101 Quotes by Jack Welch
Jack Welch, a dynamic and controversial figure in the business world, redefined corporate leadership during his tenure as the CEO of General Electric (GE). Known for his aggressive management style and commitment to efficiency, Welch instituted a philosophy of constant change and continuous improvement that became known as "Neutron Jack." Under his leadership, GE's value skyrocketed, making it one of the most valuable companies in the world. However, his strategies, which often included massive layoffs and divestitures, drew criticism for their impact on employees and communities. Welch's legacy is a polarizing one, as he is both lauded for his ability to drive results and criticized for the human cost of his methods. His tenure at GE serves as a case study in the complexities of corporate leadership and the far-reaching consequences of strategic decisions.
Jack Welch Quotes
Be candid with everyone. (Meaning)
I might not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but I'm pretty good at getting most of the other bulbs to light up.
Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.
If there is anything I would like to be remembered for it is that I helped people understand that leadership is helping other people grow and succeed. To repeat myself, leadership is not just about you. It's about them.
Change before you have to. (Meaning)
If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete. (Meaning)
Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.
If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near. (Meaning)
Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy. Your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products.
Willingness to change is a strength, even if it means plunging part of the company into total confusion for a while.
Too often we measure everything and understand nothing. The three most important things you need to measure in a business are customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and cash flow. If you’re growing customer satisfaction, your global market share is sure to grow, too. Employee satisfaction gets you productivity, quality, pride, and creativity. And cash flow is the pulse—the key vital sign of a company.
An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.
There are only two sources of competitive advantage: the ability to learn more about our customers faster than the competition and the ability to turn that learning into action faster than the competition.
A leader's job is to look into the future and see the organization, not as it is, but as it should be
Great leaders love to see people grow. The day you are afraid of them being better than you is the day you fail as a leader.
Companies don't give job security. Only satisfied customers do.
The art of managing and leading comes down to a simple thing. Determining and facing reality about people, situations, products, and then acting decisively and quickly on that reality. Think how many times we have procrastinated, hoped it would get better. Most of the mistakes you've made have been through not being willing to face into it, straight in the mirror that reality you find, then taking action on it. That's all managing is, defining and acting. Not hoping, not waiting for the next plan. Not rethinking it. Getting on with it. Doing it. Defining and doing it.
Globalization has changed us into a company that searches the world, not just to sell or to source, but to find intellectual capital - the world's best talents and greatest ideas.
The 3Ss of Winning in business are speed, simplicity, and self-confidence.
Business is a game, and as with all games, the team that puts the best people on the field and gets them playing together wins. It's that simple.
The essence of competitiveness is liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do is important - and then get out of their way while they do it.
Keep learning; don't be arrogant by assuming that you know it all, that you have a monopoly on the truth; always assume that you can learn something from someone else.
Control your own destiny or someone else will. (Meaning)
There are only three measurements that tell you nearly everything you need to know about your organization's overall performance: employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow...It goes without saying that no company, small or large, can win over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it.
You've got to eat while you dream. You've got to deliver on short-range commitments, while you develop a long-range strategy and vision and implement it. The success of doing both. Walking and chewing gum if you will. Getting it done in the short-range, and delivering a long-range plan, and executing on that.
The most important job you have is growing your people, giving them a chance to reach their dreams.
Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.
The secret of success is changing the way you think.
If work is just going in every day and getting a check, it's an ugly life. When you can make work a meaningful purpose, you've hit the jackpot for people.
No company, small or large, can win over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it.
There's no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences.
Strategy is not a lengthy action plan. It is the evolution of a central idea through continually changing circumstances.
In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell.
If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it you almost don't have to manage them.
The world belongs to passionate driven people.
Protecting underperformers always backfires.
A leader's role is not to control people or stay on top of things, but rather to guide, energize and excite.
The team with the best players usually does win - this is why you need to invest the majority of your time and energy in developing your people.
Number one, cash is king... number two, communicate... number three, buy or bury the competition.
When you were made a leader you weren't given a crown, you were given the responsibility to bring out the best in others.
Never miss out on an opportunity like a good recession.
First and most obvious, bring out the three old warhorses of competition - cost, quality, and service - and drive them to new levels, making every person in the organization see them for what they are, a matter of survival.
Excellence and competitiveness aren't incompatible with honesty and integrity.
Take time to get to know people. Understand where they are coming from, what is important to them. Make sure they are with you.
I've learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success.
Any company trying to compete...must figure out a way to engage the mind of every employee.
If you're a leader and you're the smartest guy in the world - in the room, you've got real problems.
Someone, somewhere has a better idea.
Cash is king. Get every drop of cash you can get and hold onto it.
The team with the best players wins. (Meaning)
The Internet is the Viagra of big business.
Don't lose yourself on the way to the top.
Strategy is simply resource allocation. When you strip away all the noise, that's what it comes down to. Strategy means making clear cut choices about how to compete. You cannot be everything to everybody, no matter what the size of your business or how deep its pockets.
The most important quality of leadership is intellectual honesty. The reality principle - the ability to see the world as it really is, not as you wish it were.
