What I learned from Jack Welch’s Interview

Continuing from last week, I would like to talk about a lesson from another great leader today. I have not had any chance to interact with Jack Welch but have had multiple opportunities to learn from him, through his interviews in text format or video format. Today I will share the most important lesson on leadership that I learned from one of his interviews. If you wish please read the whole interview here.

You cannot get Truth without offering Trust

Jack says in this interview, “…all these leadership books and stuff about leadership, it’s all crap.”  He says that the leadership today is just about two words: Truth and Trust. If your team can trust you, they will tell you the truth and then a very large organization can act with the speed of a small organization and win in the market, else it is easy to fail.

Read through this section to understand it better;

“Leadership today is all about two words: It’s all about truth and trust. You’ve got to have their back when they didn’t hit it out of the park, you’ve got have their back when they hit it out of the park.

When they trust you, you’ll get truth. And if you get truth, you get speed. If you get speed, you’re going to act. That’s how it works.

You’ve got a conference room right down across the hall there. People walk into your conference room. You’re the boss. They’re spinning you. They’re giving you a flavor that might sell. If a neon light was flashing at that room, “Truth only! Truth only!” think how much faster you’d be. You wouldn’t have to go through the, “What do they really mean? What?” But that only comes from trust.”

I do wish that you can get the Trust of your team and they can tell you the Truth in time. May you always be able to act with velocity and follow the old adage, “A stitch in time saves nine”.

Stay tuned for more next week.