Top Grading Welch’s Rules
CNN in conjunction with Fortune has an excellent article calling into question some of Jack Welch’s Rules for Wining. It’s awesome to see a major publication take on a rockstar CEO. We hear CEOs spout on about crap all the time and rarely does anyone call them on it.
There is no doubt Welch had a phenomenal run at GE and I am sure his rules worked well there. What I have always questioned is the formulaic approach promoted by Welch. If you do X, then you will be successful. My response is simple: what worked at GE may or may not work somewhere else.
I’m not a big Welch defender, but the real story behind this is that these rules were made up by a magazine. I’m surprised you didn’t see Jack on CNBC explaining that this is just a PR campaign at his expense.
I did not see his interview on CNBC. I will try to find that on YouTube. I did read his response in the Fortune article sidebar. I felt like he was defending these ideas in his responses. Granted, Fortune did edit the article so who knows what the full quotes said. It’s also interesting that GE owns CNBC. I will have to watch the interview to see if CNBC anchors challenge him on anything.
[...] Why does this matter? Well, as I think back, it was the most useful feedback I think I ever got. There was no long meeting where the coach told me what I was doing right or wrong. Instead, I simply looked at the depth chart and took note. Whenever someone was ahead of me, I watched him. I emulated their technique and attitude. If they lifted, I lifted. If they ran hard, I ran hard. Sure enough, this worked pretty darn well. Overtime, I moved up the depth chart. Honestly, I am not sure if ranking employees is all that helpful. Jack Welch says it is but what does he know anyway. I do know, if you give someone a ranking in isolation, it’s not all the useful. Give me context so I can improve, publish the rankings and become transparent. This gives me a benchmark to improve myself. Hey, if it works in high school football, why not the workplace… [...]