Jack Welch As An Icon Of Leadership
When we talk about strategic leadership, we have to mention the former GE CEO Jack Welch. His management style became so revered and people all over the world recognize him as one of the best CEO’s alive. The success of GE was due to Jack Welch managerial innovation and predictive strategic changes. He was even making profit through acquisition of companies, the sale of distressed firms and the layoff of ineffective managers (Bartlett & Wozny, 2002). Jack Welch established a management campus in Crotonville teaching managerial skills.
The key focus of this center is to ensue a generation of leaders with aligned mindsets and skillsets with the company’s strategic imperatives, and aligned with GE cultural norms and visions. Coaching session will take place into the center where managers and leaders connect with each other, a place where they have the opportunity to network and learn from one another. The phenomenal success of GE is also due to the conception of the boundaryless organization, a culture that seeks to overcome the barriers between layers of management and divergent divisions, in order to achieve boundaryless information flow and break down hierarchy. This approach will encourages interactions between employees, customers and suppliers by sharing their ideas and working together (Bartlett & Wozny, 2002).
To enhance productivity, Jack Welch developed the 4E model that consists in hiring and developing managers according to 4 traits, Energy: individuals with high energy and excitement, Energizers: people who imparts spirit and energy to other people, Edge: people who are willing to take difficult decisions, and Execute: executers convert this edge and energy into concrete results. Furthermore, to promote organizational growth, Jack Welch introduced the concept of Stretch, it consists in setting a near-impossible goal to push employees to achieve their best. This will contribute to their personal development and will lead them to outperform their actual performance (Bartlett & Wozny, 2002). Jack welch exhibits both transformational and transactional leadership traits. On the first hand, he focuses on creating a work place in which people bring the best of them, and devoted 70% of his time coaching and teaching employees and tried to implement GE values into the organization.
On the other hand, he was compensating high performance employees with rewards and bonuses (Bartlett & Wozny, 2002). From a personal point of view, Jack Welch is an icon of leadership. He taught me that a leader has to constantly fighting for his own company by constantly pushing change and by creating new corporate strategies that encourages motivation, cooperation and human development. Jack Welch awareness to change made me understand that environment, markets and consumers are constantly changing, and a successful company should always adapt their strategy to ensure their long-term prosperity, by implementing and adapting strategies to each changing condition and by considering the presence of an opportunity in every change.
