by Jack Welch
So, let’s go beyond them. From our experience, the first essential trait of leadership is positive energy—the capacity to go-go-go with healthy vigor and an upbeat attitude through good times and bad. The second is the ability to energize others, releasing their positive energy, to take any hill. The third trait is edge—the ability to make tough calls, to say yes or no, not maybe. The fourth trait is the talent to execute—very simply, get things done. Fifth and finally, leaders have passion. They care deeply. They sweat; they believe.
As you may have figured, positive energy and the ability to energize are pretty hardwired. They’re basically personality. Similarly, passion feels inborn. Some people just seem to come fully loaded with intensity and curiosity; they naturally love people, life, and work. It’s in them. It is them.
Edge and the ability to execute are different. New hires rarely show up with them in polished form, and even middle managers benefit from training in both. But the best teacher for these two traits is trench warfare. That’s because edge and execution are largely a function of self-confidence. You can say yes or no a heck of a lot better when you’ve done it a bunch of times and seen how well decisiveness works. Likewise, only in real-world challenges can managers truly feel the power of moving quickly, demanding accountability, and rewarding results. They can also experience how damaging it is not to execute—a mistake most effective leaders don’t make twice.
So, are leaders born or made? The answer (perhaps not surprisingly) is both. Your best strategy, then, is to hire for energy, the ability to energize, and passion. Go full force in training and developing edge and execution. Promote the people who have a good dose of all five traits. Always remember, though, that not everyone was meant to be a leader. But as long as you are one yourself—and you are—it’s your job to find and build those who can be.
THE LEADERSHIP MIND-SET
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I would like your advice and assistance as I have been appointed to a leadership position for the first time. The position is quite senior and very challenging, and I need to know how to conduct myself and handle the role itself.
—RANDBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
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First of all, kudos are in order. Not for getting promoted, though that’s great, but because you seem to understand that becoming a leader means you will actually have to change how you act. Too often, people who are promoted to their first leadership position miss that point. And their failure to do so probably trips up careers more than any other reason.
The fact is, being a leader changes everything.
Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. It’s about your achievement. Your performance. Your individual contributions. It’s about you raising your hand and you getting called on and you delivering the right answer.
When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. It’s about making the people who work for you smarter, bigger, and bolder. Nothing you do anymore as an individual matters except how you nurture and support your team and help its members increase their self-confidence. Yes, you will get your share of attention from above—but only inasmuch as your team wins. Put another way: your success as a leader will come not from what you do every day, but from the reflected glory of your team’s performance.
Now, that’s a big transition—and no question, it’s hard. Being a leader basically requires a whole new mind-set, one that is constantly not thinking, “How can I stand out?” but is thinking, “How can I help my people do their jobs better?” Sometimes that mind-set requires undoing a couple of decades of momentum! After all, you have probably spent your entire life—starting in grade school and continuing through your last job—as an individual contributor, excelling at “raising your hand.” But the good news is, you were probably promoted because someone above you in the organization believes you have the stuff to make the leap from star player to successful coach.
But what does that leap actually involve? First and foremost, actively mentoring your people. Give feedback at every opportunity—not just at annual or semiannual performance reviews. Talk to your people about their performance after meetings, presentations, or visits to clients. Make every significant event a teaching moment, discussing with them what you like about what they are doing and ways they can improve. And there’s no need to sugarcoat your exchanges! Use total candor, which happens incidentally to be one of the defining characteristics of effective leaders.
Getting into the skin of your people is another way of growing others. Exude positive energy about life and the work that you are doing together, show optimism about the future, and care. Care passionately about each person’s performance and progress. Your energy will energize those around you.
And through it all, never forget—you’re a leader now. It’s not about you anymore. It’s about them.
TOUGH GUYS FINISH FIRST
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Do tough bosses really get more out of their people? Of course they get short-term results—but do they really help a company win in the long run?
—MILAN, ITALY
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Yes and yes. But what a loaded question!
Loaded because how you define tough matters a lot to the answer. And loaded too because how tough a boss seems may very well depend on your own performance.
Look, tough is a multilayered term that is open to discussion. But there can be little debate that top performers with great results tend to worry and complain a lot less about “tough” bosses than people struggling to meet expectations. That may sound tough itself, but it’s reality.
Let’s talk about the meaning of tough first.
