Jack Welch on managing personnel Read

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<strong>Jack</strong> <strong>Welch</strong> on managing personnel
In the final part of a three-part video
series, outspoken former General Electric
CEO <strong>Jack</strong> <strong>Welch</strong> talks to hoteliers about
managing personnel
At the Asian American Hotel Owner’s
Association Convention in Washington,
D.C., David Lieberman, senior reporter for
USA Today, sat down with <strong>Jack</strong> <strong>Welch</strong>, former
CEO of General Electric, to discuss the economy,
managing personnel and issues affecting the
lodging industry. The HotelWorld Network put
together a three-part video podcast series of
<strong>Welch</strong>’s comprehensive and sometimes comical
commentary. To view part three, visit video.HotelWorldNetwork.
com.
Some excerpts from the video:
n <strong>Welch</strong>: “Why do you want some employee around
who’s going kill morale, not do their job, pull down the whole
organization ... You want to keep raising the bar of excellence in
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n <strong>Welch</strong>: “In large companies, you can
handle a bunch of turkeys hanging around ... If
you have a 10-person company, and you’ve got
two of them that are sleeping, you’re not doing
your job if you’re keeping them around.”
n <strong>Welch</strong>: “One person’s self confidence is
somebody else’s arrogance ... You want self
confident people. You want people in your
organization that don’t need you, that are there
because they love the work, it’s exciting and
you’re rewarding them for what they’re doing,
not for their following blind. They’re there as
independent thinkers.”
n <strong>Welch</strong>: “Seeing people grow, that’s what
good leaders do ... You make ordinary people think they can do
anything. That is really what the job is.”
Other videos in this series:
“<strong>Jack</strong> <strong>Welch</strong> on the economy” (Day 67)
“<strong>Jack</strong> <strong>Welch</strong> on card check” (Day 77)
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Do It »
Become the best by doing the basics
Jon Gordon, speaker, consultant
and author of “The Energy Bus: 10
Rules to Fuel Your Life,” “Work and
Team with Positive Energy” and “The No
Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal
with Negativity at Work” has a new book,
“Training Camp: What the Best Do Better
Than Everyone Else.” Despite its friendly,
everyone-loves-a-good-story approach, it’s
packed with practical information that could
improve the culture at your hotel.
Gordon says being the best is all about
habits and doing the basics. Here is his
back-to-basics advice:
Be willing to outwork everyone else.
You might think being the best is an
accident of birth—that certain people are
endowed with superior genes or happen
to be born to parents who live in the right
zip code. Not true, Gordon says. You
become the best through hard work and
“zoom focusing” on the fundamentals of
your particular job until you master them.
“Make sure your employees are hard
workers, willing to hone their individual
job skills until they master them. Talent
matters, sure, but perseverance matters
more. And make sure your company stays
the course long enough to become the
best at what you do. If you keep shifting
your strategies or your market focus, that
can’t happen,” Gordon says.
Get the little things right. Remember,
there is no secret recipe for being the
best. The art is in putting the recipe’s
ingredients together. The best take
action every day and do the common
tasks—returning phone calls, filling out
reports, capturing customer information,
preparing for meetings—with uncommon
focus, dedication and a commitment to
excellence. “To offer an example, great
salespeople do the same things mediocre
salespeople do,” Gordon says. “They just
do so with more focus and consistency.
And great companies are made up
of employees who do what they’re
supposed to do, every day of the week.”
Don’t lower your standards when no
one’s looking. Gordon likes to tell the
story of a CEO who insisted that his
company’s mailroom, which no customer
ever visited, be kept neat and tidy at all
times. His point? The best do the right
thing even when no one can see them,
and the mailroom is a symbol of that. The
same might be said for behaviors like
surfing the Web when the boss is at a
meeting or badmouthing clients behind
their backs. “Remember, being the best
is all about forming good habits,” Gordon
says. “If employees do the right thing all
the time, the right thing will be second
nature when it counts.”
Don’t focus on outcomes. Instead,
focus on the process that gets you there.
You know how motivational gurus are
always telling you to visualize your goal?
Gordon disagrees with this philosophy. “A
great example is Organic Valley, a provider
of organic dairy products, produce,
meats and other natural foods,” Gordon
says. “Each year they continue to grow
dramatically, and yet they don’t have an
‘outcome’ goal in mind. Rather, they focus
on their purpose and process, and this
fuels their growth.”
Whatever you do, don’t rest on your
proverbial laurels. Despite popular
misconception, success doesn’t really
breed success. It breeds complacency.
“Too often a team will have a successful
season or a player will have a great year,
and when they come back the following
season they think all they have to do
is show up and they’ll enjoy the same
results, forgetting it was the hard work,
focus and process that helped them
create their success,” Gordon says.
“Well, that happens in business, too.
The moment you think you have arrived
at the door of greatness is the moment
it gets slammed in your face. The key
is to always be innovating, offering
new products and services, improving
customer service and staying one step
ahead of your competition. The solution is
to stay humble and hungry.”
For more information, visit www.
jongordon.com. “Training Camp: What
the Best Do Better Than Everyone Else”
(Wiley, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-470-46208-
9, $22.95) is available at bookstores
nationwide, major online booksellers, or
directly from the publisher by calling 800-
225-5945.
Source: “Training Camp: What the Best Do
Better Than Everyone Else,” by Jon Gordon