Tribal Knowledge Feature Articles

June 2008

Jack Welch.on Leadership Traits

People management covers a wide range of activities, but it really comes down to six fundamental practices.

To manage people well, companies should:

1. Elevate HR to a position of power and primacy in the organization, and make sure HR people have the special qualities to help managers build leaders and careers. In fact, the best HR types are pastors and parents in the same package.
2. Use a rigorous, non-bureaucratic evaluation system, monitored for integrity with the same intensity as Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance.
3. Create effective mechanisms-read: money, recognition, and training-to motivate and retain.
4. Face straight into charged relationships-with unions, stars, sliders, and disruptors.
5. Fight gravity, and instead of taking the middle 70 percent for granted, treat them like the heart and soul of the organization.
6. Design the org chart to be as flat as possible, with blindingly clear reporting relationships and responsibilities.