Though he's never coached a basketball game, Jack Welch's book, "Winning" is a great read in understanding much that goes into coaching. In fact, I can't think of any facet of life involving leadership that this book would not greatly enhance and prepare a person to lead. We will start with Mr. Welch's "What Leaders Do" list. But we will share more from this book in the future.1. Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach and build self-confidence. You have to evaluate -- make sure the right people are in the right jobs, supporting and advancing those who are, and moving out those who are not. You have to coach -- guiding, critiquing, and helping people to improve their performance in every way. And finally, you have to build self-confidence -- pouring out encouragement, caring, and recognition. Self-confidence energizes, and it gives your people the courage to stretch, take risks, and achieve beyond their dreams. It is the fuel of winning teams.
2. Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it. Goals cannot sound noble but vague. Targets cannot be so blurry they can't be hit. Your direction has to be so vivid that if you randomly woke one of your employees in the middle of the night and asked him, "Where are we going?" he could still answer in a half-asleep stupor. "We're going to keep improving our service to individual contractors and expand our market by aggressively reaching out to small wholesalers."
3. Leaders get into every one's skin, exuding positive energy and optimism. You know that old saying, "The fish rots from the head." It's mainly used to refer to how politics and corruption filter down into an organization, but it could just as easily be used to describe the effect of a bad attitude at the top of any team, large or small. Eventually, every one's effective...But your job as leader is to fight the gravitational pull of negativism. That doesn't mean you sugarcoat the challenges your team faces . It doesn't mean you display an energizing, can-do attitude about overcoming them.
4. Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency, and credit. Leaders never score off their own people by stealing an idea and claiming it as their own. Leaders also establish trust by giving credit where credit is due.
5. Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls. You are not a leader to win a popularity contest -- you are a leader to lead.
6. Leaders probe and push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions are answered with action. When you are a leader, your job is to have all the questions. You have to be incredibly comfortable looking like the dumbest person in the room. Every conversation you have about a decision, a proposal, or a piece of market information has to be filled with you saying, "What if?" and "Why not?" and "How come?"
7. Leaders inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example. Winning companies embrace risk taking and learning. If you want your people to experiment and expand their minds, set the example yourself. just because you're the boss doesn't mean you're the source of all knowledge. In the best-case scenario, all your people will be smarter than you. It doesn't mean you can't lead them.
8. Leaders celebrate. Work is too much a part of life not to recognize moments of achievement. Grab as many as you can. Make a big deal of them.
From "Winning"
By Jack Welch with Susan Welch
