Jack Welch Quotes - Page 6

Take the middle 70 percent and tell them what they need to do to get into the top 20 percent.

My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too.

Common mission trap for companies: trying to be all things to all people at all times.

There is no straight line to a dream.

There are advantages to being the chairman. One of my favorite perks was picking out an issue and doing what I called a "deep dive." It's spotting a challenge where you think you can make a difference - one that looks like it would be fun - and then throwing the weight of your position behind it. Some might justifiably call it "meddling." I've often done this just about everywhere in the company.

Just because you are the boss doesn't mean you are the source of all knowledge.

Your goal, in other words, should be to make your bosses smarter, your team more effective, and the whole company more competitive because of your energy, creativity, and insights.

Ninety-nine point nine percent of all employees are in the pile because they don't think.

Not surprisingly, work-life moaners tend to be a phenomenon of below-average performers.

Get the best player because whether it's soccer or whether it's anything else the team with the best players wins. So focus your energy on getting the best and getting rid of the weakest.

In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell.

If you don't deliver, you don't earn the flexibility.

Without doubt, there are lots of ways to measure the pulse of a business. But if you have employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow right, you can be sure your company is healthy and on the way to winning.

Getting candor right - with your reports, your peers, and your boss - is a skill that can make or break your career.

Nothing is worse than the person in their 40s who says, 'I'm not going to learn this.' 'I don't carry an iPad.' That will label you and put you right in the corner. Some people do it as a badge of honor. I've seen them myself, they walk around bragging [about not knowing much about technology].

When all is said and done, teaching is what I try to do for a living.

If you managed a baseball team, would you listen more closely to the team accountant or the director of player personnel?

In the future, those who are not coaches will not be promoted.

The Internet is the Viagra of big business.

We have built a company with a business mix and operating system that will allow us to deliver record results in any foreseeable economic climate, ... We have just completed a very successful management transition and I've never been more confident about the company's future.

Shun the incremental and go for the leap.

The value decade is upon us. If you can't sell a top-quality product at the world's lowest price, you're going to be out of the game.

In manufacturing, we try to stamp out variance. With people, variance is everything.

Failing to differentiate among employees — and holding on to bottom-tier performers — is actually the cruelest form of management there is.

One of the things about leadership is that you cannot be a moderate, balanced, thoughtful, careful articulator of policy. You've got to be on the lunatic fringe.