Every employee, not just the senior people, should know how a company is doing.
Nothing of any importance has ever been accomplished by a pessimist.
Our behavior is driven by a fundamental core belief: 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.
I think every leader has an obligation - the absolute obligation - to treat everyone fairly. But they also have the obligation to treat everyone differently. Because people aren't all the same, and the last thing you ever want to do, in my opinion, is let the best in your organization be treated like the worst in your organization. It does nothing for your future.
As a leader, your job is to energize people around the mission and vision you've articulated.
Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach, and build self-confidence.
Above all, good leaders are open. They go up, down, and around their organization to reach people. They don't stick to the established channels. They're informal. They're straight with people. They make a religion out of being accessible. They never get bored telling their story.
Does coaching work? Yes. Good coaches provide a truly important service. They tell you the truth when no one else will.
Focus on a few key objectives: I only have three things to do. I have to choose the right people, allocate the right number of dollars, and transmit ideas from one division to another with the speed of light. So I'm really in the business of being the gatekeeper and the transmitter of ideas.
You are not a leader to win a popularity contest-you are a leader to lead.
Arrogance is a killer, and wearing ambition on one's sleeve can have the same effect. There is a fine line between arrogance and self-confidence. Legitimate self-confidence is a winner. The true test of self-confidence is the courage to be open - to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source. Self-confident people aren't afraid to have their views challenged. They relish the intellectual combat that enriches ideas.
The last thing you want to do is be a bore. When you wake up in the morning, give yourself a good mirror test. If you look like you’re going to be a sulking, pouting bore, slap yourself in the face before you go out to the office.
Arrogance is a killer, and wearing ambition on one's sleeve can have the same effect. There is a fine line between arrogance and self-confidence.
If I had to run a company on three measures, those measures would be customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and cash flow.
Simple messages travel faster, simpler designs reach the market faster and the elimination of clutter allows faster decision making.
Some people have better ideas than others; some are smarter or more experienced or more creative. But everyone should be heard and respected.
One of the jobs of a manager is to instill confidence, pump confidence into your people. And when you've got somebody who's raring to go and you can smell it and feel it, give 'em that shot.
Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do. Because then they will act.
For a large organization to be effective, it must be simple.
HR should be every company's killer app. What could possibly be more important than who gets hired?
Ideally, the star will be replaced within eight hours. This sends the message that no single individual is bigger than the company.
Don't make the process harder than it is.
Genuine leadership comes from the quality of your vision and your ability to spark others to extraordinary performance.
Trust happens when leaders are transparent.
Strong managers who make tough decisions to cut jobs provide the only true job security in today's world. Weak managers are the problem. Weak managers destroy jobs.
We know where most of the creativity, the innovation, the stuff that drives productivity lies - in the minds of those closest to the work.
When the amount of change externally exceeds the amount of change internally, the end is in sight.
Trust is enormously powerful in a corporation. People won't do their best unless they believe they'll be treated fairly. The only way I know how to create that kind of trust is by laying out your values and then walking the talk. You've got to do what you say you'll do, consistently, over time.
Management is all about managing in the short term, while developing the plans for the long term.
People aren't the same. Business is, in my opinion, all about the team that fields the best players. It's not about an idea. An idea goes away. Somebody catches up with it. It's not about a widget.
All of management is about self-confidence
No vision is worth the paper it's printed on unless it is communicated constantly and reinforced with rewards.
Celebrating creates an atmosphere of recognition and positive energy. Imagine a team winning the World Series without champagne spraying everywhere. And yet companies win all the time and let it go without so much as a high five. Work is too much a part of life not to recognize moments of achievement. Make a big deal out of them. If you don't, no one will.
In the end, your integrity is all you've got.
When there's change, there's opportunity.
Insecure managers create complexity. Frightened, nervous managers use thick convoluted planning books and busy slides filled with everything they’ve known since childhood……. They worry that if they’re simple, people will think they’re simple minded. In reality, of course, it’s just the reverse. Clear, tough minded people are the most simple.
It is better to act too quickly than it is to wait too long.
The productivity now at universities is terrible. Tenure is a terrible idea. It keeps them around forever and they don't have to work hard.
Stretch targets energize. We have found that by reaching for what appears to be the impossible, we often actually do the impossible; and even when we don't quite make it, we inevitably wind up doing much better than we would have done.
Getting every employee's mind into the game is a huge part of what a CEO job is all about. Taking everyone's best ideas and transferring them to others is the secret. There's nothing more important.
Leadership is helping other people grow and succeed. it is not just about you. It's all about them.... everyone deserves a chance.... you can never let yourself be a victim.
If your CFO is more important than your CHRO (Chief Human Resource Officer) you're nuts.
You can't grow long-term if you can't eat short-term. Anybody can manage short. Anybody can manage long. Balancing those two things is what management is.
Again, your challenge is not just to improve. It is to break the service paradigm in your industry or market so that customers aren't just satisfied, they're so shocked that they tell strangers on the street how good you are.
If you're a leader and you're the smartest guy in the world - in the room, you've got real problems.
