The Welch Way

24 Lessons from the World’s Greatest CEO
Jeffrey Krames
20010926

About This Book

Jack Welch transformed GE into the world’s most valuable corporation – and became one of history’s most admired and successful CEOs – by cutting through bureaucratic noise and letting hands-on, frontline employees tell him what needed to be done. The Welch Way shows you how to work the Welch magic into your career and reach new heights in today’s wide-open, idea-driven workplace.

The Welch Way

1. Lead

What we are looking for … are leaders at every level who can energize, excite and inspire rather than enervate, depress, and control.

• Articulate a vision, and spark others to execute it
• Don’t manage every excruciating detail
• Involve everyone and welcome great ideas from everywhere

2. Get less formal

You must realize how important it is to maintain the kind of corporate informality that encourages a … training class to comfortably challenge the boss’s pet ideas.

• Brainstorm with colleagues and bosses
• Hold more informal meetings
• Consider a once-in-a-while informal get together

3. Blow up bureaucracy

The way to harness the power of these people is not to protect them … but to turn them loose, and get the management layers off their backs, the bureaucratic shackles off their feet and the functional barriers out of their way.

• Drop unnecessary work
• Work with colleagues to streamline decision making
• Make your workplace more informal

4. Face reality

How do you bring people into the change process? Start with reality … When everybody gets the same facts, they’ll generally come to the same conclusion.

• Look at things with a fresh eye
• Don’t fall into the “false scenarios” trap
• Leave yourself with several options

5. Simplify

You can’t believe how hard it is for people to be simple, how much they fear being simple … Clear tough-minded people are the most simple.

• Simplify the workplace
• Make meetings simpler
• Eliminate complicated memos and letters

6. See change as an opportunity

The game is going to change, and change drastically.

• Know that change is here to say
• Expect the least expected, but move quickly to stay a step ahead
• Prepare those around you for the inevitable change that will affect their lives

7. Lead by energizing others

We now know where productivity – real and limitless productivity – comes from. It comes from challenged, empowered, excited, rewarded teams of people.

• Never lead by intimidation
• Let others know exactly how their efforts are helping the organization
• Send handwritten thank-you notes to colleagues and customers

8. Defy tradition

Shun the incremental and go for the leap.

• Hold a “why do we do it that way?” meeting
• Invite colleagues from your department to contribute one idea on changing something important at the company
• Don’t be afraid to buck conventional wisdom

9. Make intellect rule

… the desire, and the ability, of an organization to continuously learn from any source, anywhere – and to rapidly convert this learning into action – is its ultimate competitive advantage.

• Spend an hour per week learning what competitors are doing
• Offer a reward for the best idea
• Work for organizations committed to training and learning

10. Pounce every day

Don’t sit still. Anybody sitting still, you can guarantee they’re going to get their legs knocked out from under them.

• Live urgency
• Make decisions faster
• Work harder

11. Put values first

Early in my career … there was way too much focus on the numbers … and a lot less on the softer values of building a team, sharing ideas, exciting others.

• Don’t harp on the numbers
• Lead by example
• Let values rule

12. Manage less

You can’t manage self-confidence into people.

• Don’t get bogged down in meaningless details
• Manage less
• Empower, delegate, get out of the way

13. Involve everyone

Business is “all about capturing intellect from every person … the more people you can capture it from, the better the intellect.”

• Participate more
• Make sure everyone feels free to speak out
• Suggest an informal brainstorming session

14. Rewrite your agenda

We want to be a company that is constantly renewing itself, shedding the past, adapting to change.

• Do not plan years ahead (Have long-term goals, but be flexible and willing to change them when circumstances change)
• Develop alternative plans and options
• Expect the unexpected

15. Live speed

Speed is everything. It is the indispensable ingredient in competitiveness.

• Don’t “sit” on decisions
• Communicate faster
• Incorporate speed into every activity/process

16. Instill confidence

Just as surely as speed flows from simplicity, simplicity is grounded in self-confidence.

• Let people know that you value their ideas
• Simplify the workplace
• Focus on training

17. Set stretch goals

… self-confident people know that it is the quality of their effort toward achieving the ‘impossible’ that is the ultimate measure.

• Reach for the unreachable
• Forget decimal points
• Don’t punish yourself – or anyone else – for falling short of a stretch goal

18. Eliminate the boundaries

Boundaryless behavior evaluates ideas based on their merit, not on the rank of the person who came up with them.

• Seek out new ideas from everyone
• Be sure to look outside the company for good ideas
• Never stop eliminating boundaries

19. Articulate a vision

Leaders – and you take anyone from Roosevelt to Churchill to Reagan – inspire people with clear versions of how things can be done better.

• Write down the vision
• Avoid the minutiae
• Hire and promote those most capable of turning visions into reality

20. Get good ideas from everywhere

It is a badge of honor to learn something here, no matter where it comes from.

• Don’t think that you or your company have all the answers
• Study competitors
• Make sure everyone around you knows that you are interested in all ideas, regardless of where they come from

21. Spark others to perform

Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do.

• Never bully or intimidate
• Make sure to use all the intellect
• Make sure everyone knows that the best idea wins

22. Quality is your job

[Six Sigma] is the most important training thing we’ve ever had. It’s better than going to Harvard Business School.

• Take great pride in your work
• Seek out quality training
• Never think that quality is someone else’s job

23. Change never ends

This wisdom may lie in changing the institution while it is still winning – reinvigorating a business, in fact, while it’s making more money than anyone ever dreamed it could make.

• Face reality and know that change is here for good
• Suggest an informal “change meeting”
• Think short-term and long-term change

24. Have fun

Leading a big company … means never allowing a company to take itself too seriously, and reminding itself constantly … that yesterday’s press clippings often wrap today’s fish.

• Make informality a way of life
• Find a job that challenges you
• Don’t stay in the same job forever