An Interview with Jack Welch on Leadership and the Welch Way

so Jack get off new it's been probably three months since we first met again you know wait honor to meet you then but it truly is an honor to have this opportunity to spend time with you and especially to ask you some questions on behalf of all the team at SkillSoft I think Jackie you don't need any introduction from me you know you're one of the most influential and respected leaders business leaders and in the world and you know I when I think about you jack I think there are very few people that you could describe as a rockstar business but I really do think about you as a rock star in business and I spoken to lots of people and most people say you could count the number of rock stars and business may be on one hand and you're certainly one of them and when I ask people your name comes up all the time your accomplishments that G have been legendary and when you think about you know the big companies today in the world the big technology companies and most valuable companies in the world Google Apple those sorts of organizations you really set the benchmark for the world's most valuable company not just in terms of its own value but in terms of your leadership the culture you created there and I know that the sage of Omaha Warren Buffett described your book the book winning as the only business book that you really need to read so with that I'm going to ask you a few questions if that's okay nice well thanks for having a check when we met I realized then that you're really passionate about the Welsh way and really passionate about the Institute and your students and what you're doing can you tell us a bit more about that why you're doing it bill I've been involved in education all my life and business I spent a day a month at croton bill our educational center G when I was there I'm in pry private equity for the last 15 years with 74 companies ranging from as low as 200 million dollars in revenues to 20 billion and so our experience across a lot of these big businesses and there's nothing like winning and getting people engaged and seeing people light up and seeing them grow watching a team grow and change their lives is what this is all about what these programs you the Welsh way is keep people a sense of purpose give them a sense of sense action teach them how to be great leaders how they can grow their people the challenge of leadership is all about how many people have you made better because you've been there and touch them and that's what these welds way programs are aimed at doing in a small company to a medium-sized company to a larger company size makes no difference how you engage with your teams and make them winners make them the place to be so tell me where did you get this love of learning from where did it come from I'm just curious it Bob by nature but what I really love doing is seeing people grow I mean I got my if you will a little pile of money pretty early in my life so for the last 40 years I've been watching other people's piles grow and that is so good when they buy second homes whether they're free to quit what they want to do what they want when they are having exciting jobs where their job is the place to be where they don't wake up both Jesus I gotta go in again no well they they hate sandy coming because they're dyin to get more done because their teams are turned on there they're celebrating all the time they're partying would success all these things build business is a game it's no different in a sport the team of the best players wins and you this is a way that once weighed courses teach people how to get the best team in place how to make them work as a team and how to grow and growth is like an elixir without growth you got nothing Chuck I read this quote from you before you become a leader success is about growing yourself and when you become a leader success is about growing others and you say and I've seen you quoted in several different places that you say that some of your best business decisions were about voting other people talk to me about about that about promoting people you should celebrate your friends promotion it's all part of it what I call a generosity gene where people are excited to give raid races where they're excited to help people grow whether it will wear their turned on and they always have their people's back and the success of that people is key to their own lives like I always ask recruits when I when I meet some of the outside for a promotion I'm hiring from the outside I always ask him how many people have you promoted in the last year tell me about your best five success stories that's what you want to know how many people have they made winners we teach that in Welsh way courses relish other's success um I know how important can do is to you and especially in the workplace it's really important to me I sometimes think when I talk in the business occasionally people say to me that I sometimes too honest but actually sometimes I think people want you to be honest about everything that's going on in an organization will know that we're going through some change at SkillSoft so why is Kanda important to you and what what advice can you give give us about condo and why it's important for SkillSoft candid is really transparency it's opening up to come over it's getting to look at how the business really works when you have candor you get in a meeting and you lay the cards on the table everyone has the same facts when everybody has the same facts ville they generally come to pretty much the same conclusion the problem is they don't be the same time they get spin in this businesses and all that stuff so what candid us it creates enormous speed and