Quotes from Jack Welch

Trying to get people to face reality and see the world the way it really is is an absolutely critical aspect of leadership, in my view.

Approach every meeting with a purposeful, high-energy, ready-to-make-a-contribution attitude, and watch how fast leadership's perception of you follows your behavior.

An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.

The best thing workers can bring to their jobs is a lifelong thirst for learning.

When I stop learning something new and start talking about the past versus the future, I will go.

People always overestimate how complex business is. This isn't rocket science. We've chosen one of the world's simplest professions.

In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell.

You got to be rigorous in your appraisal system. The biggest cowards are managers who don't let people know where they stand.

The biggest cowards are managers who don't let people know where they stand.

You've got to eat while you dream. You've got to deliver on short-range commitments, while you develop a long-range strategy and vision and implement it. The success of doing both. Walking and chewing gum if you will. Getting it done in the short-range, and delivering a long-range plan, and executing on that.

Willingness to change is a strength, even if it means plunging part of the company into total confusion for a while.

If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete.

I've learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success.

Business success is less a function of grandiose predictions than it is a result of being able to respond rapidly to real changes as they occur.

Control your destiny or somebody will.

You never know how diverse your career can be. I think it's wonderful. My life has always been the next page, not the last page.

I'm not perfect, but if there are any points given for caring about people with every fiber of your being and giving life all you've got every day, then I suppose I have a shot.

The idea flow from the human spirit is absolutely unlimited. All you have to do is tap into that well. I don't like to use the word efficiency. It's creativity. It's a belief that every person counts.

The productivity now at universities is terrible. Tenure is a terrible idea. It keeps them around forever and they don't have to work hard.

Managers often hold on to resisters because of a specific skill set or because they've been around for a long time. Don't.

If you don't have public hangings for bad culture in a company, if you don't take people out and let them say, they went home to spend more time with the family. It's crazy.

In every company, differentiation is never more important than it is in times of trouble, and that's the time when everyone tends to go to the well and equalize rather than differentiate.

Globalization has changed us into a company that searches the world, not just to sell or to source, but to find intellectual capital - the world's best talents and greatest ideas.

Any time there is change, there is opportunity. So it is paramount that an organization get energized rather than paralyzed.