Read Online Winning: The Answers: Confronting 74 of the Toughest Questions in Business Today by Jack Welch, Suzy Welch - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Jack Welch, Suzy Welch
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Suddenly, you’ve got a team member whose talent will very likely improve everyone’s performance and reputation.
Including yours.
Yes, it’s human nature to feel as you do—fearful that a “superior” employee could make you look, well, inferior, and perhaps slow down your career progress. But in reality, the exact opposite usually occurs.
The reason is that leaders are generally not judged on their personal output. What would be the point of evaluating them like individual contributors? Rather, most leaders are judged on how well they’ve hired, coached, and motivated their people, individually and collectively—all of which shows up in the results. That’s why when you sign up top performers and release their energy, you don’t look bad. You look like the goose that laid the golden egg.
So, keep laying them. It is a rare company that doesn’t love a boss who finds great people and creates an environment where they flourish, and you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room to do that. Indeed, when you consistently demonstrate that leadership skill, and come to be known as the person in your company who can land and build the best, watch your career take off.
Now, we’re not saying that managing “superior” employees on your team is necessarily easy. Your question, in fact, reminds us of one we received in Chicago several years ago from an audience member who said two of his seven direct reports were smarter than he was, and asked, “How can I possibly appraise them?”
“What the heck happened to the other five?” was our attempt at a lighthearted response. But we took his point. How in the world do you evaluate people who you feel are more talented than you?
You don’t. That is, you don’t evaluate them on their intelligence or particular skill set. Of course, you talk about what they are doing well, but as important, you focus on areas in which they can improve. It is no secret that some very smart people have trouble, for instance, relating to colleagues or being open to other people’s ideas. Indeed, some struggle with becoming leaders themselves. And that is where your experience and self-confidence come into play and your coaching can really help.
In that way, then, managing superior employees is just like managing regular types. You have everything to gain from celebrating their growth—and nothing at all to fear.
MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES
On Running a Business to Win
B eing a boss is one thing, and managing your career another. But business cannot move forward without certain principles and practices in place.
Right—but which ones? That’s the general question that the answers in this chapter grapple with. Grapple, because certain principles, such as candor and differentiation, and certain practices, such as strategy, budgeting, and HR, are controversial, to say the least. Take candor. We haven’t visited a country (including the United States) where people haven’t challenged its “appropriateness,” not to mention its practicality. But every aspect of management, as the following pages show, can be open to debate. And they should be; that’s how companies get better.
GETTING THE BEST PEOPLE
----
In your experience, what are the three most critical factors to put in place to turn a company into a “preferred employer” on a sustained basis? And what’s a realistic time frame for getting there?
— CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
----
Y ou ask for three factors—but you really need twice that many “gold stars” to earn the grand prize of being a preferred employer. And it is a grand prize, because when you build a company where people really want to work, you’ve got your hands on one of the most powerful competitive advantages in the game, the ability to hire and field the best team.
But before we give you our six ways to arrive at that fortunate place, a reply to your question about how long the preferred employer process
Including yours.
Yes, it’s human nature to feel as you do—fearful that a “superior” employee could make you look, well, inferior, and perhaps slow down your career progress. But in reality, the exact opposite usually occurs.
The reason is that leaders are generally not judged on their personal output. What would be the point of evaluating them like individual contributors? Rather, most leaders are judged on how well they’ve hired, coached, and motivated their people, individually and collectively—all of which shows up in the results. That’s why when you sign up top performers and release their energy, you don’t look bad. You look like the goose that laid the golden egg.
So, keep laying them. It is a rare company that doesn’t love a boss who finds great people and creates an environment where they flourish, and you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room to do that. Indeed, when you consistently demonstrate that leadership skill, and come to be known as the person in your company who can land and build the best, watch your career take off.
Now, we’re not saying that managing “superior” employees on your team is necessarily easy. Your question, in fact, reminds us of one we received in Chicago several years ago from an audience member who said two of his seven direct reports were smarter than he was, and asked, “How can I possibly appraise them?”
“What the heck happened to the other five?” was our attempt at a lighthearted response. But we took his point. How in the world do you evaluate people who you feel are more talented than you?
You don’t. That is, you don’t evaluate them on their intelligence or particular skill set. Of course, you talk about what they are doing well, but as important, you focus on areas in which they can improve. It is no secret that some very smart people have trouble, for instance, relating to colleagues or being open to other people’s ideas. Indeed, some struggle with becoming leaders themselves. And that is where your experience and self-confidence come into play and your coaching can really help.
In that way, then, managing superior employees is just like managing regular types. You have everything to gain from celebrating their growth—and nothing at all to fear.
MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES
On Running a Business to Win
B eing a boss is one thing, and managing your career another. But business cannot move forward without certain principles and practices in place.
Right—but which ones? That’s the general question that the answers in this chapter grapple with. Grapple, because certain principles, such as candor and differentiation, and certain practices, such as strategy, budgeting, and HR, are controversial, to say the least. Take candor. We haven’t visited a country (including the United States) where people haven’t challenged its “appropriateness,” not to mention its practicality. But every aspect of management, as the following pages show, can be open to debate. And they should be; that’s how companies get better.
GETTING THE BEST PEOPLE
----
In your experience, what are the three most critical factors to put in place to turn a company into a “preferred employer” on a sustained basis? And what’s a realistic time frame for getting there?
— CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
----
Y ou ask for three factors—but you really need twice that many “gold stars” to earn the grand prize of being a preferred employer. And it is a grand prize, because when you build a company where people really want to work, you’ve got your hands on one of the most powerful competitive advantages in the game, the ability to hire and field the best team.
But before we give you our six ways to arrive at that fortunate place, a reply to your question about how long the preferred employer process
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