Jack Welch Quote Before You Are A Leader

60 Best Jack Welch Quotes On Leadership (WINNING)

January 23, 2021 January 23, 2021

15 of the Best Jack Welch Quotes to Inspire Change, Leadership & Communication

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. — Before you are a leader, **success** is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, **success** is all about growing others.

Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.

Effective people know when to stop assessing and make a tough call, even without total information. Little is worse than a manager who can't cut bait.

Control your own destiny or someone else will.

An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage. — An organization's ability to learn, and translate that **learning** into **action** rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.

No company, small or large, can win over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it.

"What could possibly be more important than who gets hired, developed, promoted, or moved out the door? Business is a game, and as with all games, the team that puts the best people on the field and gets them playing together wins."
Jack Welch

Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do. Because then they will act. — Giving people **self-confidence** is by far the most important thing that I can do. Because then they will act.

When you were made a leader you weren't given a crown, you were given the responsibility to bring out the best in others. — When you were made a leader you weren't given a crown, you were given the **responsibility** to bring out the best in others.

Willingness to change is a strength, even if it means plunging part of the company into total confusion for a while. — Willingness to **change** is a strength, even if it means plunging part of the company into total confusion for a while.

Don't manage. Lead change before you have to. — Don't manage. Lead **change** before you have to.

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

You got to be rigorous in your appraisal system. The biggest cowards are managers who don't let people know where they stand.

"What's important at the grocery store is just as important in engines or medical systems. If the customer isn't satisfied, if the stuff is getting stale, if the shelf isn't right, or if the offerings aren't right, it's the same thing. You manage it like a small organization. You don't get hung up on zeros."
Jack Welch

45 Famous Jack Welch Quotes on Strategy, Innovation, and Winning

If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it you almost don't have to manage them.

Strong managers who make tough decisions to cut jobs provide the only true job security in today's world. Weak managers are the problem. Weak managers destroy jobs.

We've only been wealthy in this country for 70 years. Who said we ought to have all this? Is it ordained? — We've only been **wealthy** in this country for 70 years. Who said we ought to have all this? Is it ordained?

When the rate of change inside an institution becomes slower than the rate of change outside, the end is in sight. The only question is when.

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. — 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.

"When you are a leader, your job is to have all the questions. You have to be incredibly comfortable looking like the dumbest person in the room. Every conversation you have about a decision, a proposal, or a piece of market information has to be filled with you saying, What if? and Why not? and How come?"
Jack Welch

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

If you have a reputation as a big, stiff bureaucracy, you're stuck.

CEOs can talk and blab each day about culture, but the employees all know who the jerks are. They could name the jerks for you. It's just cultural. People just don't want to do it. — CEOs can talk and blab each day about **culture**, but the employees all know who the jerks are. They could name the jerks for you. It's just cultural. People just don't want to do it.

The essence of competitiveness is liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do is important – and then get out of their way while they do it.

If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete.

"Look, winning and losing can't be quantified. They are states of mind, and losing happens only when you give up. Seen that way, then, the world can be filled with winners, and there is room for them all."
Jack Welch

No vision is worth the paper it's printed on unless it is communicated constantly and reinforced with rewards.

I've learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success. — I've learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as **success**.

If you are not confused, you don´t know what is going on.

Leadership, very simply, is about two things: 1. Truth and trust. 2. Ceaselessly seeking the former, relentlessly building the latter. — Leadership, very simply, is about two things: 1. **Truth** and **trust**. 2. Ceaselessly seeking the former, relentlessly building the latter.

"If you are a leader and you are a manager, shame on you if people don't know where they stand. You have a moral obligation leading people's lives, talking about their future, and… telling them where they stand."
Jack Welch

You can look at the situation and feel victimized. Or you can look at it and be excited about conquering the challenges and opportunities it presents.

You can't grow long-term if you can't eat short-term. Anybody can manage short. Anybody can manage long. Balancing those two things is what management is.

Any jerk can have short-term earnings. You squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and the company sinks five years later.

