No Unsurety With Welch
There was something about Welch that I believe was a tremendous strength in him. There was never an unsurety of what he thought about anything.
One person said: "Welch will say yes. Welch will say no. But he never says maybe. A lot of CEOs do, and decisions lay there like three-legged horses that no one wants to shoot."
This is important because not making a decision can cause so much damage to a company, that it could eventually even destroy it.
Think of all the stuff lying around that management won't make a decision on. It's the same as bringing an endless amount of junk into your house but never taking time to clean it up. It just sits there all over the place.
That's what uncertainty will bring to a business when decisions are left in a maybe mode. Maybe means nothing. It's better to give the ok or not, than to leave something lying on the table. All it does is take a little guts and willingness to occasionally step on someone's toes.
If you want to manage effectively, this will happen for sure. Effective management means decisive decision-making. It's actually cruel to leave someone with a maybe because you don't want to disappoint them or go through the hassle of explaining yourself.
Welch was good at dealing with this. He didn't just say no and then leave a person hanging with their head down. One time he vetoed an initiative that a manager had spent hundreds of hours working on. But with the decision he communicated that he had been tremendously impressed with the presentation she gave and the analysis she offered.
The one thing he didn't do was say maybe.
Other Jack Welch Resources:
Jack Welch's advice to MIT Sloan students
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