Winning Read Online Free Page A

Winning
Book: Winning Read Online Free
Author: Jack Welch, Suzy Welch
Tags: Self-Help, Biography, Non-Fiction, Business
Pages:
Go to
lot about mission and values, but too often the result is more hot air than real action. No one wants it that way, but the loftiness and the imprecision inherent in both terms always seem to make it end up like that.
    But there is too much to lose by not getting your mission straight and by not making your values concrete. I’m not saying your company will collapse in flames the way Arthur Andersen and Enron did—they are extreme examples of a mission-and-values meltdown. But I am saying your company will not reach anywhere near its full potential if all that is guiding it is a list of pleasant platitudes hanging on the lobby wall.
    Look, I realize that defining a good mission and developing the values that support it takes time and enormous commitment. There will be long, contentious meetings when you would rather go home. There will be e-mail debates when you wish you could just go do real work. There will be painful times when you have to say good-bye to people you really like who just do not get the mission or live its values. On days like those, you might wish your mission and values were vague and generic.
    They can’t be.
    Take the time. Spend the energy.
    Make them real.

Candor
----
    THE BIGGEST DIRTY LITTLE SECRET IN BUSINESS
     
     
    I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN a huge proponent of candor. In fact, I talked it up to GE audiences for more than twenty years.
    But since retiring from GE, I have come to realize that I underestimated its rarity. In fact, I would call lack of candor the biggest dirty little secret in business.
    What a huge problem it is. Lack of candor basically blocks smart ideas, fast action, and good people contributing all the stuff they’ve got. It’s a killer.
    When you’ve got candor—and you’ll never completely get it, mind you—everything just operates faster and better.
    Now, when I say “lack of candor” here, I’m not talking about malevolent dishonesty. I am talking about how too many people—too often—instinctively don’t express themselves with frankness. They don’t communicate straightforwardly or put forth ideas looking to stimulate real debate. They just don’t open up. Instead they withhold comments or criticism. They keep their mouths shut in order to make people feel better or to avoid conflict, and they sugarcoat bad news in order to maintain appearances. They keep things to themselves, hoarding information. *
    That’s all lack of candor, and it’s absolutely damaging.
    And yet, lack of candor permeates almost every aspect of business.
    In my travels over the past few years, I have heard stories from people at hundreds of different companies who describe the complete lack of candor they experience day to day, in every type of meeting, from budget and product reviews to strategy sessions. People talk about the bureaucracy, layers, politicking, and false politeness that lack of candor spawns. They ask how they can get their companies to be places where people put their views on the table, talk about the world realistically, and debate ideas from every angle.
    Most often, I hear that lack of candor is missing from performance appraisals.
    In fact, I hear about that so often that I always end up asking audiences for a show of hands to the question “How many of you have received an honest, straight-between-the-eyes feedback session in the last year, where you came out knowing exactly what you have to do to improve and where you stand in the organization?”
    On a good day, I get 20 percent of the hands up. Most of the time, it is closer to 10 percent.
    Interestingly, when I turn the question around and ask the audience how often they’ve given an honest, candid appraisal to their people, the numbers don’t improve much.
    Forget outside competition when your own worst enemy is the way you communicate with one another internally!
     
    THE CANDOR EFFECT
     
    Let’s look at how candor leads to winning. There are three main ways.

    First and foremost, candor gets more people
Go to

Readers choose

Sarah-Kate Lynch

REBECCA YORK

Henning Mankell

Loki Renard

Liz Fichera

C L Green, Maria Itina

REBECCA YORK

Skye Turner