Winning
From BookJive
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| Author: | Jack Welch, Suzy Welch |
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Published: | |
| Pages: | 362 |
| ISBN-10: | 60753943 |
| Category: | Array |
Contents |
[edit] Introduction
“Every Day, There Is a New Question”
This book was created to answer some of the thousands of questions people have asked all over the world about what it takes to win. How do you hire the right team? How do you juggle work and your personal life? How do you get a promotion without creating enemies? But what all these questions come down to is this: What does it take to win? This book wasn’t just written for CEOs, but for front line workers, new grads, and entrepreneurs—basically for anyone with ambition and passion. There are no easy and universal formulas for winning—this in fact gives the book more credibility—but there are “guidelines to follow, rules to consider, assumptions to adopt, and mistakes to avoid.” The major themes in this book are (a) the team with the best players wins, (b) don’t over-think things to the point of inaction, (c) share learning relentlessly, (d) do not be a victim, and (e) business should be fun, so have a good attitude and spread it around. Here’s how to do it.
[edit] UNDERNEATH IT ALL
[edit] Chapter 1 : Mission and Values…So Much Hot Air about Something So Real
The terms “mission” and “value” have become abstract and misunderstood. It seems that they’re often just an excuse to make a noble sounding plaque to hang in the lobby. These statements do nothing for employees except leave them directionless or cynical, and do even less for clients or customers. A mission statement and set of values should be so real that they smack you in the face with their concreteness.
First About that Mission…
An effective mission statement should answer the question: How do we intend to win in this business? Or in other words, what will allow you to profitably play in this business? It should not be about what you did in the “good old days” or be written to appease the most divisions. You can’t be all things to all people, nor should you try to be. At the same time, there’s nothing wrong with being bold and aspiring, like Ben & Jerry’s statement to sell “all natural ice cream and euphoric concoctions” and “improve the quality of life locally, nationally, and internationally.” Language that motivates and excites is great, but at the end of the day it has to be a balance of the possible and the impossible. The mission statement should be written by the top management, since they’re the ones ultimately responsible for living up to it.
And About Those Values…
Values are the “marching orders” for how to pull off the mission. They’re the means to an end: winning. Unlike the mission statement, everyone should be able to have something to say about the values. Through company-wide meetings, training, and the intranet, everyone should be able to add their insights and ideas, which helps everyone buy-in.
It’s in the Nitty-Gritty Details
A good set of values leaves no room for guessing what the meaning is. The value “treat others as you would like to be treated” is intangible. Here’s how Bank One, for example, took that famous intangible value and made it real and solid behavior:
- Never let profit center conflicts get in the way of doing what is right for the customer
- 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.”
It’s good to be specific about values and their related behaviors, otherwise employees won’t really know what you want.
And It’s in the Backup
If people in your organization don’t live these values, then let them go—even if they’re higher ups. Your organization will respond well to that kind of integrity.
And Finally, It’s In the Connection
It seems obvious that a company’s values should support its mission statement, but that is not always the case. It’s the daily crises and ill-suited offshoots that can undermine the mission statements. For example, the auditing firm Arthor Andersen started in the business with the goal to be the most respected auditing firm in the industry almost a century ago, and they were doing pretty good at it until they decided to start up a consulting firm as well, when “consulting” became all the rage in the ‘80s. The problem was that the two divisions had a totally different mission and set of values. It become a company at war with itself, which finally landed its owners in court trying to divide what was left of it until it collapsed altogether in 2002.
Enron is another famous example of a company convoluting its mission and confusing its own identity. What started out as a simple and mundane pipeline and energy company was turned into a trading company. At first it traded what it knew: energy. But quickly it started trading everything and anything. The changes must have been exciting, but the company never took the time to redefine what they were doing and why. There were no processes to provide checks and balances, and that’s when things started falling apart. Don’t let your mission statement be nothing but hot air. Get your own mission statement straight and your values concrete, and it can make a world of difference in your business.
[edit] Chapter 2: Candor…The Biggest Dirty Little Secret in Business
A lack of candor is the biggest dirty little secret in business. With candor everything operates faster and better. Too many people aren’t frank. They don’t communicate straightforwardly, which means there’s no real debate. Too many people keep their mouths shut in order to avoid conflict, or sugarcoat bad news to make people feel better. Lack of candor permeates almost every aspect of business whether for performance appraisals, politicking, or false politeness. A lack of it is absolutely damaging.
The Candor Effect
Candor, on the other hand, leads to winning. Here’s how:
First, it gets more people in the conversation which makes an organization “idea rich,” meaning that more ideas get out in the open to be discussed and improved.
Second, candor speeds things up. Ideas have to surface before they can be debated, improved, and decided on. Candor helps you keep up in a global market.
Third, candor can dramatically cut costs, even though you’ll never know just how much. It eliminates useless reports, meaningless meetings, and confirms what everyone is already thinking. In fact, you can’t afford to not have candor in your workplace.
So Why Not?
Given the benefits, why isn’t there more candor going around? Probably because we’ve all been socialized since childhood to speak carefully about delicate subjects. Also, speaking openly can backfire and create a big mess, so it’s easier to keep your mouth shut. It’s not what’s best for business, but it’s the current status quo, although candor is starting to slowly creep in.
It Can Be Done
Here’s the bad news: Candor is crucial to winning, but really hard to instill in an organization. You’re fighting against human nature and entrenched organizational behavior. How to do you support candor? Support it by making public heroes of those who demonstrate it, and demonstrate it yourself—even if you’re not the boss. Imagine yourself sitting in a meeting and instead of going along with the self-congratulatory tone of how well your company is doing “under the circumstances,” opening up in a non-threatening way and saying what you really think, or by asking difficult questions.
Truth and Consequences
It’s true, if you are not the boss or a “higher up,” speaking your mind can upset others and get you in trouble, so you have to decide if you’re willing to take the risk. But open dialogue can start on any level. Candor declutters, and it makes you and those around you better people when it’s openly embraced.
[edit] Chapter 3: Differentiation…Cruel and Darwinian? Try Fair and Effective
Differentiation is a value people either swear by or swear at. It pushes people’s buttons, but is can transform companies from mediocre to great. Companies suffer when every business and person is treated equally regardless of contribution. Differentiation is just resource allocation, which is the chief job of a good leader. A company only has so much money and managerial time, so winning leaders invest where the payback is highest, and cut their losses everywhere else.
Differentiation isn’t mean; it’s fair. However, it’s something that should NOT be implemented quickly or without warning. If you have a workplace of candor and trust, differentiation can be very effective.
Differentiation Defined
Differentiation isn’t only about people, it’s about both people and businesses or “software” and “hardware.” If you’re a large business, software is your people and hardware is your portfolio of businesses. If you’re small, it’s your portfolio of product lines. Every company has strong businesses/product lines and weak businesses/product lines. Mangers have to know which is which and invest accordingly. Differentiation in your businesses/product lines requires a transparent framework that everyone in the company understands. Not everyone has to like it, so long as they know it, and manage with it. Don’t just sprinkle your money around to appease people or for sentimental reasons. Put your money where you can get the best returns, and cut your losses.
