Saturday, January 16, 2010

Leadership lessons by Jack Welch

Managers muddle – leaders inspire. Leaders are people who inspire with clear vision of how things can be done better. "What we are looking for are leaders at every level who can energize, excite and inspire rather than enervate, depress, and control."

  1. Create a vision and then ignite your organization to make this vision a reality: Get people so passionate about what they are doing that they cannot wait to execute this plan. Have great energy, competitive spirit and the ability to spark excitement and achieve results. Search for leaders who have the same qualities.
  2. Focus on strategic issues: Your job is to understand the strategic issues within each of your businesses where they are going around the five questions. Know the talent they need to win in those markets and the amount of capital they need. And make bets.
  3. Don't micromanage: our job is to see the big picture. Don't manage every detail. Don't get caught up in the minutiae or obsess over every detail, but instead inspire others to execute of your vision. Surround yourself with great people and trust them to do their job and contribute their best to the organization.
  4. Involve everyone and welcome great ideas from everyone: Anyone can be a leader, just so long as they contribute, and the most meaningful way for anyone to contribute is to come up with a good idea. Business is all about getting the best ideas from everyone. New ideas are the lifeblood of the organization, the fuel that makes it run. "The hero is the person with a new idea." There is simply nothing more important to an organization than expressing ideas and creating a vision.
  5. Lead by example: To spark others to perform, you must lead by example. Jack Welch mastery of the 4 E's of leadership – Energy,Energize, Edge, and Execution – was always in evidence. "He had great energy, sparked others, had incredible competitive spirit, and had a record of execution that was second to none. This is a key of the Welch phenomenon. Had he been lacking in any of the traits he espoused, he would not have commanded such acclaim."
Jack Welch was the former Ceo of GE.This is just a part of the 25 lessons by Jack Welch in which he talks about leadership in detail, building a winning organization, harnessing your employees and building a market leader company.

2 comments:

syed hassan raza said...

I personally think that the most difficult task for the owner of any organization is not to micro-manage. If owners do not micro-manage, they may be worried all the time about the future performance of the company. However, if they do micro-manage, they may restrict the growth of their company. Thus, it is a big dilemma for any owner.

AM said...

i do agree with you but as sir wasif told us in our last class that it is not possible for a leader or a ceo of the company to look into every detail of the company, the leader's job is to handle the larger issues of the company. it is the manager's job to micro manage and if the leader is micro managing then i think he would be wasting his time