Without doubt, there are tough bosses who are nothing more than bullying, power-drunk jerks, and they’re brutal to work for. They callously push their people, take credit when things go right, point fingers when they don’t, and generally go very stingy on praise and rewards. They can also be moody, political, manipulative, secretive, or outright mean, or all of the above. Now, as you say, sometimes these tough bosses get good results. But it’s rarely for long. At any decent company, they are removed or they self-destruct, whichever comes first.
But bosses exist along a spectrum, and the tough, destroyer types we just described are at one far extreme. At the other end—and equally damaging to the business—are the “Is everyone happy?” variety. Yes, they may be enjoyable to work for—getting paid was never so easy!—but their spinelessness typically translates into mediocre results. Why? At least three basic sins are at work: these “nice” bosses treat everyone with the same gentle, loving wimpiness; they explain away misses without meting out consequences; and they change direction according to the needs and wishes of the last person in their office. In a word, they have no edge!
Somewhere between the two extremes—and probably much closer to the hard end than the soft—are bosses who define the notion of tough the right way, and because of that manage to get strong, long-term performance from their people. It is not too much to say that these kinds of bosses are actually the heroes of business, not the villains. They might not make everyone feel warm and fuzzy, but their good results create a healthy, fair work environment where people and the company prosper, job security for employees who perform well, and value for shareholders. What more could you want?
To these types of bosses, tough means tough-minded. They set clear, challenging goals. They connect those goals with specific performance expectations. They conduct frequent, rigorous performance reviews. They reward results accordingly, with the most praise and the highest bonuses going to the most effective contributors, and commensurate compensation levels down the line, ending with nothing for nonstarters. They are relentlessly candid, letting everyone know where they stand and how the business is doing. Every single day, good tough bosses stretch people. They ask for a lot and they expect to get it.
Does that make them hard to work for? Of course! But here’s where individual performance comes into play. If you’re up to the chall
enge, working for a tough boss can be incredibly energizing, as you achieve in ways you never thought you could. But if a tough boss raises the bar to a point that you are out of your league, then you’re likely to hate the experience. And thanks to human nature, chances are you won’t blame yourself—you’ll blame the “tough” boss.
A perfect example of this dynamic in action is Bob Nardelli, CEO of The Home Depot, and a good tough boss—demanding, to be sure, but fair, transparent, and results focused.
In a recent Business Week article lauding Bob’s five-year turnaround at Home Depot, the usual “other side of the story” came in the form of complaints from former company executives, who claimed that Bob had created an oppressive “culture of fear” at the company. Note that these executives—none of whom agreed to be identified—no longer work at the company. You have to wonder why they left.
Was it because Bob was too “tough”?
Or was it because his tough-mindedness created performance standards they could not meet?
We bet on the latter. The point is: there are good tough bosses and bad ones, and which is which is often in the eye of the beholder.
Again, we’re clearly not talking here about the egregious cases of jerk bosses who berate, belittle, and beat up their people. Everyone hates them, and they deserve their universal loathing.
We’re talking about bosses who operate in the middle ground—bosses who are tough but fair, push hard but reward in equal measure, and who give it to you straight.
Weak performers usually wish these bosses would go away.
People who want to win seek them out.
THE ULTIMATE VALUES TEST
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For the past two years, I have managed “Charles,” who consistently delivers the numbers. He also alienates everyone by playing favorites, being arrogant, and acting secretive. Part of me wants to fire the guy. The other part can’t imagine living without him. Your advice?
—GREAT NECK, NEW YORK
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Confront him, and then fire him if he refuses to change. Because if you have ever opened your mouth at work and praised values like fairness, transparency, and information sharing, you have to. By stark contrast, to let Charles stay is to inform your employees that everything you say is meaningless drivel.
Look, if you want certain behaviors from your people, and you advocate for them as part of a winning approach to business and life, then you have to reward the people who demonstrate them.
Just as important, you have to get rid of the people who don’t.
And this is key: don’t get rid of “value offenders” surreptitiously with excuses like, “Charles left for personal reasons, to spend more time with his family.” You need to stand up and publicly announce that Charles was asked to leave because he didn’t adhere to specific company values.
You can be sure Charles’s replacement will act differently, not to mention anyone else doubting your commitment to the values.
Now, obviously, every company wants people who deliver great results, like Charles. Your goal is to make sure your employees can do that and demonstrate good behaviors at the same time. No one should get ahead on the backs of other people. All that does is build an atmosphere of resentment and fear. Sure, you can win with that kind of culture—but not for very long.
