Jack Welch - Any Jerk Short-Term Earnings

The ultimate measure of a leader is how well their business unit performs AFTER they are gone.

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Retired Navy submarine Captain David Marquet explains this very well in:

Quote: Any jerk can have short-term earnings. You can squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and the company sinks five years later. Jack Welch Retired Chairman and CEO of GE.

With the construction industry heading into even bigger talent shortages it is critical that leaders focus on building other leaders.  This must be done at an accelerated rate just for contractors to maintain their market position and profitability.  

Jack Welch discusses this in his memoirs written after he left GE.  

Look at your organizational chart and ask the following: 

  • Who are your strong leaders?  
  • Who are your up-and-coming promising leaders?
  • Who can you trace their development back to?  
  • What training or coaching can you put in place to help your leaders become better people builders?

Evaluate all leaders in your company on the following.  Rate them 0-10 both in today’s demonstrated capabilities AND in what you believe they could be reasonably capable of in 3-5 years.  

  • Building the Projects
  • Building the Business
  • Building the People

Where are your strengths?  Where are your gaps?  

What can you do to leverage those strengths and close those gaps? 




The ABCs of Strategic Market Choices
Strategic Market Choices for where a contractor chooses to play must be balanced between diverse enough, large enough, and focused enough. These are the highest leveraged decisions that leaders of construction businesses make.
Levels of Strategic Decisions (The Basics)
There are many "Strategic Possibilities" developed from "Strategic Brainstorming" that must be explored to make choices that will best position a contractor to win over the long-term. These "Strategic Decisions" must be made and integrated at all levels.
The Basic Math of Prioritization
Build your project, career, and business more profitably by continually allocating more of your resources to their "Highest & Best" use, focusing on prioritized probabilities rather than possibilities.