Differentiation favors people who are energetic and extroverted and undervalue people who are shy and introverted, even if they are talented.

"Underneath, you would surely see that the best care passionately about their people—about their growth and success. And you would see that they themselves are comfortable in their own skins. They're real, filled with candor and integrity, optimism and humanity."
Jack Welch

It is better to act too quickly than it is to wait too long.

If GE's strategy of investment in China is wrong, it represents a loss of a billion dollars, perhaps a couple of billion dollars. If it is right, it is the future of this company for the next century. — If GE's strategy of investment in China is wrong, it represents a loss of a billion dollars, perhaps a couple of billion dollars. If it is right, it is the **future** of this company for the next century.

When launching something new, you have to go for it – 'playing not to lose' can never be an option.

The secret of success is changing the way you think. — The secret of **success** is changing the way you think.

Number one, cash is king, number two communicate, number three, buy or bury the competition. — Number one, cash is king, number two communicate, number three, buy or bury the **competition**.

"We've all been guilty at one point or another in our careers of boasting of perfect hindsight. It's a terrible sin. If you don't make sure your questions and concerns are acted upon, it doesn't count."
Jack Welch

When you own your choices, you own their consequences.

The mission announces exactly where you are going, and the values describe the behaviors that will get you there.

Don't lose yourself on the way to the top.

Arrogance is a killer, and wearing ambition on one's sleeve can have the same effect. There is a fine line between arrogance and self-confidence. — Arrogance is a killer, and wearing **ambition** on one's sleeve can have the same effect. There is a fine line between arrogance and self-confidence.

People development should be a daily event, integrated into every aspect of your regular goings-on.

There are no finite answers to many questions. What really counted was your thought process.

"Your people give their days (and sometimes their nights) to you. They give their hands, brains, and hearts. Sure, the company pays them. It fills their wallets. But as a leader, you need to fill their souls. You can do that by getting in their skin, by giving the work meaning, by clearing obstacles, and by demonstrating the generosity gene. And you can do it, perhaps most powerfully, by creating an environment that's exciting and enjoyable."
Jack Welch

Every job you take is a gamble that could increase your options or shut them down.

Indeed, the biggest winners in the world are those who answer yes to the question, Am I living the life I choose?

Take every opportunity to inject self-confidence into those who have earned it. Use ample praise, the more specific the better.

A leader's job is to look into the future and see the organization, not as it is, but as it should be. — A leader's job is to look into the **future** and see the organization, not as it is, but as it should be.

Life is too short to spend every day doing something you don't love.

"At the end of the day, effective mission statements balance the possible and the impossible. They give people a clear sense of the direction to profitability and the inspiration to feel they are part of something big and important."
Jack Welch

Jack Welch Short Biography

Born on 19 November 1935 in Peabody, Massachusetts, U.S., John Francis Welch Jr. was one of American's most respected albeit controversial leaders and chief executives.

For the period of two decades between 1981 to 2001, Jack Welch was the chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE).

He had a humble beginning in GE where he started off as a junior chemical engineer. Welsh didn't enjoy his initial years at GE but gradually grew to enjoy his work more.

As the years go, he climbed the corporate ladder and eventually made his way to become the youngest vice president and later GE's youngest CEO and chairman.

Under Jack Welch's leadership, the company grew 40-fold in just two decades. However, he was notoriously known for his no-nonsense, rigid, and dynamic style of handling employees… which many fell victims to Welch's wrath and dismissal during his reign.

Further reading:

Speed, Simplicity, Self-Confidence: An Interview with Jack Welch – Harvard Business Review
This article is more than 3 months old Jack Welch: the GE titan who embodied the flaws in modern capitalism – The Guardian
The Jack Welch Legacy: Rank it, or Yank it? – Medium
Jack Welch: Managerial Genius Who Made One Disastrous Mistake – Forbes

Here are the best Jack Welch quotes so you can be insatiably curious in your craft and see change as an opportunity to excel.

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