A Great Boss

From the first day I joined GE in 1982, I felt like I worked for Jack Welch – and that was all right by me. He was a brilliant, aspirational leader. Jack was always direct, but his frankness was appealing and effective. His informality and accessibility made GE a team, and we all loved working for him because he wanted the people around him to succeed. He was the best boss I have ever seen.

There has been so much written about Jack. But if I were asked to name the most important lesson he taught me it would be how to lead an enterprise at scale. There are things he did that any leader can do, whether at a big industrial company or a small start-up. And in this area, he was the best I have ever seen.

He created an aura that he nurtured through informality and access. Everyone felt they worked for Jack. There was always a sense that everybody counted and that each individual voice mattered. Managers were expected to be out of their offices and known to all, while bureaucrats who holed up behind closed doors were shown the door. Employee surveys and engagement scores were taken seriously. Bad managers couldn’t hide. Substance always trumped protocol. Jack paid little attention to layers or organizational charts. He’d call anyone himself.

He created horizontal cohorts of managers. Even when they were in different GE businesses, managers were expected to be able to execute and drive change across the company. Special attention was paid to the top cohort of 500. At this level, he controlled compensation and promotions. “You work for me, the businesses just rent you,” he said.

He built process + instrumentation + accountability. People knew what to expect from Jack. Under him, every business had a few well-established operating mechanisms. These spanned operations and strategy and talent. Every meeting was a learning opportunity in which decisions were made and best practices shared. Jack could be bombastic – he upped the theater quotient in many meetings – but people enjoyed interacting with him. Meanwhile, metrics mattered and they kept us accountable.

He dominated the communication channels. He controlled the messaging. Communication was segmented. Good leaders have a voice for the company (thousands), a room (hundreds), a meeting (10 people and up), and an individual. Good leaders know how to communicate to a cohort, horizontally, in an organization. Jack understood the context and the impact of each group. He would change the tone and vocabulary. Once when I was running the Healthcare business, Jack came to visit to give me my review. He chewed my ass. A moment later, he went next door to meet with some union leaders. He was charming and engaging – a different person.

He set priorities. Jack was clear about what was important. Priorities are critical if you want to execute at scale. At the same time, he was open to a good idea. 

He wanted people to succeed. A lot has been made of Jack’s performance management, i.e. “rank and yank.” But we invested a lot in motivation and training. We got excellent performance from normal people in the middle of the pack. I marveled at Jack’s ability to give people a chance to grow. He treated HR people with respect and valued talent. This is in stark contrast with what I see in the start-up world, where HR is treated like an afterthought and recruiters have a dominant voice. Jack trusted his own instincts on people. 

We will all miss Jack. God bless him and his family.