The People Part
Differentiation among people is tricky. Most managers differentiate in their heads but don’t act on it. When differentiation is actually acted on then the top 20% is showered in bonuses, stock options, praise, training, and appreciation. Companies that differentiate have unmistakable stars that are the best, and are treated as such.
The middle 70%, the majority of a company’s employees, are also enormously valuable. The point isn’t to try and keep the 70% out of the 10% least productive employees; the point is to help them stay motivated and engaged, while cultivating potential leaders. Managers should be trying to find promising people in the 70% and move them around among businesses and functions to increase their knowledge and experience, and to test their leadership. You don’t want to lose the vast majority of your people—you want to improve them.
The bottom 10% should know where they stand and most will leave on their own to find something they’re better suited to. Either way, they need to go. Everyone is good at something, and no one is good at everything. If you have employees who aren’t good at what they do, letting them go or transferring them to a job they’re good at is doing everyone a favor.
Reasons to Hate Differentiation—and Not
Differentiation can be abused in situations where the top 20% are the boss’ head-nodders or cronies and the bottom 10% are the outspoken types who aren’t afraid to ask difficult questions. That’s sometimes reality and it stinks, but companies like that either eventually collapse from their failure or are forced to change. However, with a candid and clear-cut performance system in place, that type of situation can be avoided.
Differentiation might seem mean, but it’s not as mean as not differentiating. At its best, differentiation makes sure that people know where they stand and whether or not they have a shot at a promotion or if they should be looking inside or outside the company for other opportunities.
Its not nice to coddle someone out of kindness, and then when a downturn occurs you end up having to let them go without warning, which ends up being a much worse shock than if they’d known all along that they needed to improve or risk losing their job. There’s no such thing as “too nice” to implement differentiation, just “too cowardly.
Some worry that differentiation will pit employees against each other, but just like a good sports team, teamwork doesn’t suffer even though some of the athletes are vastly better paid—based on their performance—than others.
Others worry that differentiation is de-motivating to the middle 70, and the truth is that it sometimes is. Those in the middle 70% know that some of the top 20% aren’t really all that much better than them. Talented people sometimes leave because of differentiation. However, at its best, differentiation is motivating for the 70% because they have something attainable to work towards and it’s also an incentive for the 20% to keep giving their best so that they don’t lose their high standing.
Then there is also the concern that differentiation favors energetic and outgoing people. That may be true, since those types of people tend to do well in business. But introverts can still have rewarding careers if they’re in the right job within the right industry.
[edit] Chapter: 4 Voice and Dignity…Every Brain in the Game
Every person wants and deserves the right to speak his or her mind. People want to have their thoughts heard. Yet the majority of people in many organizations don’t share their “voice” because they either feel they can’t or they haven’t been asked. People need a forum for sharing ideas and asking questions where they feel safe. At GE, the Work-Out process allowed groups of thirty to a hundred employees to come together with an outside facilitator to discuss how to do things better, as well as how to eliminate bureaucracy and roadblocks. The boss had to give yes or no answers to 75% of the questions and ideas, and agree to determine the remaining 25% within thirty days. Eventually this open exchange became more ingrained in the way GE ran, which led to an explosion of productivity. During Welch’s time at GE, he credits these Work-Out sessions to the most profound changes, and it eliminated the boss-knows-all culture there.
[edit] YOUR COMPANY
[edit] Chapter 5: Leadership…It’s Not Just About You
For a manager, success means growing within yourself. For a leader, success means helping others grow. There are many ways to be a leader. A freewheeling outspoken person and a generally quiet person can both be good leaders. Everyone will have their own “rules” that work for them. Here are the 8 rules or guidelines that have worked well for Welch over the years:
Rule #1: Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team using every opportunity to evaluate, coach, and build self-confidence. Evaluating means making sure people are in the right job, supporting those who are, and moving out those who aren’t. Coach your people with guiding and critiquing and then build self-confidence by encouragement, caring, and recognition that goes way beyond performance reviews and extends into your daily events. Every interaction is an opportunity for development.
Rule #2: Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it. Targets need to be clear enough that people can hit them. Your people need to know where they are headed and why. If you want employees to live and breathe the vision, you have to “show them the money” by rewarding those who do with salary, bonuses, and recognition.
Rule #3: Leaders get into everyone’s skin, exuding positive energy and optimism. A leader’s mood and attitude is contagious. Teams end up mirroring their leaders, for better or for worse. You’ve got to genuinely care about your team, how they fare, and what they’re doing.
Rule #4: Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency, and credit. Some managers go on a power trip, hoarding secrets and insights for themselves, but that doesn’t build trust. People should know where they stand and how the business is doing, even if that means imminent lay-offs. Good leaders don’t try to score off of their people’s ideas, but rather, they give credit where it’s due.
Rule #5: Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decision and gut calls. Leadership isn’t a popularity contest.
Rule #6: Leaders probe and push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions are answered with action. It’s not about having all of the answers; it’s about having all of the questions. You have to be comfortable sounding like the dumbest person in the room with all of your “what ifs” and “why nots,” and then those issues need to be answered with action. Don’t boast of perfect hindsight—your hindsight doesn’t count because you never got anyone to act on it when it mattered.
Rule #7: Leaders inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example. Don’t urge people to try new things and then whack them in the head if they fail. Welch likes to tell people about his first big mistake that basically resulted in a pilot plant getting blown up, and how in spite of the enormity of the failure, his boss’ boss, former MIT professor Charlie Reed, dealt with it sympathetically and ultimately helped Welch improve the manufacturing process. More importantly, he learned how to deal with people when they were down. It’s okay to take swings and miss, as long as you learn from them. Always be learning and encourage your people to do the same with your words and example.
Rule #8: Leaders celebrate. Work is a huge part of everyone’s life—too much so to let the successes roll by without some celebration. But this doesn’t have to mean throwing a cheesy office party for forced merriment. What it means is that you recognize your people’s successes in a personal way that makes them happy, like giving team members two tickets each to a great show, flying them to Disneyland with their families, or doing whatever is within your means to celebrate. This creates a positive, energizing atmosphere where people feel like they are recognized for being winners.
The Daily Balancing Act
Leadership is full of paradoxes. One of them is balancing what’s best for the company in terms of quarterly results (squeezing lemons) and 5 year+ long term results (dreaming). You’ll never be perfect at it, but it can be done.
[edit] Chapter 6: Hiring…What Winners Are Made Of
Hiring the right people can be brutally difficult, but nothing matters more when it comes to winning. Advanced strategies and technologies won’t be nearly as effective without the right people to implement them. The next few sections will outline how to know who to hire.
The Acid Tests
These are three screens that people need to pass before you even begin to assess them for a particular job. Do they have integrity? In other words, do they play by the rules, in both letter and spirit, to win the right way? Do they tell the truth and accept responsibility for past mistakes? You’ll have to rely on their reputation and reference checks, but you should also listen to your instincts. If you, or another evaluator, have a feeling something isn’t quite right, take that seriously.