So, grit your teeth and get rid of Charles. It might be painful for a minute, but you’ll quickly be surprised by the increased effort—and improved results—you get from the rest of the team as a result of your decision to stand up and “walk the talk.”
WHEN TO CUT THE CORD
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As a small firm, we have plenty of typical start-up issues, like cash flow, but our real problem right now is “Mark,” one of the managing directors, who just blew a major project and doesn’t seem to understand the damage he’s caused. My gut feeling is Mark should be fired, but his absence will, at least at first, hit us hard. Mark is a technical expert who’s been with us from the start. Still, his poor management style and double agenda have reached an untenable level. Mark believes his decade of service and “loyalty” should protect him. I agree to a point, but believe performance matters more. What should we do?
—JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
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Small companies really have a raw deal when it comes to letting people go. Big companies can carry turkeys for a long time; there are so many other people to cover for their mistakes. And when an underperformer is finally asked to leave a big company, he or she can usually slide out a side door without showstopping trauma to the individual, organization, or the work.
In small companies, by contrast, the blunders of bad performers usually hit the bottom line hard and fast. And just as bad, when it comes time to let them go, there is something that just feels so personal about it. A departure can feel like a death in the family. And that doesn’t even take into account the impact on the work. Even if the fired employee was more bad than good, his removal can significantly affect operations, not to mention client relations.
Still, as you know in your bones, Mark has to go.
There are really only four kinds of managers in the world, classified by how well they perform—i.e., deliver results—and how well they demonstrate good values, such as candor and customer responsiveness. Managers who deliver great results and adhere to good values are easy. They should be praised and rewarded at every opportunity. Managers with poor results but good values deserve another chance, maybe in another position within the organization. The third kind of manager, with great results and lousy values is the kind that usually destroys organizations. They deliver the numbers, but usually on the backs of their people. Companies very often keep these jerks around for way too long, destroying morale and trust as they do. But that isn’t even your problem.
With Mark, you have the easiest kind of manager to deal with. He’s got poor performance and poor values. You mention, for instance, his “double agenda.” Not only did he blow a major project, he’s out for himself and playing politics. He’s “loyal,” he says. Doesn’t sound that way.
Look, the game is over. You may very well miss Mark’s technical expertise until a replacement can be found, but when you finally get the guts to cut the cord, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.
THE COURAGE TO BECOME A CHANGE AGENT
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I am new to management, and eight months ago was made the head of a learning and development department, which has seven people, all of them older than I am and with more years of service to the company, a global natural resources business. I am overwhelmed by the poor work ethic among my staff. They frequently ask for time off for personal matters and have low productivity in general. How do I say no to repeated personal requests for time off if the company itself allows for flextime?
—CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
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We have a question for you. How much courage have you got, because you are going to need it in the difficult change campaign that awaits you. Difficult, because you need to turn your department upside down to get things right, and even when that’s done, some people may still have to go.
You don’t say so, but we would guess that your department is lacking three critical organizational components: an inspirational mission, a clear set of values, and a rigorous appraisal system. A mission will illuminate your department’s overarching purpose and give your people a sense of excitement and urgency. A set of values will describe how people need to act in order to achieve the mission. (Another word for values, incidentally, is simply behaviors.) For instance, in a learning and development department like yours, the values might include “Connect all coursework to changing market conditions,” or “Spread best practices to every corner of the company.” Whatever—these are just examples of the kind of concreteness that makes values come alive. Finally, a candid, rigorous appraisal system (conducted at least twice a year to start) will let your people know how well they are delivering results and demonst
rating the values. The appraisal system must differentiate, by the way, or it will be meaningless. In other words, it must result in praises, raises, and promotions for the people who buy into the new mission and values, and just the opposite for those who don’t.
The change campaign we’ve just described is major and disruptive, and it will take time and steel nerves, even in a small department like yours. But once a mission, a set of values, and an appraisal system are in place and relentlessly communicated by you, people will know what it takes to succeed. That, in and of itself, should decrease the frequent requests for personal time. How? By making it clear that time off is fine—as long it has been earned with good performance and the right values. Eventually, you should see an overall improved work ethic and higher productivity. That said, there are sure to be some people who can’t change their ways, even with your encouragement and guidance. Don’t wait too long; let them know they need to move on to an organization where their values are a better fit. They don’t belong in yours.
Now, we realize you are part of a larger company with its own culture and practices. Indeed, that’s often what we hear from people in your predicament—“I can’t change things because that’s not the way it’s done here,” they say, or, “The bosses won’t support me.”