Winning: The Answers: Confronting 74 of the Toughest Questions in Business Today

by Jack Welch

  Why? Who knows for sure, but we’d wager they feel the exact same frustrations you do—only multiplied by a lot.

  KNOWING WHEN TO FOLD ’EM

  * * *

  You make the case that leaders should be candid, and I agree. But what would you advise a middle manager who works in a company where leaders place challenging questions in the “parking lot,” rarely answering them, and tend to stunt (or end) the careers of people who keep asking them?

  —MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA

  * * *

  Before answering, can we ask you a kind of awful question, with all due respect? Is the problem possibly you? It does happen, now and again, that leaders ignore “challenging questions” because those questions are more annoying than constructive—and the people asking them are too.

  If that’s you, and you have the self-awareness to accept that unpleasant fact, our only suggestion is to redirect your energies toward real work—or you’ll be in the parking lot before long.

  But let’s assume that’s not you, and that your questions are meaningful, if maybe a bit touchy. In that case, you’re in one of two situations, neither of them optimal but both actionable.

  It could be you have a boss problem—that is, your boss is something of a jerk and can’t handle open dialogue, particularly if it is potentially contentious. In that case, if you like your job well enough, your best bet is to wait it out for a while. In time, most good organizations find such stultifying idea-blockers and move them elsewhere or out.

  On the other hand, you could have a culture problem, that is, the leadership of the organization in general does not relish constructive curiosity as a way of life. In that case, you have a question to ask yourself. Does your job have enough upside to live with this objectionable downside?

  We are not trying to lead the witness—the answer could be yes.

  Take the case of a friend of ours. About twelve years ago, he became logistics director at a small consulting firm. Since then, the firm has fared pretty well, but its three partners have steadfastly remained opaque. Employees never know what the partners are thinking about the firm’s direction—do they want to build or flip?—or how they rate each person’s performance. The result is a constant sense of anxiety and basic confusion about strategy and resource allocation.

  Our friend, however, has no plans to leave. He makes a good salary, for one, and he enjoys a short commute. The work is interesting enough, he says, and he likes most of his colleagues. Yes, the leadership’s lack of candor drives him nuts—“intermittently,” as he puts it—and he feels certain that it has hindered the firm’s growth by “some significant amount.”

  But, as he says, “I’ve traded an OK quality of work for a great quality of life. A good deal, if you ask me.”

  Like our friend, you too can stay and make peace with your situation. Or you know you have reached your limit and start to look for another job. To fall between these options—to hang around and complain under your breath—is a fast track to probably the worst workplace hell imaginable: victimhood. People with this self-infliction conceive of themselves as vanquished heroes. Their bosses see them as energy-sapping boors. Do not go there!

  Only you know what deal you will ultimately make. Just be sure you make a choice—one way or another.

  ARE YOU A BOSS HATER?

  * * *

  My wife and I regularly see incompetence, tolerance for stupid decision making, and outright unprofessionalism at the Fortune 500 companies where we work. Why is it so hard to find a manager that you can respect, follow, and learn something from?

  —BARRINGTON, ILLINOIS

  * * *

  It’s not hard. But it does require a certain mind-set—one you may have difficulty finding in yourself. If so, you’re not alone.

  Every week, in fact, we receive several e-mails that sound like yours. The wording and details are different, of course, but the underlying question is always the same: Why am I the only person at my company who gets it?

  Now, we realize there are days when it can feel as if everyone around you is inept. Companies, after all, are comprised of people, and people can screw up, reward mediocrity, play politics, and otherwise commit a myriad of organizational sins. But the “everyone’s dumb but me” perspective is dangerous. Not only is it a career killer, it’s simply not right. How do you explain the thriving, creative financial services industry? Or the envelope-pushing genius of the life sciences field? The fact is: too many companies perform well every day, inventing, making, selling, and distributing millions of products and services and returning billions in profits, for every manager out there to be a total nincompoop. It just can’t be.

  Which is why we suggest that you reflect on your own mind-set, looking for an attitude that might explain your gloomy view of the working world. To be direct, we are wondering if you might be a boss hater.

  Now, very few people would ever identify themselves as boss haters—they usually see themselves as noble victims, “speaking truth to power,” as it were. Forget that line. Boss haters are a real breed. It doesn’t matter where they work—big corporations, small family firms, partnerships, nonprofits, newspapers, or government agencies. Boss haters enter into any authority relationship with barely repressed cynicism and ingrained negativity toward “the system.” And even though the reasons behind their attitude may be varied, from upbringing to personality to political bent, boss haters are unified in their inability to see the value in any person above them in a hierarchy.