The second test is for intelligence. A strong dose of intellectual curiosity and a breadth of knowledge sufficient to lead others are critical in today’s complex world. But intelligence doesn’t mean they went to a prestigious university. Some of Welch’s best executives graduated from ivy leagues and others graduated from state colleges. Education is just one piece of the whole picture.
The third screen is maturity. Maturity has little to do with age. Mature people, both young and old, respect others feelings. They are confident without being arrogant and they have a sense of humor, especially about themselves.
The 4-E (and 1-P) Framework
This basic framework is valuable in finding the kind of people who create winning teams.
First E: Positive Energy. Do they make conversation and friends easily? Are they enthusiastic at the beginning, middle, and end of the day? Are they playful and seem to love life?
Second E: The ability to Energize others. Can they get others “revved up”? Do they enjoy inspiring others? Does that inspiration go beyond speeches and encompass a strong knowledge of the business and the persuasion to get people on board with new projects?
Third E: Edge. Smart people can analyze different angles indefinitely, but effectively smart people know when to stop assessing and make a decision to act. You don’t want wishy-washy leaders who don’t know when to cut bait, or are always convinced by whoever was the last one at the door.
Fourth E: The ability to Execute, or in other words, get the job done. You can have all three of the previous Es and still not have a person who knows how to get over the finish line. People, who can execute, make things happen regardless of the chaos and the unexpected parts of the job.
The One P: Passion. Does this person have a deep and heartfelt passion about their work? People with passion genuinely care about colleagues and employees winning. They love to learn and they are happy when others do the same. People who are passionate about their work are also usually passionate about life in general whether that “juice for life” manifests itself in being a trivia nut, a fanatical supporter of their alma maters, or a political junkie.
Hiring For the Top
Aside from passing the “acid tests” and having the 4-Es and 1-P, those whom you are hiring for top management positions need to have four other characteristics as well.
Authenticity: You can’t be a bold and decisive leader if you don’t know who you are and feel comfortable with yourself. Only “realness” can reach people on an emotional level. They have to be able to connect with people. Leaders can’t be fake or pretending, but rather they are straight with the world and lead with an authority born of authenticity.
The ability to see around corners: Good leaders need an exceptional capacity to anticipate the radically unexpected. Former vice-chairman of GE, Paolo Fresco, is a gifted chess player who carried that skill into every global business deal he negotiated over 30 years. You have to be able to imagine the unimaginable, with a 6th sense for market changes.
A strong penchant to surround themselves with people better and smarter than they are: A good leader isn’t afraid to pull together a team that makes him look like the dumbest man in the room when it comes to finding solutions. Ideally, he’s the smartest in the room, but if he acts like it then he won’t get the feedback needed to make the best decisions.
Heavy duty resilience: A leader has to be resilient going into a job, because when a crises hits, it’s too late to learn it. They have to be able to hit the ground running. Today’s global business world will knock even the best leader off of her horse more than once, so she has to know how to get back on.
Hiring FAQs
Q: How do you actually interview somebody for a job?
A: Don’t ever rely on just one meeting. Even if you’re pressed for time and the candidate seems especially promising, make sure every candidate is interviewed by several people. Don’t be afraid to exaggerate the challenges of the job. Describe it on its worst day and be wary if all they say is “yes, yes, yes” rather than responding to your description with tough questions of their own such as, “Will I have enough people to make this happen?” Be even more impressed if they ask about the company’s values. Also, don’t just check the references that the person gives you. Call around, and then don’t just listen for what you want to hear. Be willing to hear the truth by promising that you won’t repeat a word of what’s spoken.
Q: I just need someone with technical experience, so why bother with the 4-Es?
A: Sure it would be nice to have someone with the technical experience AND all four Es, but if you’re desperate to fill a certain specialty then it’s ok to take someone who only has energy, passion, and integrity if they have raw intelligence and great prior experience.
Q: If someone is missing one or two of the Es, can training fill in the gaps?
A: If they’re going to be in a managerial role they at least need to have the first two Es: Positive energy and the ability to energize. Edge and execution, on the other hand, can be taught. Q: Can a person get ahead in business without the four Es or passion?
A: Yes. A person can reach great heights on being very smart alone. An example of this is the many inventors and entrepreneurs who run their own show, but this doesn’t seem to work well within an organization.
Q: I’ve always tried to hire people who can hit the ground running, is that a good idea?
A: Sometimes you have to choose between someone who can get something done fast, or someone who has a lot of potential for growth. Welch’s advice is to pick the latter. He used to go with the former, but he found that the jobs were outgrowing the person rather than the other way around.
Q: How long does it take to know if you’ve hired right?
A: One or two years. Two Es, energy and execution, are usually visible right away, but the ability to energize and edge aren’t always visible right away because most people want to learn and observe before they start trying to make waves. Don’t beat yourself when you end up hiring the wrong person. It will happen a lot. Welch says as a young manager only half the people he hired ended up being right for the job, and it took 30 years to get up to 80%.
A: What is the one thing you should ask in an interview to help you decide?
Q: Probe why they left their last job and the one before that. Did he leave because he expected too much too soon or can’t work well with others? Or did she leave because she has so much energy and edge that she was ready for more of a challenge?
[edit] Chapter 7: People Management…You’ve Got the Right Players. Now What?
Here are six ways to help make your job of managing people successful.
One. Elevate HR to a position of primacy in the organization by making sure that the HR people have the special qualities needed to help managers build leaders and careers. The best HR people are both parents and pastors in one. Give your attention and respect to HR because they handle a job that can make or break a team. Make sure your HR is transparent, not whispering secrets and wielding “kingmaker” power to promote and demote whomever they personally like or dislike. HR is there to listen to people vent, broker internal differences, and help managers develop leaders and build careers.
Two. Have a rigorous and non-bureaucratic evaluation system that is constantly monitored for integrity. You want a system that is based on relevant, agreed-upon criteria. Managers should evaluate their people at least one a year, preferably twice, in formal face-to-face sessions, but informal sessions should happen all the time. Also a good evaluation system should include not just the employee’s next career steps, but also who individuals think could replace their positions should they be promoted.
Three. Create effective ways to motivate and retain employees. Welch relates a story of a woman he knows who worked as a buyer for a prestigious New York retailer. In spite of her consistently fantastic results and extra mile achievements, her bonuses were only standard and recognition was nonexistent. Two years later she’d had enough and went to resign. Her boss didn’t want to see such a promising employee go and told her she had a great future with the company. He told her that their company didn’t give anyone recognition, including himself, so she just needed to grow a “thick skin.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t until she was ready to leave that she found out how valued she was. Don’t make the same mistake and lose key players by not recognizing and compensating them as such. Good employees also want training and development. They want to know and learn more, and won’t be complacent in the same position forever. Training them is another way to retain employees, but make sure they know it is a reward for their performance. Companies can’t promise their employee’s lifetime employment in today’s shifting marketplace, but they can promise to help their employees become increasingly employable through skills that make them more attractive should you be forced to part ways.
