Welch's 21 Steps to Management Greatness - 3
"Leaders inspire people with clear visions of how things can be done better."
What may be the most important part of a vision, once it's formulated, is the clarity in which its communicated across an organization.
Yet even clarity isn't enough, if the message doesn't reach all those that have a vested interest in it. We must make sure that communication is performed across all platforms a company uses, and that leaders and managers are commited to the message reaching everyone.
What a disaster to think a company could falter in a big way simply from the lack of communication. It happens all the time though.
When thinking of inspirational visions for a company, we also need to look at the opposite, which is the tendency for some people to think within that vision they must also provide step-by-step instructions. There's nothing that will kill a vision or passion than being endlessly checked by a predetermined, practical roadmap that insists upon being adhered to.
The idea of a great vision is to get people to take actions to bring it about, not to create steps that they must then fit into.
This may sound counterintuitive, but it isn't. You also may think it will breed chaos, but it doesn't. It doesn't mean that a way of doing things won't be established and communicated. It means that we don't start with predetermined steps, that haven't been proven yet.
As people work on projects, they will try many different things and communicate their results to one another. The result will be an organic, living response that is discovered as the best way to do something. That's what a great vision really initiates.
When Welch needed something done, he would tell the vision he wanted to those responsible, and then would let them go and find out the best way to do it. He didn't give them a series of steps that he thought would be the best way. That would have killed all creativity fromt he start.
He would tell his people the results he wanted, and then expected to be communicated with on the progress they were making. He didn't interfere in the sense of telling them how to do it, he would only tell them if it was going at the pace that he thought it should be going.
It was the clear vision and expectations that motivated and challenged the workers to accomplish the task, not a map created that they had to follow. Welch expected results, not a pre-created path that people were forced to walk on. That's the reason he was able to attract such high-quality workers throughout his tenure at General Electric (GE).
Other Jack Welch Resources:
Jack Welch's advice to MIT Sloan students
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