Jack Welch knew how to win. During his illustrious career at General Electric, he spearheaded GE’s rise to a multi-billion dollar a year powerhouse. His “Be-the-Best” style of management became the gold standard in business. If you haven’t read his book “Jack Welch – Winning” be sure to add it to your list of must-reads. I promise you won’t be disappointed. His book offers deep insights, original thinking and solutions to problems all managers and business leaders need to come to terms with in today’s ever-changing, ultra-competitive environment.

Worth Remembering …  “Don’t manage – lead” – Jack Welch

What are you doing to clear out your deadwood? For whatever reason, we all have or have had deadwood problems that we’ve ignored. Those are the people in your organization who aren’t pulling their weight. They’re not bad – but they aren’t great performers either. They are just so-so. Jack had a 70-20-10 rule when it came to his employees. Every year, as part of their annual review, managers were asked to identify the 70% of their staff that they wanted to keep – the 20% they were going to promote up and out of their department and the bottom 10% that they were going to let go.

Worth Remembering … “When you become a leader, success is all about growing others” – Jack Welch

Letting the bottom 10% go – the deadwood – is not necessarily a bad thing. You may be doing them a favour. You’ve given them the opportunity to sit back, think about what they would really like to do, and you’ve given them the time to put a plan together to get there. You’ve helped motivate them to make a change or you’ve motivated them to do whatever they need to do to get into that 70% bracket. Either way – your department or organization is better for it. Promoting from within is never a bad thing. If you don’t – you are taking a chance that you won’t lose your top 20% to your competition.  Are you looking to try something different this year? Try Jack’s annual 70, 20, 10 rule and clear out your deadwood.

Copyright (c) 2020. Brian Smith – Power Link Dynamics. Not to be reproduced without permission. To find out more about Brian and what he can do for you and your organization visit https://briansmithpld.com or via email – brian@briansmithpld.com