Four. Face straight into charged relationships with unions, stars, sliders, and disrupters.
--Unions are unnecessary if employees have sympathetic and engaged management to start with. Abusive bosses that aren’t reformed or removed from their positions are what create the extreme conditions that give birth to unions. In the end, unionization can become a lose-lose situation for everyone, so the best way to deal with them is to avoid the unfair conditions that create them.
--Stars are valuable, and they should know they are valued, but they can become monsters if you let them. No single individual should feel bigger than the company itself or the company’s values. If a star gets too demanding and arrogant other employees will start to resent it. If a star up and leaves, a good rule of thumb is to replace them within 8 hours. That’s an effective way to show everyone that no one is completely irreplaceable.
--Sliders are people who showed promise, but are now giving up on their former passion for one reason or another. These people need to be reenergized, not ignored. Get them back in the game or tell them that the game is over.
--Disrupters are a particular personality type that loves to create opposition even over petty things. Usually they have good performance to hide behind, but their behavior shouldn’t be ignored either. Give them tough evaluations to let them know what needs to change. If they don’t, then get them out of the way of the people who want to do their jobs.
Five. Fight gravity by not taking the middle 70% for granted, but rather by treating them like the heart and soul of the organization. Don’t forget to recognize the achievements and performance variations of the middle 70. Remember that many of your future stars are now in that middle 70. If they don’t get any appreciation and encouragement, some will leave to be where they will be more appreciated. That’s an unfortunate loss that can often be prevented by making sure that people know their ranking is just a snapshot in time that is changeable.
Six. Design the org chart to be as flat as possible, with very clear reporting relationships. It’s quite common, especially in older and larger multinational corporations, for people to not even know where exactly they fit in, what they’re responsible for, and who they report to. Don’t create a lot of “little generals,” but rather make your company as flat as possible. Managers should have 10 direct reports at a minimum and 30 to 50 percent more if they are experienced. Having too many rungs on the ladder convolutes and slows the company’s communication and production, while adding unnecessary cost and complexity.
[edit] Chapter 8: Parting Ways…Letting Go Is Hard to Do
Layoffs and firings are a difficult, yet at times an unavoidable aspect of work that is difficult for both the one let go, and the one letting go. There are 3 general reasons for parting ways: integrity violations, economic downturns, and firing for nonperformance. The latter is often the messiest, but is best dealt with by the following two principles: no surprise and minimal humiliation.
Integrity Violations
If an employee commits an ethical or legal violation, then don’t hesitate to let them go. Make sure the organization knows why, so that the consequences of breaking the rules are clear to everyone.
Layoffs Due to the Economy
These types of layoffs should not come as a shock, because everyone—not just the company’s management—should know how the company is doing as much as possible. You want people to be somewhat mentally prepared if getting laid off is a real possibility. Welch relates the story of a woman he knew who had to let half of her small consulting firm’s employees go after the Internet bubble burst, but because of her “open book” policy none of those let go were bitter or surprised. They were sad, but they understood what was going on with the company. Later when the firm began to grow again, many of the former employees returned to work for the firm.
Firing for Nonperformance
This one is never easy and hard to prepare for. It’s always stressful. With most companies lacking clear guidelines for when you should fire someone for nonperformance, you have to rely on your instincts.
The Three Big Mistakes of Firing
Some firings are clearly needed, while others involve a lot of gray areas about who is at fault and who did what. Moving too fast, not having enough candor, and moving too slow are the three big mistakes that most people make when firing. Firings should not be abrupt if possible. It’s better if people see it coming and clearly know why it’s coming. Candor is one of the big mistakes because when you aren’t upfront about people’s general performance and shortcomings then they will feel misinformed and lied to when you let them go. Every former employee of yours is an unofficial ambassador for your company and may spend the next 20 years either praising or badmouthing your company. How you let people go matters. The next mistake is having people stay on for days after it’s obvious to everyone, including the individual, that they will be let go. This “dead man walking” effect is extremely uncomfortable and demoralizing for everyone. Once a thoughtful decision has been made, do not drag the matter out.
First, No Surprises
If people know where they stand and how the company as a whole is doing, then there will rarely be completely unexpected firings/lay-offs.
Second Minimize Humiliation
You don’t want those whom you are letting go of feel as if they are in a leper colony. Provide a soft landing for them. Offer coaching and encouragement that they will be able to find a job better suited to their talents. Firings will never be enjoyable experiences for anyone, but if handled right they will at least be tolerable.
Chapter 9: Change…Mountains Do Move
Change is inevitable. The question is whether change is by choice, or if you decide to wait until you are forced into change. The problem is that most people resist change and prefer to cling to the familiar, whether it’s working or not.
There are four practices to help you embrace change:
1. Attach every change initiative to a clear purpose or goal. Change just for the sake of it is not smart. Don’t jump on every new management fad that comes around. Change doesn’t mean a frantic and disordering process, it can be relatively orderly, especially if your people understand with their heads and hearts why it’s necessary and where those changes will take them.
2. Hire and promote only true believers and get-on-with-it types. Everyone claims to be open to change, but in Welch’s experience only 10% really are. Another 70-80% won’t lead the charge, but they will follow, and the remaining are typically resisters. Try to avoid hiring resisters in the first place. You can identify true change agents by their high energy, how willing they are to try new things, and if they invent or ask to lead change initiatives on their own. They’re always asking, “Why don’t we…?” They have courage, and are thick-skinned about risk. Dennis Nayden who joined GE Capitol in 1977 is a prime example. He never saw a routine, a process, or a deal that he couldn’t somehow shake up and improve on, and he helped lead the business from a few hundred million dollars in net income to more than $5 billion in 2000.
3. Ferret out and get rid of resisters, even if their performance is satisfactory. This one is tricky because resisters can be very good at what they’re currently doing, although they refuse to do things differently. They won’t accept change no matter how good your case is. However, these people have to go. They lower the morale of everyone else who is open to change. Resisters only become more diehard and entrenched with time, so cut them off early.
4. Look at car wrecks. Don’t just look for the obvious opportunities for change, but also the hidden opportunities that some won’t touch. It requires a strong stomach but the rewards can be huge. When the 1997 Asian financial crisis happened, a lot of people ran. However, GE for example, took advantage of the uncertainty to buy undervalued auto loans. Situations like this one allow numerous companies to go in and pick up valuable assets at attractive prices and start to participate in markets that may have formerly been closed to them.
[edit] Chapter 10: Crisis Management…From Oh-No to Yes-We’re-Fine
Crisis management is like firefighting—they are a cause for great concern and yet they are inevitably going to keep on happening. People don’t always follow rules, markets don’t always cooperate, and the unexpected often comes at inopportune moments. This can require a delicate balancing act. There is no perfect formula for a crisis, but here are some assumptions that can help you get through it.
First, assume the problem is worse than it appears. Don’t go into denial, because that will only let the problem keep growing.
Second, assume there are no secrets in the world and that everyone will eventually find out. Forget about containment, you may as well expose the scope of the problem on your own terms, before someone else comes out and does it for you.
