Probably ‘Straight from the gut’ is better, but I could not read it still, nevertheless, ‘Winning’ by Jack Welch, is equaling to many management books. ‘Due to his vintage, he belonged to a very small club: people who have spent their whole careers at one company. He joined GE as junior engineer on getting his degree in 1961 after doing his PHD in Chemical engineering.
This book is based on the thousands of questions, which have been asked to the author, and according to him, most of them come down to this: What does it take to win?
Winning lifts everyone it touches-it just makes the world a better place. It is great! Not just good. When companies win, people thrive and grow. There are more jobs and more opportunities. So also when people win, family grows.
Every day in life there is a new question, in fact it is that which keeps us going. And the general advice given is:
‘Have a positive attitude and spread it around, never let yourself be a victim, and for goodness’ sake-have fun.’
The book is divided into four parts, and this is how it goes:
UNDERNEATH IT ALL
Conceptual in nature containing management philosophies namely:
1. MISSION AND VALUES
Mission announces exactly where you are going, and the values describe the behaviors that will get you there. Effective mission statements balance the possible and the impossible. Setting the mission is top management’s responsibility. A mission cannot be delegated to anyone except the people ultimately held accountable for it. In most common scenario, a company’s mission and its values rupture due to the little crises of daily life in business. The disconnections may sound minor or temporary, but when left unattended, they can really hurt a company. In the worst-case scenario, they can literally destroy a business. Eg. Arthur Andersen and Enron.
Missions and values cannot be vague and generic.
We need to take the time. Spend the energy.
Make them real.
2. CANDOR
Lack of candor blocks smart ideas, fast action, and good people contributing all the stuff they’ve got. It’s a killer.
THE CANDOR EFFECT:
i. Candor gets more people in the conversation, and you get idea rich.
ii. Candor generates speed.
iii. Candor cuts costs.
Why Not?
We are socialized from childhood to soften bad news or make nice about awkward subjects.
Eventually, you come to realize that people don’t speak their minds because it’s simply easier not to.
How to get it done?
We need to reward it, praise it, and talk about it. Most of all, you yourself demonstrate it in an exuberant and even exaggerated way.
It is true that candid comments definitely freak people out at first. It is impossible to think of everyone going on saying everything they think; it would be too much of information. Candor works because it unclutters.
3. DIFFERENTIATION
A company has only limited money and managerial time. Winning leaders invest where the payback is the highest. They cut their losses everywhere else.
GE concentrated on strong business that was No. 1 or No. 2 in its market. If it wasn’t, the managers had to fix it, sell it, or as a last resort, close it. Managers at every level have to make hard choices and live by them.
Differentiation form peoples part is the process of assessing the employees and separating them into three categories in terms of performance: top 20% (they are the best and needs to be treated that way), middle 70% (keep them engaged and motivated) and bottom 10% there is no sugar coating this: they must go. They often go on to successful careers at companies and in pursuits where they truly belong and where they can excel.
Differentiation is something that is seen in the playground children play, or in school grades. Not all become doctors right.
Protecting underperformers always back fires, they hurts the people themselves. Differentiation rewards those members of the team who deserve it, and it can be linked to a candid performance appraisal system. It clarifies business and makes it run better in every way.
4. VOICE AND DIGNITY
‘Know what you believe said Rudy Giuliani, and the belief is this: ‘Every person in the world wants voice and dignity, and every person deserves them’.
Everyone’s opinions cannot be put into practice or every single complaint cannot be satisfied. That’s what management judgment is all about. But everyone should be heard and respected. They want it and you need it.
YOUR COMPANY
Deals with the innards of organizations, about mechanics like people, process and culture.
5. LEADERSHIP
There is no easy formula for being a leader. If only!
Leadership is challenging- all those balancing acts, all the responsibility, all that pressure.
And yet good leadership happens, in all kinds of packages: quiet, bombastic, analytical, impulsive, tough, and nurturing. On the surface, you would be hard-pressed to say what qualities these leaders share. On the underneath, the best care passionately about their people, growth and success.
Are leaders born or made? Both. Some qualities like IQ and energy seems to come with this package, on the other you seems to learn some skills like self-confidence.
WHAT LEADERS DO?
i. Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach and build self-confidence. (Use ample praise, the more specific the better.)
ii. Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it.
iii. Leaders get into everyone’s skin, exuding positive energy and optimism.
iv. Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency, and credit. (They never score off their own people by stealing an idea and claiming it as their own.)
v. Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls. (You are not a leader to win a popularity contest-you are a leader to lead. If you’re left with that uh-oh feeling in your stomach, don’t hire the guy.)
vi. Leaders probe and push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions are answered with action. (Don’t be just satisfied with statements that mollifies like ‘we’ll look into it’
vii. Leaders inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example. (just because you’re the boss doesn’t mean you’re the source of all knowledge)
viii. Leaders celebrate. (Work is too much a part of life not to recognize moments of achievement. Grab as many as you can. Make a big deal out of them)
6. HIRING
Every person you hire has to have integrity, intelligence and maturity.
