Jeff Immelt became CEO of General Electric on Sept. 7, 2001.
“Talk about timing,” he told the graduating class of Dartmouth College in 2004. “In addition to the human tragedy,” just four days after taking over GE, “I saw planes with our engines hit buildings we insured covered by a network I owned.”
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Immelt has had one of the toughest bookings in the business world. He followed the legendary Jack Welch as GE’s top honcho. Indeed, some years earlier, Welch threatened to fire Immelt if he didn’t shape up his performance. Not only has Immelt hung onto his career ladder at GE and succeeded, but he has been able to weave his own leadership pattern.
What goes into the Immelt leadership formula?
n Shared goals. General Electric is a highly diversified business that stretches from network television to wind turbines. Keeping focus is no easy matter.
“We’re constantly driving initiatives in the company, common initiatives. … They’re not voluntary,” he told an Economic Club audience. Nor could they be when you’re steering an aircraft carrier like GE.
n Showing up. When he took over from Welch, Immelt told Time magazine that he personally transferred relationships from Jack to Jeff.
“It’s got to be done retail, face to face,” he said, “and you’ve got to keep doing it.”
In my own experience, I’ve seen countless CEOs turn over their Rolodex of contacts to their successors. The corner-office freshman thanks the predecessor but never clocks time to press the flesh with these people one on one. It’s a sure-fire way to dehydrate a company’s network overnight.
n People priorities. GE employs 320,000 people. It wants the light bulb of good ideas blinking on in all those brains with regularity.
“We spend a billion dollars a year in training. I probably spend 40 percent of my time on people,” says Immelt.
•Going to bat. “I’m selling every day,” Immelt notes. “I’m getting up and selling turbines, selling jet engines, selling MR scanners from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed. That’s what CEOs do.” That’s “how you teach your organization to compete.”
If you want the short course for Immelt on leadership, click on this Fast Company Web site: www.fastcompany.com/magazine/81/ immelt.html. There you will find a 10-item list titled “Things Leaders Do.” Some of the pointers are classic textbook advice and solid stuff. Several add a catchy new twist:
•“Leaders learn constantly and have to learn how to teach.” Immelt says managers need to share what they have absorbed over the years even when others don’t agree with them.
•Stay disciplined and detailed. Don’t just tune into the big picture, but keep tabs on the micro “things that are important,” says Immelt. Dell Computer founder “Michael Dell can tell you how many computers were shipped from Singapore yesterday.”
• “Let the team find its own way.” It’s tempting for a leader to issue marching orders at every corner. But I guarantee you, any team constantly served a diet of directives will never fight its way out of the jungle on its own.
High on my own inventory of leadership practices, I would add:
•Read at least four biographies of successful business leaders a year. If you want to learn from the successes (and mistakes) of others, there’s no better way. Consider it leadership homework. Some of the finest executives I know who golden-parachuted out of a job headed straight for the bookshelf to freshen up their take on leadership.
•Keep your own leadership log. Start a leadership file. Every day you can spot leadership you admire on the soccer field, in the office, in a movie, or on the news. Jot it down. Describe what you liked about it, how it could work for you, and how you plan to put it to use.
•Road-test leadership skills in community work. You may not be on a Forbes megabuck list yet. Taking on tough volunteer work is a great way to help get there. Tackle leadership challenges in the community. It can stretch your leadership risk-taking skills without putting your career in peril.
•Watch how young people lead groups of other young people. Not only is their language peppered with high-tech references, the way they interact is fast-paced and fresh.
Mackay’s Moral: Learning leadership is like riding a bike. If you don’t want to end up headfirst, use your head first.
Harvey Mackay is author of The New York Times best seller “Pushing the Envelope.” He can be reached through his Web site, www.mackay.com; or at Mackay Envelope Co., 2100 Elm St., Minneapolis, MN 55414.