Third, assume that the way you and your company handle the crisis will be seen in the worst possible light. Define your position early on and expect the media and/or your own employees to second guess every move.
Fourth, assume there will be changes in processes and people. Almost no crisis ends without blood on the floor. Real crises don’t fade away; they require real solutions and overhauls.
Fifth, assume your organization will survive, ultimately stronger for what happened. Learn from these hellish moments and move on.
Seeking Immunity
Aside from learning from past history, you can avoid future crises with tight controls of financial and accounting systems, with external auditing, and acting on every audits finding. The second way to avert crises is to have good internal processes such as rigorous hiring procedures, candid performance reviews, and comprehensive training programs. The third way is to continually build a culture of integrity, honest, transparency and fairness. If someone is caught breaking the rules and have to be let go, don’t say they left to “spend time with family.” Let it be known—in painfully clear terms—that they were kicked out the door. Your lawyers might want you to keep quiet, but if you have your facts straight then public examples are a powerful way to send a message to all of your people that bad/illegal behavior isn’t tolerated.
The Anatomy of a Crisis
Some crises explode in a single event like the Exxon Valdez oil spill or Johnson & Johnson finding that bottles of Tylenol had been tampered with, but most start out in fits and spurts. Like the Merck situation, where Vioxx had to be recalled for causing heart attacks, there were early warning signs. Like a snowball heading down the hill, these types of crises just get bigger as they go. However, eventually a crisis will end, and eventually another one will take its place. Keep the previous assumptions in mind and work your way through it.
[edit] YOUR COMPETITION
Strategy
[edit] Chapter 11: It’s All in the Sauce
Strategy isn’t a scientific methodology—it’s a living breathing dynamic game that is fast and fun. Forget scenario planning and yearlong studies and hundreds-plus-page reports. They’re not only time-consuming, but also generally unnecessary. In real life, strategy is the straightforward process of picking a general direction and then implementing the heck out of it. It’s something that you frequently revisit and redefine according to shifting market conditions.
Strategy is an interactive process that can be changed—it’s not life or death. However, you can’t be everything to everybody, nor should you try to be. Strategy means making clear-cut choices about how to compete. If a general strategy is heading in the right direction, is doesn’t necessarily have to be changed all that often, as long as it is supplemented with fresh initiatives.
GE’s strategy has been that commoditization is evil and people are everything. Some companies can win in the commodity game like, Wal-Mart and Dell, by low cost and high quantity, but most need to figure out how to make their products unique and distinctive.
Here are the three steps for making strategy simple:
First, come up with a big “aha” for your business—a smart, realistic, relatively fast way to gain sustainable competitive advantage.
Second, put the right people in the right jobs to drive the “aha” forward.
Third, relentlessly seek out the best practices—inside and out—to adapt them, and continually improve them.
The Right People
Don’t just lead with speeches; lead with powerful people who don’t just talk, but who actually implement. Match people to the right jobs, and don’t always try to pigeonhole people. Some employees will be specialists by nature, but often good people are multi-faceted and can do more than one thing.
Best Practices and Beyond
Some would say that best practices aren’t a sustainable competitive advantage because they are easy to copy. That’s nonsense. Companies don’t have to merely imitate, but they can imitate and improve. Companies on the search for best practices are thirsty, learning organizations that are always open to finding a better way—inside or outside of the company. Yum! Brands Inc. is a case in point. Yum!, the 1997 spin-off from Pepsi-co composed of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver’s, and A&W All America Food considers each of its thirty-three thousand outlets a laboratory of ideas that work. In seven years it used this “best practice” approach to turn capitalization from 4.2 billion to 13.5 billion—simply from sharing and stretching ideas.
[edit] Chapter 12: Budgeting
Reinventing the Ritual
Budgeting can suck the energy, time and fun out of big dreams. Most companies win despite their budgeting, not because of it. That doesn’t mean financial planning is all bad. Numbers do have to be kept track of, but not the way most do it.
Budgets, the Wrong Way
Before describing how to devise budgets the right way, lets look at the two killing dynamics that are the norm—Negotiated Settlement and the Phony Smile.
Split the Difference
Negotiated Settlement is the most common mistake. It pits the interests of the people in the field to minimize risk and maximize bonus with targets they absolutely know they can hit, against the interests of senior managers who are rewarded for increased earnings. The field wants to keep projections comfortably low, and executives want projections to be ambitiously high. Finally after a fight, the two sides split the difference. Every year this awful ritual repeats itself.
Everyone Make Nice
This second budgeting dynamic involves the field mangers coming up with a detailed plan and submitting it to corporate managers who smile and nod their heads, and then sends the field half of what they asked for, with higher projections than their detailed plan supports. It causes resentment and a wane in enthusiasm, and the budget is spread like bread crumbs across all of the departments instead of being focused where it should be.
A Better Way
Why not budget in a way where both the field and headquarters have shared goals? This kind of plan can help ferret out opportunities, identify obstacles, and stretch dreams to the sky.
The pertinent questions with operational budgeting are:
How can we beat last year’s performance?
What is our competition doing, and how can we beat them?
Under this kind of operational planning, numbers aren’t cast in stone. They change as circumstances change, freeing the company from the shackles of a budget document that has become obsolete and irrelevant. Under this plan, compensation for individuals and businesses does not link performance to budget; it links compensation to beating the prior year and the competition.
For example, at GE Appliances was having a brutal time in 1995 and Plastics were soaring. With the old budgeting system, Plastics would have gotten big bonuses and Appliances a lump of coal, but by looking at the big picture they both got similarly increased payouts. Why? Although Plastics earning had beaten their plan, competitors had significantly exceeded it. Appliances, on the other hand, had done significantly better than most of its competitors, despite having not met projections.
A Word of Caution
This kind of flexible budgeting isn’t always easy to implement. There will be diehards who can’t let go of the old link between targets and bonuses. They’ll pretend to buy in, but at the end of the year they’ll take their stretch goal and treat it like a commitment number and use it to hit their employees over the head with it. That type of management stinks. If you beat people up for not meeting targets, you can expect them to start dreaming very small the next time around.
[edit] Chapter 13: Organic Growth
So You Want to Start Something New
It can be exhilarating to start something new within something old, such as launching a new product line or service, or moving into a new market. It’s not only a blast, but it is one of the most rewarding paths to growth.
The problem is that few corporate managers are keen on sending half of their best people to start up a facility halfway around the world, or to pour R&D dollars into risky new technologies. Therefore companies will send “expendable” bodies to run new ventures, which is nuts.
Guideline One
Spend plenty up front, and put the best, hungriest, and most passionate people into leadership roles. For a new business to succeed it has to have the best people, not just the most available.
Guideline Two
Make an exaggerated commotion about the potential and importance of the new venture. Start-ups need loud and constant cheerleaders. New ventures should have a special place on the CEOs priority list. Sure, you’ll look dumb if you fail, but that’s part of the gamble. Welch made a huge hoopla over XFL, the new extreme football league that failed miserably and cost GE $60 million in losses, but even with the risk that the media will poke fun at your failures, you’ve got to throw your support behind new ventures or they are already doomed.