No one can guarantee you a job other than satisfied customers. That's the only thing that works. Nothing creates work other than products and services you provide that create satisfied customers.
In difficult times your best must be hugged, loved, kissed, rewarded, paid - everything. And your worst must be the people that leave, because your best are going to take you to the next game.
When employees underperform, a leader tells them so.
You hang around with good people, you play a lot of golf, and you have a pretty good life. That's what success is all about. It's getting people you like, who want to take the hill with you, who want to win, who have the passion. This is not rocket science.
Managers often hold on to resisters because of a specific skill set or because they've been around for a long time. Don't.
I believe social responsibility begins with a strong, competitive company. Only a healthy enterprise can improve and enrich the lives of people and their communities.
So every time you think about your work-life balance issue, remember what your boss is thinking about - and that's winning. Your needs may get heard - and even successfully resolved - but not if the boss's needs aren't met as well.
Without doubt, there are lots of ways to measure the pulse of a business. But if you have employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow right, you can be sure your company is healthy and on the way to winning.
We bring together the best ideas - turning the meetings of our top managers into intellectual orgies.
If you want risk taking, set an example yourself and reward and praise those that do.
Any time there is change, there is opportunity. So it is paramount that an organization get energized rather than paralyzed.
Innovation is not a big breakthrough invention every time. Innovation is a constant thing. But if you don't have an innovative company [team], coming to work everyday to find a better way, you don't have a company[team]. You're getting ready to die on the vine. You're always looking for the next innovation, the next niche, the next product improvement, the next service improvement. But always trying to get better.
Hierarchy is an organization with its face toward the CEO and its ass toward the customer.
The hero is the one with ideas.
Real communication is an attitude, an environment. It is the most interactive of all processes. It requires countless hours of eyeball to eyeball, back and forth. It involves more listening than talking.
Its a marathon, its not a sprint. Ten years. Fifteen years. You've got to get up everyday, with a new idea, a new spin, and you've got to bring it to work, every day
The best thing workers can bring to their jobs is a lifelong thirst for learning.
The story about GE that hasn't been told is the value of an informal place. I think it's a big thought. I don't think people have ever figured out that being informal is a big deal.
Get the best player because whether it's soccer or whether it's anything else the team with the best players wins. So focus your energy on getting the best and getting rid of the weakest.
In the future, those who are not coaches will not be promoted.
Failing to differentiate among employees — and holding on to bottom-tier performers — is actually the cruelest form of management there is.
My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too.
I was afraid of the internet because I couldn't type.
You talk about seeing around corners as an element of success. That's what differentiates the good leader. Not many people have it. Not many people can predict that corner. That would be a characteristic of great leaders.
You never know how diverse your career can be. I think it's wonderful. My life has always been the next page, not the last page.
We know where most of the creativity, the innovation, the stuff that drives productivity lies-in the minds of those closest to the work. It's been there in front of our noses all along while we've been running around chasing robots and reading books on how to become Japanese-or at least manage like them.
Ninety-nine point nine percent of all employees are in the pile because they don't think.
If you managed a baseball team, would you listen more closely to the team accountant or the director of player personnel?
Getting the right people in the right jobs is a lot more important than developing a strategy.
Take the middle 70 percent and tell them what they need to do to get into the top 20 percent.
The world will belong to passionate, driven leaders - people who not only have enormous amounts of energy, but who can energize those whom they lead.
You have no right to be a leader if someone who works for you doesn't know where they stand.
An overburdened, overstretched executive is the best executive, because he or she doesn't have the time to meddle, to deal in trivia, to bother people.
Strategy means making clear-cut choices about how to compete.
You can't believe how hard it is for people to be simple, how much they fear being simple. They worry that if they're simple, people will think they're simpleminded. In reality, of course, it's just the reverse. Clear, tough-minded people are the most simple.
Some think that it is cruel or brutal to remove the bottom 10 percent of our people. It isn't. It's just the opposite. What I think is brutal and "false kindness" is keeping people around who aren't going to grow and prosper. There's no cruelty like waiting and telling people late into their careers that they don't belong - just when the options are limited and they're putting their children through college or paying off big mortgages.
If we get the right people in the right job we've won the game.
Just because you are the boss doesn't mean you are the source of all knowledge.
Your goal should be to make your bosses smarter, your team more effective, and the whole company more competitive because of your energy, creativity, and insights.
Good leaders have a generosity gene.
If you don't deliver, you don't earn the flexibility.
We have built a company with a business mix and operating system that will allow us to deliver record results in any foreseeable economic climate, ... We have just completed a very successful management transition and I've never been more confident about the company's future.
The value decade is upon us. If you can't sell a top-quality product at the world's lowest price, you're going to be out of the game.
If we wait for the perfect answer, the world will pass us by
Not surprisingly, work-life moaners tend to be a phenomenon of below-average performers.
When all is said and done, teaching is what I try to do for a living.
There is no straight line to a dream.
One of the things about leadership is that you cannot be a moderate, balanced, thoughtful, careful articulator of policy. You've got to be on the lunatic fringe.
You are never too old to get surprised.
― Jack Welch Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