  Interestingly, the boss haters in any organization tend to find one another, and once in numbers, they usually become quite outspoken. Boss haters also tend to be on the high IQ side. It’s unfortunate, really. Because instead of using their intelligence to look for new ideas to improve the way work is done, boss haters focus laserlike on all of the organization’s flaws and the sheer, incomprehensible idiocy of the higher-ups.

  Of course, due to their general intelligence, some boss haters do get ahead—briefly. But more often, the organization feels their vibe, and bosses respond in kind with distancing, or worse.

  Now, maybe you’re not a boss hater. But the sweeping nature of your question pretty much tests that notion. We suggest, then, that you test yourself. Could it really be that every single boss you’ve encountered has a problem?

  Or is the problem something you could fix—just by opening up your mind?

  LOOKING FOR A SECOND ACT

  * * *

  I’m fifty-eight, and about two years ago I took a forced “early retirement” from my middle management job in sales. Since then, I’ve had real trouble getting back in the game, despite sending out tons of résumés and leaning hard on my networking “buddies.” I have a lot to offer, and I’m not ready to call it quits. What next?

  —KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

  * * *

  Having exhausted traditional companies that obviously find you too old, too unfamiliar with the ways of the new world, or otherwise too problematic to bring on board, you’ve got at least one option remaining: find a company where hiring you represents absolutely zero risk.

  You need, in other words, a job where the compensation is entirely variable—you get paid on commission and receive little or no salary. Yes, most of those kinds of positions will feel like nursery school to an old sales hand like yourself. But with your experience and ambition, you should be skipping grades pretty quickly. All you need is that first door, which we assure you will swing open when you say the magic words to an employer: “Give me a shot—I’m free.”

  CAN YOU HEAR IT?

  * * *

  There seems to be an explosion in executive coaching recently. Does it really work?

  —EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND

  * * *

  Generally, yes. Its value depends, of course, on the quality of the coach. This is a field where there is no specific training and accreditation only for those who seek it out. There are certainly some charlatans out there who simply tell you what you want to hear
, or don’t have much feel for leadership, never having done it themselves. Obviously, they’re useless.

  But good executive coaches can provide a truly important service. They can look you in the eye and tell you what no one else will, especially if you’re the boss. Messages like: You don’t listen carefully enough, or you’re too much of a loner, or you kiss up to the board but too often bully your people. They can tell you that you rely too much on the advice of one employee who really isn’t very smart, or basically any number of other unpleasant messages that take real guts to deliver.

  The challenge is for you to hear them. Because at the end of the day, the ultimate value of executive coaching—done right—is only as big or small as your ability to receive it.

  PRIVATELY HELD

  On Working for the Family

  Before we wrote Winning, we would typically answer questions about privately held enterprises with a pass. We believed that such companies, often characterized by complex family relationships and absence of conventional “due process,” were out of our area of expertise. But since the book’s publication, we’ve been delighted to discover just how useful Winning has been to many private companies, and we’ve started to spend more time with their owners and managers. Yes, private companies have their own unique set of issues. But as the following (short) section of this book shows, they share one goal with the corporate world, and sometimes with even more passion: to create a better company for the next generation.

  BUT WHAT ABOUT TOMORROW?

  * * *

  I work for my father, the founder of a very successful family business with a terrific management team. The problem is that my father, while a superb leader, has no succession plan. But for the sake of the company and our kids’ future, we need one. How can I approach him about this without looking like I want to “get” the company for personal gain?

  —CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

  * * *

  First things first. You don’t necessarily need a succession plan. You want one.

  And for that matter, your father—superb leader that he is—may very well have a plan. He’s just not telling you.

  Either way, you’re getting a taste of what it feels like to work at a regular old public company, where succession plans are usually tightly held information until quite late in the game. And yet somehow, those companies still manage to move forward from one CEO to the next, and their executives manage to plan for their kids’ futures. With less information, they just end up having to use their judgment.

  Yes, life would be easier for you, and for all CEO candidates, if they knew more about the future earlier. But we can think of at least three reasons why it so rarely happens that way.

  First, people develop at different rates. A possible successor who starts in a blaze of glory might fade over time, and a slow starter might take off. A CEO needs several years at least to see candidates in many jobs and differing economic environments before making a final call.

  Second, making a succession announcement too early can throw a company into disarray if there aren’t backup plans to replace the talent that inevitably leaves when a new CEO is picked. Such plans take time to put in place.

  Finally, if a CEO is doing a terrific job and enjoying himself—like your dad, by the way—he has no interest in becoming a premature lame duck.

