How to Be a Good Leader

By jack Welch, LLC.

Reprinted by permission of

HarperCollins Publishers

 

During his long career as General Electric CEO, Jack Welch mentored a generation of future CEOs. Here, he gives his “rules of the games”

 

1

One day, you become a leader. On Monday, you’re talking and laughing with colleagues and gossiping about how stupid management can be. Then on Tuesday, you are management. You’re a boss.

 

During my talks with students, managers and entrepreneurs, leadership questions invariably were asked. “What does a leader really do?” and “I was just promoted and I’ve never run anything before. How can I be a good leader?” These kinds of questions have pushed me to make sense of my own leadership over 40 years. I ran teams with only three experienced people and divisions with 30,000. I managed businesses that were dying and ones that were bursting with growth. And yet, some ways of leading always seemed to work. These became my eight “rules.”

 

1.      Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team.

 

The team with the best players usually does win. That is why, very simply, you need to invest the vast majority of your time and energy as a leader in three activities.

 

Evaluate: Make sure the right people are in the right jobs, support and advance those who are, and move out those who are not.

 

Coach: Guide, critique and help people improve their performance in every way.

 

Build self-confidence: Pour out encouragement, care and recognition. Selfconfidence energizes and gives people the courage to stretch, take risks and achieve beyond their dreams.

 

2.      Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, but they also live and breathe it.

 

Leaders have to set the team’s vision and make it come alive. How do you achieve that? First of all, no jargon. Targets cannot be so blurry they can’t be hit. You have to talk about the vision constantly to everyone. If you want people to live and breathe the vision, “show them the money” when they do, be it with salary, a bonus or significant recognition.

Vocabulary Focus

invariably (adv) [in5veEriEb(E)li] always; unchangingly

relentlessly (adv) [ri5lentlisli] continuing in a severe or extreme way

pour out (v) to express something without holding back

如何做个好领导

许美鸾 译

 

杰克·韦尔奇在长期担任通用电气公司执行官的生涯里，指导了日后一个时代的执行官。本文提供他的“游戏规则”

 

1

有一天，你会成为领导者。星期一，你和同事聊天，一起嘲笑和闲聊管理阶层有多愚蠢。然后到了星期二，你就是管理阶层，晋升上司之列。

我和学生、经理及企业家谈话时，有关领导的议题总不免被问起。如“领导者到底要做些什么？”以及“我刚升官，以前从没做过管理的工作，我要如何做个好领导者？”之类的问题，促使我思索、分析自己40多年的领导经验。我带过仅有3个有经验的成员的团队和多达3万人的部门，管理过快倒闭的公司和蓬勃成长的企业，不论何者，有些领导方法似乎仍然适用，它们就形成我的8个“规则”。

 

1. 领导者提升团队不遗余力。

拥有最好队员的团队通常都会赢。不证自明地，这就是你身为领导者需要在3方面投入大量时间和精力的原因：

✦ 评估：务必让人才适得其所，支持和提升那些身处合适岗位的人，调开那些被错置的人。

✦ 指导：指引、评判及协助属下改进各个方面的表现。

✦ 建立自信：尽量表达鼓励、关心及肯定。自信能振奋人心，带来勇气，使他们能大显身手、冒险，以及达到超乎想象的成就。

 

2. 领导者务必使属下不仅看到远景，而呼吸生活于其中。

领导者必须定下团队的远景并且使它真实可信，如何做到呢？首先，不要唱高调。目标不能太模糊以致于做不到。你必须常向每个人谈到这个远景。如果你要大家呼吸生活于远景中，就要在他们这么做的同时“让他们看到报酬”，不论是加薪、红利或有实质意义的肯定均可。