Elegant Celebrity

jack and suzy welch were interviewed by peter guber at the live talks la event on may 18, 2015. mr. and mrs. welch were in town to promote their new book, the real-life mba.

you have to meet mr. welch in real life to understand how optimistic, creative, and empowering he really is.

everybody knows ge’s success sky-rocketed under his leadership.

most people know it’s because he championed powerful ideas such as six sigma and boundarylessness.

for example, six sigma emphasizes precision. boudarylessness promotes openness. those ideas rippled throughout ge, and brought more ideas to life.

some people know his boundless enthusiasm and positive energy were the real forces behind those ideas, and behind ge’s success.

when you meet him, you realize all this, and more. you realize he has a heart of gold.

leaders create a vision, and inspire you to reach that vision.

to inspire over 200,000 ge employees, mr. welch championed the golden leadership values of transparency and generosity.

to demonstrate their effectiveness for the audience at the live talks la event, he shared his story of how he accidentally blew up a ge factory early in his career.

after the catastrophe, mr. welch reported his actions with complete transparency to his boss’s boss:

i let him know exactly what happened, why it happened, and what i did wrong.  when you get out there in a transparent fashion, recovering from failure really works.

his boss’s boss turned the catastrophe into a learning opportunity. he responded to mr. welch with generosity, rather than kick when he was down. mr. welch continued to blossom within ge.

mr. welch learned the importance of generosity:

a great thrill of leadership is to empower employees to become leaders, too. never kick anybody when they’re down. kick them when they’re swelling instead of growing.

transparency is a combination of honesty and integrity. generosity is a combination of empathy and humility.

mr. welch had a talent for championing great ideas that brought more great ideas to life.

as an employee, mr. welch blew the roof off a ge factory. as the ceo, mr. welch blew the roof off ge.

to see the full interview of the live talks la event, follow this link:  jack and suzy welch in conversation with peter guber at live talks la.