Winning: Important quotes from Jack Welch.

Quotes from the great Jack Welch

I Don't know if it's good or bad, but the world generally favors people who are energetic and extroverted. That's also something you learn young, and it's reinforced in school, at church, at camp, and usually at home too.

Trust happens when leaders are transparent, candid, and keep their word. It's that simple. 

In bad times, leaders take responsibility for what's gone wrong. In good times, they generously pass around the praise... Remember, when you were made a leader you weren't given a crown, you were given a responsibility to bring out the best in others.

You've been made a leader because you've seen more and been right more times. Listen to your gut. It's telling you something.

All we were left with at the end was me thinking, "I knew it" and wanting to say, "I told you so." Both of those sentiments are worth nothing. You would assume that was obvious, but I've seen more leaders believe that second-guessing absolves them from responsibility when things go wrong. 

What leaders do:

1. Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach, and build self-confidence.
2. Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it.
3. Leaders get into everyone's skin, exuding positive energy and optimism.
4. Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency, and credit
5. Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls.
6. Leaders probe and push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions are answered with action.
7. Leaders inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example
8. Leaders celebrate.

People with integrity tell the truth, and they keep their word. They take responsibility for past actions, admit mistakes, and fix them. 

Winning is about results.

Leaders can't have an iota of fakeness. They have to know themselves -so that they can be straight with the world, energize followers and lead with the authority born of authenticity. 

The global business world today is going to know any leader off her horse more than once. She must know how to get back in the saddle again. 

I particularly liked the people who had had the wind knocked clear out of them but proved they could run even harder in the next race.

It goes without saying that no businessperson wants disasters to occur, but they will.

In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell... Strategy is an approximate course of action that you frequently revisit and redefine, according to shifting market conditions. 

Strategy, then, is simply finding the big aha and setting a broad direction, putting the right people behind it, and then executing with an unyielding emphasis on continual improvement.

You cannot be everything to everybody, no matter what the size of your business or how deep its pockets.

Getting the right strategy means you have to assume your competitors are damn good, or at the very least as good as you are, and that they are moving just as fast or faster. When it comes to peering into the future, you just can't be paranoid enough.

The first answer is luck. All careers, no matter how scripted they appear, are shaped by some element of pure chance. Sometimes a person just happens to be in the right place at the right time, and he meets someone - atan airport or a party, for instance - and a career door swings open. We've all heard stories like that.

My main point is, when going after your first job, live in your own skin and be comfortable there. Authenticity may be the best selling point you've got.

I know it is not easy to always be upbeat. Life doesn't always go your way... You can win without being upbeat - if every other star is aligned - but why would you want to try?

When setbacks come, and they will, ride them out with your head up.

In any business situation, seeing yourself as a victim is completely self-defeating.