To My Jack Welch Management Institute Family

It All Starts With Why Not?

One of my favourite Pixar’s films is Ratatouille. I am a bit like that little rat Remy. The first time read Jack Welch’s biography and Winning when I was 16; I was like, “CEO?”, that title sounds fancy – kind of similar to what Jack reacted with the title of Dr. Welch. This was how I started the relationship with Jack’s management principles.

Like Remy dived deep into Gusto’s cooking principles, I started to get sucked into Jack’s core values; Integrity, Candour, Leadership and Differentiation. Jack’s principles are like an onion, you need to work hard to peel each layer until you reach the core of the value.

I started wondering about starting a journey following his path, to see where I would end up, and apply his principles to test whether they are real.

I started with candour and integrity but I was too blunt, got slapped a lot by delivering the message straight from my head with no filter – this combined badly with my impatience.

I nearly gave up until I started working in the workshop, to feel and touch the operation as a living and breathing thing, moving along with its trajectory. The communication channel conjugates with the cash flow and human talents, that delivers the energy from one side to the other. It was great to feel the system, and get into people’s skin.

Most of the managers didn’t like shop floor. I treated it slightly different as there is always something valuable out there for me to discover. So why not going into people’s skin? Because we are different in age, gender, ethnicity, industry, skillset, income level, status? Or low self-esteem, a lack of recognition, not heard by others? Try stepping forward; the person who shares the same value with you might not be the one you imagined in your head, however, you will grow each other as mentorship. It’s word that overused, but the meaning underneath it is wire and inspire people.

There is one thing that generates growth in shop floor (in fact, anywhere in the organisation): use differentiation in a correct and adaptive way. Differentiation is a system that helps the teams and organisations to recognise talents and work together for the same purpose, maximise a team’s capability. Often maligned as such, it’s not a punishing tool even when the firing kicks in. That comes with dignity, which means provide growth mindset feedback for the bottom 10%, protect their dignity and confidence level, hopefully they will bounce back in the existing organisation or somewhere else having received proper constructive feedback.

Some people get demoted or laid off by the hiring managers not because of bad performance, but power play. It’s similar to when we have a lot of problems to deal with, we often focus too much on solving, but not focus on problems themselves. It feels good to tick the boxes, but majority of the time we are eliminating our bad feelings instead of dive deep into the issues. So why not try differentiation? Take time to understand the meaning behind it, try it with showing trust, candour and respect, and you will witness something good happens.

Starting the Leadership course helped me to realise what I have gone through was real. A bit like Remy “secretly” working in Gusto’s restaurant; experience the busy kitchen behind those fine dining environments, sense that everything moves fast with well-drilled discipline and passion.

That famous quote from Jack “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” This is true regardless which role you are in; leadership exists everywhere, it doesn’t have to be in the senior level, which means you shouldn’t wait to be a manager to become a leader. So why not give yourself a chance to lead? What holds you back?

Now I get involved more and more in Jack Welch Management Institute, I feel and witness the continuous beauty in equilibrium, yes, it’s a piece of art! It felt so good and overwhelming that I’m part of it and can contribute, meanwhile can learn from everyone who has the JWMI label on; their stories, careers, families, histories, communities and we do have drinks sessions, all virtual for now.

You never know what you will experience the next day, and that’s the most amazing thing that happens in my life. Passion in career for me is simple: find it and you will never really work again. So why not put your mind and heart in this program? There is nothing to lose, you will get taken care of by people like me are over passionate about your growth, and try to help you identify your 4E and 1P, share tricks of how to get the most out of the courses, swap books and learning materials, have brain buzzing a lot and still can’t get enough out of it. Most of all, have fun when we deal with business, it’s a great game, once you taste of having fun and joy, I guarantee you, there is nothing can take you away from it!

Two quotes to wrap up:

Gusto from Ratatouille: “Anyone can cook!”

Jack Welch: “Leaders aren’t just born. They’re made!”

References:

1.   Welch, J&S. (2005). Winning. New York: Harper Collins

2.   Welch, J&S. (2015). The Real Life MBA. Harper Collins

3.   Welch, J. and Byrne, A, J. (2001). Jack: Straight From The Gut. Warner Books Inc.

4. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382932/