Book Reivew: "Winning"

I love to read and over the past five years the domain of my reading interests has held steady with business books, technology text, and historical nonfiction. With that said, I just finished Jack Welch's new book, Winning, and thought I'd leave a little "Fuller" synopsis on my blog... so here it is.

Chapter1: Mission and Values
- Always Have a clear message
- Keep it simple
- Make it something that employees can rally behind

Chapter 2: Candor
- Create an open and sharing environment
- Allow for honest feedback
- Reward openness and idea sharing
- Always be open for constructive criticism
- Everyone should be heard

Chapter 3: Differentiation
- Invest where the rewards are highest (focus)
- Be quick to cut your losses - don't get blinded and hold on too long
- People (20 / 70 / 10)
-- spoil the "20
-- kill the "10
-- Cultivate the "70

Chapter 4: Leadership
- Motivate, Motivate, Motivate - make sure people live and breath the mission
- Get into their skin (exude energy)
- Establish trust
- Must have the courage to make unpopular decisions
- Probe and push with curiosity
- Inspire risk
- Celebrate
- Build self confidence
- Never score off of your people's ideas
- You are not a leader to win a popularity contest

-- Sidebar (what Jack would look for in a good leader)
- Be comfortable in your own skin
- Ability to excite others (exude energy)
- Maturity
- Edge (ability to make tough decisions, etc)
- Positive energy, positive outlook
- Integrity (ability to admit mistakes)
- Passion (always looking to learn and grow)

Chapter 5: Strategy
- Ponder less and do more (don't make things more complex than they have to be)
- You need:
1. A big Aha - finding the "aha" should be a bottom up event
2. People to execute - need the skills
3. Best practices (constantly improve them)
- Talk to sales people and anyone close to the customer
- Know what your competition eats for breakfast