you saying, “What if?” and “Why not?” and “How come?”
"Successful leaders are great at managing people: they evaluate them through a transparent and fair system, coach them to advance on their careers, and instill such a culture of candor and integrity that everyone wants to share their ideas and improve the way business is done. Get excited about what you’re doing and make sure your people are too"
"One reason employees hate change initiatives is because they often don’t understand the reasons behind the change. This makes every initiative seem like just another flavor of the month, to be ignored till it goes away."
"Your mission says how you intend to win, and your values demonstrate the behaviors that will get you there.
An effective mission statement basically just answers the question “How do we intend to win in this business?
If the mission statement is the goal, then values are the way to achieve that goal. Values are clearly-defined behaviors you want your employees to exhibit."
"Leadership is all about developing your people. Evaluate them, coach them and inspire them every chance you get. Tell them about your vision for the company, encourage them to live and breathe your vision, and reward those who do."
"Before you even consider hiring someone, ensure they pass three acid tests:
First, they must have integrity, meaning they are candid, honest and reputable.
Second, they must be intelligent so that they can work effectively with other smart people.
Finally, candidates must demonstrate maturity, meaning they can deal with stress and setbacks, and exhibit that certain mixture of confidence and humility that experience brings."
"Evaluate and differentiate your people with the 20-70-10 method, and make managing them a priority."
"Let ideas and opinions flow freely: encourage candor and give everyone a voice" (i.e. feedback meetings without managers in GE).
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”
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