Jack Welch - Any Jerk Short-Term Earnings

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

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
D. Brown Management
May 27, 2018 2 minute read
Share

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? 

From Financial Management to Business Management
As contractors go through different stages of growth it often makes sense to expand the financial management role into more comprehensive business management role. At exactly what stage a contractor starts to expand this role depends on.
Related Article
Underlying Causes of Changes on Projects
Start improving your change management skills by creating some categories of the underlying causes of changes your company experiences.
Related Article
Laws Control the Lesser Man
Growing construction businesses need processes and accountability systems the same way society needs laws, police, courts and jails. As a contractor starts growing leadership needs to put some processes in place to keep things running smooth.
Related Article