The essence of competitiveness is liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do is important - and then get out of their way while they do it.
Interpretation
Competitiveness thrives when individuals feel valued and empowered to act on their ideas.
Jack Welch emphasizes the importance of fostering a sense of significance among team members. By affirming that their thoughts and actions matter, leaders can enhance competitiveness and innovation. Ultimately, effective leadership involves stepping back and allowing individuals the freedom to pursue their initiatives, which can lead to greater overall success for the organization.
In practice
In a team meeting, a manager can share this quote to encourage open dialogue and innovation.
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.
I wanted to change the rules of engagement, asking for more- from fewer. I was insisting that we had to have only the best people...If you wanted excellence, at a minimum, the ambience had to reflect excellence.
A leader's role is not to control people or stay on top of things, but rather to guide, energize and excite.
Control your own destiny or someone else will.
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.
An overburdened, overstretched executive is the best executive, because he or she doesn't have the time to meddle, to deal in trivia, to bother people.
If corporate leaders and their acolytes are not slaves to some meritorious social purpose, they run the risk of being enslaved by their own ignoble appetites.
I repeat what I always say: I want the best for Argentina in every way. I never try to make trouble for anybody.
Teams should be able to act with the same unity of purpose and focus as a well motivated individual.
Great power involves great responsibility
There is a time for weighing evidence and a time for acting. And if there's one thing I've learned throughout my work in finance, government, and conservation, it is to act before problems become too big to manage.
What are our priorities? First, the welfare, the survival of the people. Then, democratic norms and processes which from time to time we have to suspend.
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