He encourages near-brutal candor in the meetings he holds to guide the company through each work year.
As I've studied many of the great managers, I'm still amazed at how many times the way they do things is adopted, while not necessarily even knowing the others are doing it. Sometimes their lives never cross.
That's the case again with Jack Welch in relationship to candor. You never misunderstood where Welch stood in regard to what he believed was best for the General Electric (GE). When he held his yearly meetings, he was brutally honest in communicating what he wanted, and expected others to be the same way back to him.
What's important about this isn't necessarily or primarily what was being discussed, but the candor itself. When Welch's managers saw him in the role he played at these meetings, they were being taught something much more important than strategy and purpose, they were being taught integrity, openness and honesty.
I'm not saying that Welch wasn't offering guidelines at this meetings - he was. What I'm saying that who he was in the area of candor, became just as much of the message he offered as the message itself.
It's a way of saying that not only was the message the message, but also that the man and who he was, was the message as well. People wonder how Welch was able to have such a strong influence among such a huge company, the answer is that it was through imparting to his managers the same candor and openness that he lived when he was with them. They were shown how to do it, not just told. It was one of the great secrets of Welch's influence.
Other Jack Welch Resources:
How Jack Welch Runs GE
Jack Welch Defends
Jack Welch's advice to MIT Sloan students
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