Guideline Three
Err on the side of freedom by getting off of the venture’s back. Don’t suffocate the new venture. Give it breathing room, similar to how you would when sending your kid off to college—you want him to take full responsibility for his own life. At first you will call and visit a lot, but when everything seems to be running smoothly you let the rope out. Unlike your kid, it’s alright to replace a new venture’s leaders if needed. However, if it’s working then your aim is to give the new venture more and more autonomy.
If You’re Running the Venture
If you’re the one leading the new show, then chances are that executives are not giving you the money and people you’ll need to be successful. Make sure to fight like hell for it. Get in front of senior management and make your case. Keep in mind that if you’re successful in gaining resources, it will tick off your peers. That’s because established business with fat profit margins hate it when the little risky venture—that is bringing in no income—takes a big chunk of resources that they believe they need more and could use more wisely. Just keep your mouth shut if that annoys you because sooner or later you’ll need their support. The best way to get more autonomy and respect is to earn it.
The Perfect Storm
Every now and then all three of these guidelines go into play and the results are fantastic. When Rupert Murdoch wanted to get into cable news he was willing to spend whatever it took. His first step was to find someone who could run his new venture. Roger Ailes had just left GE in frustration after they took his “baby” away. “America’s Talking”, Ailes venture, had its assets given away to Microsoft as part of a joint-venture MSNBC deal. Rupert swooped in to pick him up immediately. He was bright, bursting with ideas, and eager to show-up GE, which he did, as well as the longtime cable leader CNN. But before that happened, Murdoch made it clear that he was behind Fox News all the way and would do whatever it took, bringing in the best talent he could. The impressive results speak for themselves.
[edit] Chapter 14: Mergers and Acquisitions
Deal Heat and Other Deadly Sins
Voluntary mergers are sometimes portrayed as jovial affairs full of backslapping and talk of synergy, even though both CEOs have been fighting relentlessly over every penny for months. However, after the merger is when the real battle starts. A merger can feel like death for employees on both sides who aren’t sure if they’re going to be keeping their jobs when all of the changes shake out.
Although there are always risks involved, mergers and acquisitions can be a great thing that provides a faster way to profitable growth. A successful merger can mean that 1+1=3 as companies’ competitiveness catapults over night. But first you have to make sure it’s successful.
Here are 7 Pitfalls to avoid in a new merger:
- Don’t think that an “equal” merger can occur.
- Don’t focus so intently on strategy that you fail to take cultural fit into account.
- The acquirer should avoid entering into a “reverse hostage situation” where they make so many concessions that the little guy ends up calling the shots after the deal is done.
- Don’t integrate too timidly. With good leadership it should be complete in 90 days.
- Don’t have “conqueror syndrome” where the acquirer marches in and replaces all of the acquisitions’ managers with its own, which undermines one of the reasons for a merger in the first place—an influx of new talent to pick from.
- Don’t pay too much. That doesn’t mean 5 or 10% too much, but rather so much that the premium can never be recouped in the integration.
- Don’t be resistant. New owners will always pick as manager someone who buys in over a brainy resister. Choose to buy in.
[edit] Chapter 15: Six Sigma
Better Than a Trip to the Dentist
Six Sigma is a business management strategy, originally developed by Motorola that today enjoys wide-spread application in many sectors of industry. In Welch’s opinion nothing compares to the effectiveness of the Six Sigma when it comes to improving a company’s operational efficiency, raising productivity, lowering costs, and building a cadre of great leaders. Even so, for most people talking about Six Sigma feels like taking a trip to the dentist, but done right it can be energizing and rewarding. You just have to really understand what it is behind the technical stuff.
If you want to find out more about the technical side of Six Sigma, then refer to an industry book, but the practical side is all about what makes your customers more “sticky” by helping you meet or exceed their expectations.
From 20,000 feet Six Sigma has two primary applications. First, to remove variation in repetitive tasks, and secondly to ensure that large, complex projects go right the first time. Six Sigma training also has the side effects of boosting critical thinking and discipline.
Keep in mind that Six Sigma isn’t for every corner of the company, such as in creative activities like writing advertising copy, new marketing initiatives, and so forth. It’s meant for repetitive internal process and complex new product design.
So Why the Panic?
So why then does Sigma 6 cause such a panic if it is so straightforward? Probably because of how it is initially presented to people. Usually it is “outsiders” who come in to “preach the new gospel” with PowerPoint slides that would freak out any MIT grad with their complexity. However, eventually people come around to see and appreciate its power after they’ve seen it in action for a few months.
[edit] YOUR CAREER
[edit] Chapter 16: The Right Job
Find It and You’ll Never Really Work Again
With life and careers, you can only live it forward and understand it backward. If you ask most successful people about their first jobs they will respond with laughter. The CEO of Proctor & Gamble, A.G. Lafley, thought he was going to be a professor of renaissance history. Meg Whitman did a little of everything and it makes sense that she ended up CEO of eBay, the retailer of “everything,” but there was nothing “planned” about it, because eBay didn’t even exist until recently.
It’s impossible to tell where a career will take you. Ideally, each job shows you what you do and don’t like to do and the next job is a closer fit until one day you realize that you are in the right job. You’ll like what you are doing and are fine with the trade-offs. Few jobs are perfect. You might love the work, but wish the paycheck was more substantial, or only like the work but love your colleagues and so forth. However, a job you’ll enjoy does exist, and it’s just a matter of finding it. Fortunately most jobs send out signals if they’re right for you before you even accept.
Good Signs it’s the Right Job:
- You like and relate to the people you’ll be working with.
- There is opportunity for growth as a person and professionally.
- The job increases your credentials.
- You are taking this job for yourself, not for someone else, or at least you are at peace with your concession.
- The work feels fun, energizing, meaningful, and it even touches something primal in your soul.
Be Concerned if…
- You feel like you’ll have to put on a persona at work, and can’t imagine actually being real friends with your coworkers.
- You’re being hired as an expert and you’ll likely be the smartest person in the room.
- The industry has peaked or the company, for a number of reasons, won’t advance your future career options.
- You are taking the job to please your spouse, or even to show-up the schoolteacher who said you’d never amount to anything.
- The job feels like work and you’re already hoping something better will come along later.
A Word About Pay
Money isn’t everything, but it matters a lot. It may seem noble to think that money doesn’t matter, but you need to be realistic about how much money really does matter to your present circumstances and future.
People
The people you work with can make or break an otherwise perfect job. Working with people you don’t like is a form of torture. Knowing that, it’s somewhat surprising how many people accept jobs with organizations that are not a good match for their sensibilities. Welch relates the story of a woman he knew that had an MBA and became a manager for a nonprofit after graduation. A few years later she was at wits end with how slowly everything got done, from picking a lunch spot to coming up with a marketing plan. “Nobody can ever feel ‘not heard.’ Everybody has to reach consensus. It’s driving me crazy! This organization has all the right intentions, but nothing ever gets done.”