  We suggest, then, that you give your father the benefit of the doubt. According to details of your letter that we didn’t print at your request, he’s quite a man. Your family business is in a brutally competitive industry, but he’s led it with insight and skill for decades, and it’s thriving. He’s built a deep management team and is respected by all. Surely he isn’t being a fool about succession. He has a reason you should wait, and if he is the leader he seems to be, you’ll understand why in due time.

  THE NITTY-GRITTY ON NEPOTISM

  * * *

  I was recently hired as a manager at a family-owned company. My boss, the vice president of marketing, is the CEO’s wife. She never went to college, has no experience in marketing, yet micromanages everyone, including those of us with MBAs. I’ve just learned that several talented people have quit because of her, and that she fires anyone who disagrees with her, with her husband’s full support. Short of quitting, how do I handle nepotism gone awry?

  —AUSTIN, TEXAS

  * * *

  Not to be difficult here, but where the heck were you during the hiring process for this job?

  We ask because it seems a little late for you to be discovering the kind of information that should be part of everyone’s due diligence when considering employment at a family-owned company. Information like: how many cousins want your next promotion, and whether it is fatal—or merely dangerous—to disagree with the CEO’s next of kin.

  Now, we’re not implying that people should avoid working in family-owned companies. These organizations, which make up a significant part of the economy, offer some of the best jobs in business.

  But when you decide to work at a family-owned company, you have to realize you are accepting a special deal. And every deal has trade-offs.

  With this one, the upside is real. Family-owned companies give you a level of collegiality and informality rarely found in corporate environments, with cultures that are, at their best, personal and warm. Employees can come to feel like family members, not numbers, and managers (like you, for instance) often have direct access to the shareholders and decision makers. You can really feel like you’re in the game.

  The downside is real too, as you are discovering. Because when you join a family-owned business, especially a small or medium-size one, you very often give up the adjudication process, for lack of a better term, that “enforces” fairness at professionally run organizations. That’s not saying that public companies don’t have their share of arbitrary or bullying bosses, or that they are devoid of favoritism. But the checks and balances at most public companies, such as employee satisfaction surveys and the “higher authority” of HR, do go a long way in giving employees a sense that there is a way for them to be heard during conflicts.

  The only way to handle the absence of adjudication at family companies is to be prepared. Even if things are going well, employees should always have an exit strategy. And if you are considering joining a family company as a CEO, or even as a high-level manager, don’t make a move unless you negotiate a severance package up front.

  But what about your case? You don’t seem to have a contract, and you say you don’t want to quit. That means your only choice is, well, to adjust. You have to figure out the best way to work with the CEO’s wife. Forget her educational credentials, or lack thereof—she’s still your boss. So, slow down your desire to make changes or speak out, and give her a chance to get to know you—and trust you.

  Yes, proper due diligence during the hiring process might have raised red flags, and perhaps you could have avoided the mess you’re in. But it’s too late for that now. The nepotism you’re encountering is part of the family-owned deal.

  Enjoy its benefits while they last.

  THE CONSEQUENCES OF CASHING OUT

  * * *

  After sixty-one years as a family business, our company was just sold to a $250 million corporation. We will keep our name, operate as an independent business unit, and everyone will keep their jobs. In effect, everything is the same, but we know it’s not. How do I, as president, and my employees make the quickest and most appropriate adjustment to our new world?

  —BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT

  * * *

  Congratulations…and congratulations. The first for the deal itself—you and your top team probably did pretty well cashing out, and you should feel great about the financial rewards of building a company that the market loved.

  The second congratulations is for realizing that, even though everything might look the same going forward, nothing will be. You’ve been acquired. You and your people now work for someone else. And even if that someone else likes you very much, it w
ill have its own way of doing things. HR will have a new way of appraising people. Finance will have a new way of formatting the numbers. And so on; there will be new processes, policies, and procedures galore.

  And so, to answer your question, the quickest and most appropriate way for you to adjust is: buy in. You don’t have to stifle yourself. But your energy about change should be positive and any criticisms constructive. No “but we used to…” and “it was better in the old days” moaning and groaning. Very bluntly, you gave that “right” away with the cash-out.

  We realize that being acquired is one of the most traumatic upheavals a company can live through. For you personally, money may have taken any sting out. But if you want your people and organization to thrive, as clearly you do, then your message has to be simple. The past is over—embrace the new.

  BRINGING THE OUTSIDE IN

  * * *

  I am a twenty-nine-year-old biochemist who works in a small company founded by my father thirty-two years ago. We haven’t grown for some time, and I worry we could disappear altogether. My father and I have no management experience and can’t seem to make our dreams come true. Will it help if I get an MBA or update my technical knowledge?