organization speed is the elixir for winning and if you got speed and you're moving quickly and making rapid decisions because you all the facts out there you got a better organization you got a healthier organization so candor leads to speed simplicity leads to speed you want speed in today's world in particular now G 30 years ago speed was less critical it is today today you've got to be faster than ever and we talked about this all the time you talked about winning a lot and I wanted to understand what winning means to you and if you think about particular the people at skillsoft who are out in the field now their job we're all here to win with our job is about winning every day what advice can you give them about winning and why it's so important well will you get up every day and you go ahead and fight the battle winning changes the whole spirit let's take the locker room after a World Series or a soccer game you want to be in the losers locker room with a towel draped around your head or do you want to be popping the champagne cork where would you rather hang out it's just a whole different spirit when you win you can give back when you win you can control more of your own personal destiny so you want to be a winner because when you're a winner your job security goes up exponentially your flexibility in the organization goes up exponentially and you then control your own destiny and as a winner you want you can rail on other one is winning is a great thing it's fun look work is fun if you don't make work fun if you don't make it a game you're missing a big part of your life because you're spending most of your waking time plug it away however if you're winning it's not doesn't feel like plugging away it's exhilarating what do you think the common behaviors of winners are positive energy excited and curious love the fray I got me you go to an account for example and somebody else is selling something there that at that account damn it you want to win you want to get that account and what happens when you get that account you have a party you celebrate you bring the team together that helped you get the account look celebrating is the most underrated management tool in the world when you've got to find the littlest things to celebrate recognize take care of people don't get involved in what the company is doing get involved what you can change you've got a unit this woman has 62 people were working for good size you would she's been there 25 years I said don't be bitching if they wanna cool about your boss and the boss's boss take those 62 people and get results there that blow the world upon where everyone's coming over to see your how is star Z doing that she's getting 62 people all turned on all winning the results are fantastic they all come to you as the role model that's what you want so do what you control don't win a working on Jesus the CEOs a jerk or the other guy's a jerk if they only knew what do what you can fix but make your place the place to be make your organization the hot spot where everyone's saying I want to work for Don I want to be there you you mentioned hey chart you'll know that a lot of our clients are mainly HR people yeah so you talked about the importance of the HR person in the in the organization I think you've talked about this rule of the parson and the parent can't explain that to us yeah I really believe that if you really believe that the winners and the people who best with the best teams on the field and make them operate as a team HR in my view was always the number one function more important than ants anybody can add the numbers up anybody can do all that stuff but I wanted T people who would tell it straight as HR people and could be trusted with the people for example every HR person I ever had was a pastor I would call him pastor and parrot as a pastor they would keep secrets they would let me people tell him why I was a jerk oh why I was doing something wrong but they would flush it out with him but then they wouldn't come in and say Jack I want you to know that Billy over there is doing bad thing they would build confidence with the people so that people would come to them and trust them right that's the pastor side of it the parents side of it is you get a chick in the ass when you're off base and that person does it quietly but they lay it on its a parent but i'll tell you a pastor keeps confidences guides people and a parent tells it straight and that's what great HR people do they build that one word TR you st trust with the people not with me I don't want them kissing my butt I want them taking care of those people and those people who can come and talk to them in confidence when I speak to our clients they talk to me about two big challenges they've got right now everybody of course is concerned about making money and all those important things that they they all care about but the two things that are uppermost in their mind are retaining the people they've got and attracting new people to their organizations what advice can you hear from Jack make your place the place to be grow you've got to have growth I mean do you think Google's having trouble trouble hiring people everywhere never had trouble when I was there I the smaller companies we I'm where I'm working with now what's turning people on have no trouble if you've got to make you place the place to be now the stock helps the stock market is a big deal the atmosphere polling about is it a good place to work it's a big deal whether it be glass door or whatever people are looking at that stuff and you've got to make your place jesus what a great place where now I know all the flaws of lost door and I know you get the complainers and that but generally speaking you