Claire realized that she was never going to be happy in that kind of environment, but when she tried to get a job with a more fast-paced consulting firm more suited to her personality, they told her that her previous experience didn’t prove that she could keep up with their fast-paced environment and she got turned down. Claire is currently still in the same job, frustrated as ever. Just remember that an ideal job is not really going to be ideal with the presence of shared sensibilities.
Opportunity
Don’t take a job that doesn’t feel at least somewhat challenging and like you’ll be able to learn something from it. It should make you think, “I can do most of the work, but there are certainly skills and knowledge this job requires that I don’t have yet. I’m going to learn something here.” A stretch job does increase your chances of screwing up, but if you join a company that values learning then your mistakes won’t be fatal.
Robert Bagby, who runs the brokerage firm A.G. Edwards admits that he’s taken on real stretch jobs twice in his career, 26 years apart. The first one was when he began as a broker and the second when he was named CEO of A.G. Edwards. Both times he felt over-whelmed and uncomfortable, but after a year he got on solid footing with the job and started having fun again.
Options
Even if the job won’t help you learn and stretch while you are there, it should at least make you more marketable when you leave. Working for some companies is like winning and Olympic medal, and confers instant prestige on you wherever you go. Obviously, you should not let the employee brand phenomenon totally drive your decision. Sometimes your best fit is with a smaller company that offers great opportunities, such as working more closely with the CEO, managing employees sooner, and so forth. Just be aware that every job has the potential to increase your options in some ways and shut them down in others.
Ownership
Know what you’re passionate about and don’t be afraid to go work in that industry. Welch relates a story of a young man that was obsessed with car design who would have been happier heading off to work in Detroit after college, but he resigned himself to banking on Wall Street 80 hours a week because, “My dad says the car business is not what I went to Harvard for.”
We all have reasons, obligations and considerations for why we can’t do exactly what we want, but over the course of your career, your own “Detroit” will start calling. Answer if you can, or at least make peace with the reasons why you don’t. However, there are jobs out there that could be meaningful to you, even if they wouldn’t be for someone else.
Those Special Cases:
Finding Your First Real Job
For those with great grades from an impressive university, this can be easy. For someone with an average academic record, this can be trickier. You have to sell yourself, but be genuine about it. Authenticity is the best selling point you’ve got, so admit honestly what you don’t have while focusing on the traits you do have that will help you become a success anyway. Be comfortable with yourself and who you are and that will send a positive message to those considering giving you a job.
If You’re Stuck in a Position and See No Way Out
So you’re in a position in which you’re not going to escape for one reason or another: your company doesn’t promote internally, your immediate boss isn’t ever going anywhere and seems to want to make sure you don’t either, and so forth. It will make you want to quit, but don’t! The best way to get a job is to have one already where you are performing terrifically. Double your efforts to perform well and then put feelers out there to let people know you are thinking of moving.
Finding a Job After Being Let Go
Welch relates having lunch with a former GE executive who was let go for non-performance. The former executive went on to have a very successful career elsewhere. Impressively, he didn’t get defensive or depressed about his situation. He took ownership for what happened and moved on to an even more rewarding career.
Don’t let a firing or lay-off hurt your self-esteem. It happens, and it happens to talented and bright people who go on to have very successful careers. Don’t let yourself spiral into the “vortex of defeat.” Don’t wait too long before you start looking for work. At interviews if you are asked why you left your last job, don’t lie. Managers know what “I left for personal reasons” really means. Say what happened, what you learned from it, and then ask for a chance to prove yourself. Someone will give it to you.
[edit] Chapter 17: Getting Promoted
Sorry, No Shortcuts
The truth is that luck does play a role in promotions, for better and for worse. Sometimes you’ll run into the right person at the right time and incredible things happen for you. Other times you get passed over for opportunities at no fault of your own, and sometimes that even turns out to be a good thing when an even better opportunity comes along.
Unfortunately, nepotism and office politics also play a role in who gets promoted, but don’t even go there. Over time, luck plays a smaller role than the factors that are in your control, such as delivering sensational performance that is far beyond expectations and consistently beyond your job’s official duties.
The Power of Positive Surprise
Don’t just focus on meeting performance goals. A more effective way to get promoted is to expand your job’s horizons to include bold and unexpected moves that improve not only your own performance, but also the performance of your boss and team members. Early in Welch’s career at GE he was helping to develop a new plastic and was asked to give an update. He stayed at work late for a week analyzing the economics of the new plastic, including creating a 5-year outlook compared to products made at DuPont and other competitors. His boss and the VP were more than a little impressed that he had done so much more than they’d expected.
Your Own Worst Enemy
Don’t make your boss use her political capitol in order to defend you. If you don’t live up to the company’s values and behaviors, you run the risk of forcing your boss into that position. Welch relates the contrasting stories of two promising new hires. James was bright and provided fantastic results, but he always had to do it on his own terms, which ended up upsetting too many people. For example, he’d only come in to work at 10:00 a.m. even though other line managers came in at 8:00 a.m. He’d stay later to make up the hours, but it just didn’t sit well with the other employees, and a lot of people didn’t want to work with him, and he eventually had no opportunities open to him. Kevin, on the other hand was the ultimate team player, who was equally as bright as James but never made his bosses have to defend his actions. It didn’t take long before he was offered a VP position with GE, but by then he had other even more attractive offers with other companies and went on to be a successful CEO of multi-billion dollar corporations with all kinds of doors open to him.
Other Political Capital Drains
Be open and honest when sharing information. Being too guarded makes you seem like you’re hiding something or being dishonest. Another common mistake is when people wear their career goals on their sleeves. With a clear case of “career lust,” they frequently tear down those around them to make themselves look better, or they monopolize meetings or hog credit that belongs to others as well. If you have this problem then fight it, or there won’t be enough political capitol in the world to save you, because its very hard to champion someone over the clamor of objecting coworkers.
Furthermore…
Here are some other ways to improve your chances of a promotion:
- Manage your relationships with your subordinates with the same care you manage your relationship with your boss.
- Get on the radar screen by being an early champion of your company’s major projects or initiatives.
- Have a positive attitude and spread it around.
- Know that there isn’t one right mentor; there are many right mentors that you can learn from over the course of your career.
Also, don’t let the time where you don’t get promoted break your stride, but rather keep on being genuinely positive and renew your efforts to do a good job. Sooner or later your excellence will be rewarded, and you will have the opportunity to prove any doubters wrong. Luck plays a role in things, but the truth is that people largely create their own luck by wanting something and going after it.
[edit] Chapter 18: Hard Spots
That Damn Boss
Good bosses can be great friends, coaches, allies, and sources of inspiration all in one. They can shape and advance your career in ways you never expected and positively impact your entire life. On the other hand, a bad boss can nearly kill you!
Bad bosses come in many forms. Some steal your credit, or they’re incompetent, or they kiss up but kick down, or they’re moody, play favorites, or are just plain bullies. Some do all of these things, leaving you to wonder how on earth did they ever got promoted in the first place. Bottom line is that there are jerks in the world and chances are that at one point or another, one of these jerks will be your boss. However, you can decide to not play the victim. Don’t feel sorry for yourself because that won’t get you anywhere, as it’s completely self-defeating.
