Corporate Vision and Mission Attitude Motivation Employee Empowerment Challenging Assumptions Leadership Challenge Model

 

  Leadership Attributes

 

Case Studies Jack Welch

 

Jack Welch advice business quotes

The world will belong to passionate, driven leaders people who not only have enormous amounts of energy but who can energize those whom they lead.

Jack Welch

GE

 

To spark others to perform, you must lead by example. Jack Welch mastery of the 4 E's of leadership – Energy, Energize, Edge, and Execution – was always in evidence.

"He had great energy, sparked others, had incredible competitive spirit, and had a record of execution that was second to none. This is a key of the Welch phenomenon. Had he been lacking in any of the traits he espoused, he would not have commanded such acclaim."

Though many at GE have been good at their jobs, and have been able to motivate and explain, but no one has Jack Welch's ardor. He was GE's number one cheerleader and called himself "the advertising manager of our company." He had the zeal and the optimism and a lexicon of a winning football coach: "exciting", "remarkable", "staggering", "incredible". These are the words Welch employed to describe one of the powerful enterprises in the world.3

As W. James McNerney Jr., head of GE Aircraft Engines, noted: "The excitement comes from within him and is extremely contagious. He's a tremendous motivator. He's excited and he gets you excited and you're always moving forward. He keeps it simple. The differentiator between GE and many other companies is that there are more people moving in the same direction and with the same enthusiasm. Jack might like this on his tombstone. 'I wasn't smarter that anyone else, but I helped 270,000 people make me look smarter than most.' "

The revolutionary massive changes introduced by Jack Welch worked. By the mid-1990s GE had become the strongest company in the United States and the most valuable company in the world, as measured in market capitalization.

25 Lessons from Jack Welch

Case Studies Alexander The Great

Alexander the Great, the king of Macedonia, was one of the most superb leaders of all time. He became king at the age of 19, when his father, Philip II, was assassinated. In the next 11 years, he conquered much of the known world, leading his armies against numerically superior forces. Yet, when he was at the height of his power, the master of the known world, the greatest ruler in history to that date, he would still draw his sword at the beginning of a battle and lead his men forward into the conflict. He insisted on leading by example. Alexander felt that he could not ask his men to risk their lives unless he was willing to demonstrate by his actions that he had complete confidence in the outcome. The sight of Alexander charging forward so excited and motivated his soldiers that no force on earth could stand before them.1

 

Alexander the Great leadership quotes

An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep.

Alexander
the Great

 

Case Studies Xenophon

Xenophon authored the first systematic book on leadership, two thousand years ago, and it is still one of the best. Xenophon was a general. His book 'Our Military Expedition to Persia' tells the story of the fight to return to the Black Sea against overwhelming odds. It is a story of courage, improvisation, and discipline, self-sacrifice, and above all leadership. Xenophon practiced leadership in a different time and a different place, but the lessons of his experiences, the principles or laws of integrity, commitment, duty and the others have eternal value.

The Greeks were superior fighters, both tactically and technologically. They knew how to fight as a team, and their swords and shields were uniquely adapted for their phalanx warfare. They also possessed the most salient edge of all: leadership. Xenophon, like all Greek commanders, led from the front; he was seen in the thick of combat, never flinching, always seeming to do the right thing. Historian Victor Davis Hanson attributes Xenophon's success to the superior Greek culture – not superior in a racial sense, but superior in the sense of what we today would call shared values, common purpose, and genuine leadership.2... More

   

Xenophon leadership advice

Leadership is done from in front. Never ask others to do what you, if challenged, would not be willing to do yourself.

Xenophon

 

   

 

Chinese proverb

Not the cry but the flight of the wild duck
leads the flock to fly and to follow.

Chinese

proverb

Walt Disney business quotes

One characteristic of winners
is they always look upon themselves as
a do it yourself project.

Walt Disney

Genghis Khan advice

When it was wet, we bore the wet together, when it was cold, we bore the cold together.

Genghis
Khan

Max DePree quotes

To lead creative people, set the example for how to live with eccentricity.  More

Max
De Pree

Peter Drucker advice

A leader sets an example. He or she is someone on whom people – especially younger people – model themselves... More

Peter Drucker

Thought Leader

Mahatma Gandhi advice quotes

We must become the change

we wish to see in the world.

Mahatma Gandhi

Donald Trump quotes

Be an example.
Children watch – and they will emulate what they see.  >>>

Donald
Trump

 

 

References:

1. "Opportunities are Unlimited," Brian Tracy

2. "Great Motivation Secrets of Great Leaders," John Baldoni

3. "Jack Welch and the GE Way," Robert Slater