need reputations so bill it's the challenge of the CEO and the team leadership team to create an atmosphere of excitement and remember business is a game games are fun when is a better than losers that's all it's about it's not a complicated thing it's human nature squared advice um the other thing they talk about is this millennial generation and one of your own thoughts on managing so everybody says these Millennials have very different expectations to everybody else and we've got a another generation called generations that coming behind them what are your thoughts on dealing with their expectations I don't think that that much different than anybody else it may not be a popular phrase to say they get their nose against the glass they want an atmosphere where truth is truth and trust are out there where people give them transparency where they don't have this covered glass if you will where the air blows through where it's a meritocracy where they see rationale for everything they want things explained to them this is why we made this move this is why Billy got promoted and Mary didn't while Mary drop a voter than Billy didn't they want to know transparency I used to love iced love it more than anything in these companies are letting people know everything there are no secret when you run a company with no secrets it's nothing but fun but when you have these secret cabal's that the water cooler is filled with people trying to get around it to gossip gossip is a sin you want the thing open nobody can gossip and say that his word here's what's his facts I his why we did this is why we bought this company here's why we didn't do this and we screwed up here and we got this one right look you don't make him all right but you tell everybody you made it I said well when I made an acquisition of Kidder Peabody that turned out to be all I best for bank that turned out wrong I used to go to the education my songs on said if I can screw this up this family and be in the front page of The Wall Street Journal every week for being a jackass you should be taking chances I mean that's the way it is that no secrets you talk a lot about work-life balance and the fact that you have to earn it can you explain to us what you mean by that I think there are two things about there's like work like them I don't think there's such a thing as work-life balance I think their work life choices you make choices and choices have consequences like for example you don't want to you want to work remotely okay you're not there all the time when there's a fire drill of the guy is going you might not be the first person they think of when the promotion spent okay you've got a lifestyle that works we have a lot of people people in our business they're just not probably going to be mentioned attracted at the same moment now that's not in the end of all thinking that's just reality when you're in the face in the trench the bullets are flying and you're not there when the opportunities come I talked about word right balance earning you chips because you were there doing all kinds of stuff the company could count on you you get chips in the bank so that when you want to take some extra time go somewhere do something fulfill a dream whatever the company says I need you sure you made all those chits you're in the bag I'll take care you take the time you owe you also talk about the rewards of the wallet and the soul don't tell me about what you mean by that some some companies love to give plaques can I see a plaque I want to throw in the ocean God plaques a good recognition and that's a reward in the soul but I want to reward one on the wallet and one in the soul so when I do something great or i see people doing something great I want to make a meaningful financial contribution to that as well as a plat fine and I don't mean to demean plaques but plaques by themselves just don't do it Jack I know how important learning and teaching is to you but I know equally giving back is also important to tell me a little bit about giving back and why it's so important well I think you know the best thing when you do if they've been lucky enough to come from nothing to a good job and a good life is to find ways to you back now I have scholarships everywhere for kids that were in the spot I was in that didn't have scholarships but but that's part of it but the most important thing I do is my school I love this Jack Welch management soup we're now up to 1,400 students we 1402 MBAs and five years we had our first graduation last June in Washington on the mall and we had we've now had 500 graduates but we had those 900 people there and they came across the stage and I was given out the diplomas and it started slowly where I would say not say congratulations it's a two promotions since I did here then they started a rumble and the h1 came across and said thirty percent raises I've been here uh for promotions incredible stories of success the stories of success in our school are the most silly I could have flown back without a plane I mean of all the things that I have ever done in my life this education thing with at school and the resultant teaching people how to leave and build great teams Dwarfs any I've ever done it's the most exciting thing I've ever touched well Jack hearing you say that reminds me of what a great privilege it is for a skill self to be working with you on this program thank you so much for your time thank you Bill thank you so much i love the pro pro grip and i love the partnership thank you you

Channel: Australasian Leadership Academy

Views: 7,050

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Id: vUYQ8D1oRbc

Length: 21min 12sec (1272 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 14 2016