Why is my boss acting like a jerk?
Sometimes the answer is obvious: Because he simply is a jerk. He might be fine with his superiors and equals but treats everyone “beneath” him like they’re beneath him. However, if your boss seems to have it out especially for you, then you need to start asking yourself what you did to draw his disapproval. Basically, you want to find out what’s going on. Think hard about your performance, your attitude toward authority, your contribution as a team member, and press yourself for the ways you may have fallen short. It’s hard to take a critical look in the mirror, but it’s an effective way to determine what your boss has against you. In any case, you will need to address it with your boss.
When you approach your boss about it, make sure that you are not defensive or accusatory. Your goal is to find out what it is that your boss, for one reason or another, hasn’t been able to convey to you. Be glad if your boss comes forward with the perceived shortcomings or attitude adjustments that he would like, so that you can move forward together with a plan to eliminate those concerns. In the end, it will make your life easier.
What’s the endgame for my boss?
Is easy for a company to fire a boss who is a jerk and also underperforms, but unfortunately most companies will hang on to a boss who is a jerk, but has good performance. That’s the harsh truth of it, which leads to the next question.
What will happen to me if I deliver results and endure my bad boss?
If HR or others sympathize with your plight, you will likely be rewarded for sticking it out by either being moved up or sideways. Unfortunately, tattling doesn’t tend to work, just like it never worked well on the playground in grade school. You can go to your boss’ boss and complain, but when your boss finds out he’ll just make your life even more miserable, which is why you should ask the following:
Why do I work here anyway?
It’s rare to find the perfect job, and if you like your job then enduring a bad boss might just be one of the concessions that you are willing to make. But when you’re in a situation where you’ll likely be around a bad boss for a long time, you have to assess your trade-offs and ask, “Are they worth it?”
If you do choose to stick around because the other benefits of your job outweigh your bad boss, then forfeit your own right to complain. You’re not a victim, because you made a choice, and you own your consequences.
[edit] Chapter 19: Work-Life Balance
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Having It All (But Were Afraid to Hear)
Welch explains up front that he’s telling you to do as he says and not as he did, when it comes to work-life balance. He grew up with a generation where men went out and worked all day (and often all weekend) and women stayed at home and took care of almost everything else. In retrospect, it wasn’t ideal for his children, and it certainly isn’t a way that would work for most people in today’s world where women also work outside of the home, and fathers are expected to contribute more equitably to childcare and domestic duties.
However, Welch is an authority on how managers look at the work-life balance in the real world and not just on a company’s recruiting pamphlet. It’s to your advantage to know how your bosses really feel about the issue—regardless of how you think they should feel about it. Here’s what you should keep in mind:
- Your boss’s top priority is competitiveness. Of course, he wants you to be happy, but only as much as it helps your company out. If he’s doing his job right, then your work is so exciting that your personal life is less of a draw.
- Bosses are willing to accommodate a work-life balance if you have earned it with performance. Some people do find a way to have it all, but don’t expect any special passes. In general, the greater your performance, the more flexibility and understanding you’ll get.
- Bosses know that work-life policies are mainly for recruiting purposes and that real arrangements are negotiated one-on-one in the context of a supportive culture, not in the context of “But the company says…!”
- People who publicly struggle with their work-life balance get pigeonholed as ambivalent, entitled, uncommitted, or incompetent—or all of the above. Get your life organized both at work and at home. Figure out what systems and practices work for you, but don’t make an issue of it at work.
- Even the most accommodating bosses believe that work-life balance is your problem to solve. Don’t throw the burden on your boss to figure out what you need to do to be happy.
Priority Management
The concept of work-life balance really entered the mainstream when women entered the workforce, and suddenly mothers were juggling two full time obligations of work and family. The general debate is about how much we should allow our work to consume us. Welch is the type that chose work as his major priority, but there are lots of other valid choices to be made. The thing to keep in mind is that with every choice there is a trade-off. If you choose to focus more on your family or personal life then you will have a closer relationship with them, but you will likely need to give up some of your ambitions at work, and vice versa.
The hard reality for working mothers is that it is more difficult to be a woman with kids in the workforce, and it will likely make it harder to advance in your career. Choices lead to consequences—both good and bad, but these are choices that people need to make and then come to peace with their own decisions. Just make sure that your work-life plan is what you really want out of life, so you don’t wake up in your own special kind of hell someday, where everyone is happy but you. Here are some “best practices to help ensure that this doesn’t happen to you.
Best practice 1: Keep your head in whatever game you’re at.
Your work wants a 150% from you and so does home. The only way to pull it off is to compartmentalize and give work all your focus while you’re working and home all of your focus while you’re at home. Avoid blending your work and home lives as much as possible.
Best practice 2: Have the mettle to say no to requests and demands outside of your chosen work-life balance plan.
Eventually you will find a work-life balance that you enjoy, and then all you’ll have to worry about is sticking to it. But saying no can take discipline. Bill Woodburn, who ran GE’s industrial diamond business in the 1990s, surprised GE by turning down a big promotion because he didn’t want to uproot his daughter who had two years of high school left. Today his daughter is long since graduated and Bill has been promoted twice and is not CEO of GE’s infrastructure business. However, normally you don’t have to say no to a promotion, but you might have to say no to joining yet another non-profit board, or coaching a kid’s sports team. Saying no can be liberating.
Best practice 3: Make sure your work-life balance plan doesn’t leave you out.
Don’t fall into the “everyone’s-happy-but-me” syndrome where work is happy with your performance, and home is happy with your performance, but you’re living in a personal “fun-free vacuum.” Clarify what your boss wants out of you, and what you want out of your career. Also, clarify what you want out of life in general and then do what you need to do.
[edit] TYING UP LOOSE ENDS
[edit] Chapter 20: Here, There, and Everywhere
The Question That Almost Got Away
We’re getting killed by China … how do we stay alive?
China has a massive pool of hardworking laborers and well-educated engineers. Typically, Chinese workers are willing to sacrifice a lot more for their work than Americans will. Yes, China has some advantages, but it isn’t the only country that has something to offer. Again, don’t be a victim. There are also long lists of things that more developed countries have to offer. In the 80s it was the “Japanese threat” and now it’s the “Chinese threat.” Low-cost competitors are not a new phenomenon, and it is not an insurmountable challenge, it just a call for change. Bring out your three old “warhorses” of competition—cost, quality, and service—and drive them to new levels. Keep your eye out for best practices, get rid of product defects, and take advantage of your service advantage. China is thousands of miles away from most developed markets, while you’re likely much closer.
Take a new hard look at your market and search out untapped potential and niches. Even in a “saturated” market there is plenty of room for exciting new products, services, and technologies. China is a real game-changer—there’s no doubt about that—but you don’t win by sitting around and wringing your hands. If you’re up for the challenge and open to new possibilities, it’s a game that you can win.