Then there should be the 4-E namely Energy, ability to energize others, edge: the courage to make tough yes or no decision, execute and the P-Passion.
Beyond that at the senior level, look for authenticity, foresight, the willingness to draw on others for advice, and resilience.
Put them all together and those are the people who win.
Then there is few hiring FAQs discussed, and one most common question: What is the one thing to ask in an interview to decide whom to hire, and it is Why the candidate left his previous job and the one before that? Keep digging, dig deep.
7. PEOPLE MANAGEMENT
To manage people well companies should
i. Elevate quality HR to a position of power
ii. Use rigorous, nonbureaucratic evaluation system, monitored for integrity.
iii. Create effective mechanisms-read: money, recognition, and training-to motivate and retain. (Plaques and public fanfare have their place, but without money, rewards lose a lot of their impact.)
iv. Face straight into charged relationships-with unions, stars, sliders and disrupters. (Stars should be replace within 8 hours, sending message that no individual is greater than the company)
v. Fight gravity; treat middle 70% like heart and soul of the organization.
vi. Design org chart to be as flat as possible, with blindingly clear reporting relationships and responsibilities.
This takes time, but matters more, as companies are not buildings, machines or technologies but people.
8. PARTING WAYS
Firings are part of the business but they need not be bitter. It should be managed with little pain and damage as possible. Not all parting are created equal.
Firing for integrity violations-like staling, lying, cheating or any other fom of ethical or legal breach, should be immediate and all should know why, so that there is no breach.
Then there are layoffs due to economic downturns. Every employee should know how the company is doing.
Finally there are firing for non performance.
There should be no surprises, no humiliation. Every person who leaves goes on to represent co. They can badmouth or praise.
9. CHANGE
There are just four practices that matter:
i. Communicate a sound rationale for every change.
ii. Have the right people at your side.
iii. Get rid of the resisters.
iv. Seize every single opportunity, even those from someone else’s misfortune.
10. CRISIS MANAGEMENT
There will be crises, and eventually the flames will die down, and the whole place would be better.
· Know the anatomy of crisis
· Create a plan of action. Keep in mind the five assumptions:
a. The problem is worse than it appears.
b. There are no secrets in the world and everyone will eventually find out everything.
c. You and your organizations handling crisis will be portrayed in the worst possible light.
d. There will be change in the process and people. Almost no crisis ends without blood on the floor.
e. Your organization will survive ultimately stronger for what happened.
· Seek immunity.
a. Tight control
b. Good internal process
c. Culture of integrity.
YOUR COMPETITION
This is about the world outside the organization.
11. STRATEGY
It means making clear-cut choices about how to compete. You cannot be everything to everybody.
· Come up with a big aha for your business-a smart, realistic, relatively fast way to gain sustainable competitive advantage.
· Put the right people in the right jobs to drive the big aha forward.
· Relentlessly seek out the best practices to achieve your big aha, whether inside or out adapt them, and continually improve them.
The steps to test your strategy are:
i. Know what the playing field looks like now.
ii. Know what the competition has been up to.
iii. Know what you’ve been up to.
iv. Know what’s around the corner.
v. Know whats your winning move.
12. BUDGETING
It’s too important. Everyone knows about the Negotiated Settlement and the Phony smile dynamics. But there is another right budget process that can change the way companies compete. It may be awkward at first, but change can begin when you start talking. And the better way is that it should be focused on the two questions:
· How can we beat last year’s performance?
· What is our competition doing, and how can we beat them?
13. ORGANIC GROWTH
Opportunities of every size and variety await you. Grab them. Pick passionate, driven people to lead them, resource them with everything you’ve got, and give them oxygen to breath. There is nothing like the fun and sheer thrill of starting something new.
You are always going to want more autonomy than you get. Your best shot is to earn it. Fight like hell: Even through a few elbows.
14. MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
It means change, and you can reap the rewards of what happens when 1+1=3, is you avoid the seven pitfalls. Six are related to the acquiring company and just one to the acquired:
i. Believing that a merger of equals can actually occur. Despite the noble intentions of those attempting them, the vast majority of MOEs self-destruct because of their premise.
ii. Focusing so intently on strategic fit that you fail to assess cultural fit, which is just as important to a mergers success, if not more so.
iii. Entering into a ‘reverse hostage situation’, in which the acquirer ends up making so many concessions during negotiations that the acquired ends up calling all the shots afterwards.
iv. Integrating too timidly. With good leadership, a merger should be complete within ninety days.
v. Conqueror syndrome, in which the acquiring company marches in and installs its own managers everywhere, undermining one of the reasons for nay merger-getting an influx of new talent to pick from.
vi. Paying too much. Not 5 or 10 percent too much, but so much that the premium can never be recouped in the integration.
vii. One afflicting the acquired company’s people form top to bottom is: Resistance. In a merger, new owners will always select people with buy-in over resisters with brains. If you want to survive, get over your angst and learn to love the deal as much as they do.
15. SIX SIGMA
http://enrichknowledge.blogspot.com/2008/11/six-sigam.html
YOUR CAREER
It’s about managing the arc and the quality of your professional life.
16. THE RIGHT JOB
Find it and you’ll never really work again. The things to be considered while taking up a new job is: people, opportunity, options, ownership, and the work content (stuff). Finding the right job takes time and experimentation and patience. It gets easier the better you are. So choose something you love to do, and then give it your all.
17. GETTING PROMOTED
Sorry, No shortcuts. To get ahead you have to want to get ahead. Some promotions may come by luck, but very few.
Basically; getting promoted takes one do and one don’t:
§ Do deliver sensational performance, far beyond expectations, and at every opportunity expand your job beyond its official boundaries.
§ Don’t make your boss use political capital in order to champion you.
The most reliable way to sabotage yourself is to be a thorn in your organizations rear end.
Also there are four other dos and one more don’t:
§ Manage your relationships with your subordinates with the same carefulness that you manage the one with your boss.
§ Get on the radar screen by being an early champion on your company’s major projects or initiatives.
§ Search out and relish the input of lots of mentors, realizing that mentors don’t always look like mentors.
§ Have a positive attitude and spread it around.
· The don’t is: Don’t let setbacks break your stride.
18. HARD SPOTS-Working for a bad boss.
That Damn Boss. The world has jerks and some of them get to be the bosses. In any bad situation, you cannot let yourself be the victim. Generally speaking, bosses are not awful to people whom they like, respect and need. Think hard about your performance. It is indeed an awful feeling when your boss is not on your side. And you bump into such situation in your career, and if you endure the situation the potential reward could be big! Spend time with people you like, doing what you like, and reviewing business. Be careful. Uncertainty about the final outcome can make you do something foolish-that is, pull an end run. You may feel the impulse to sneak upstairs and talk to your boss’s boss about the situation. But that can be suicide. The big boss may have your best interests at heart when he scolds your boss for his behavior, but you can be absolutely sure that your life will only become more unpleasant afterwards. There is a reason why kids don’t tattle on bullies. Unfortunately, the same principle applies in the office.
19. WORK LIFE BALANCE
It is a swap-a deal you’ve made with yourselves about what you keep and what you give. Understand the reality:
1. Your boss’s top priority is competitiveness. Of course he wants you to be happy, but only in as much as it helps the company win. In fact, if he is doing his job right, he is making your job so exciting that your personal life becomes a less compelling draw.
2. Most bosses are perfectly willing to accommodate work-life balance challenges if you have earned it with performance. The key word here is: if.
3. Bosses know that the work life policies in the company brochure are mainly for recruiting purposes and that real work-life arrangements are negotiated one-on-one in the context of a supportive culture, not in the context of “But the company says…!”
4. People who publicly struggle with work life balance problems and continually turn to the company for help get pigeonholed as ambivalent, entitled, uncommitted, or incompetent-or all of the above.
5. Even the most accommodating bosses believe that work-life balance is your problem to solve. In fact, most know that there are really just a handful of effective strategies to do that, and they wish you would use them.
If you don’t fulfill your own joy with your work life plan, one day you’ll wake up in a special kind of hell, where everyone is happy but you.
TYING UP LOOSE END
Answers nine questions that did not fall into any of the above categories.
20. HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE
Managing the china threat, diversity, the impact of new regulations like the Sarbanes-Oxley act, how business should respond to societal crises like AIDS, how successor, Jeff Immelt is doing, and whether he think he will go to heaven.
Legendry entrepreneurs like Henry Ford, Dave Packard, and Bill Gates are undeniably examples of the excitement and glory of starting something new from scratch and watching it grow to astonishing proportions.
Though this was one of the three books received on renewing subscription to readers digest, a year before, Courtesy: training on leadership by Biju Sir in office, which prompted me to ponder over this book once again.
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