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October 29, 2004

Five Questions of Candidates for Leadership

JACK WELCH, formerly of GE has five quetions to ask
when choosing a leader.

Is he real ? What a crazy question, right? But authenticity really
matters when it comes to crisis leadership. A person cannot make hard
decisions, hold unpopular positions, or stand tall for what he
believes unless he knows who he is and feels comfortable in his own
skin. I am talking about self-confidence and conviction. These traits
make a leader bold and decisive, which is absolutely critical in times
where you must act quickly, often without complete information. Just
as important, authenticity makes a leader likable, for lack of a
better word. His “realness” comes across in the way he communicates
and reaches people on an emotional level. His words move them; his
message touches something inside.

Does he see around corners? Every leader has to have a vision and
predict the future, of course, but great leaders in tough times must
have a special ability to anticipate the radically unexpected. In
business, the best leaders in brutally competitive environments have a
“sixth sense” for market changes, as well as moves by existing
competitors and new entrants. For the next president in our new world,
a “sixth sense” is not enough. He needs a seventh sense—paranoia about
what lurks in dark corners we cannot even see.

Who’s around him ? In tough times in particular, a leader needs to
surround himself with people who are smarter than he is, and they must
have the grit to disagree with him and each other.

Does he get back on the horse ? Every leader makes mistakes, every
leader stumbles and falls. The question is, does he learn from his
mistakes, regroup and then get going again with renewed speed,
conviction and confidence? The name for this trait is resilience, and
it is so important that a leader must have it going in to a job
because if he doesn’t, a crisis time is too late to learn it.

Is he pro-business ? Last but not least, the leader of the United
States must love business, because a thriving economy is the free
world’s last, best hope. It has become very fashionable in the past
few years to say that business is bad and crooked. The antibusiness
fervor even got to the point that CEOs who outsourced production, in
order to stay competitive, were labeled “Benedict Arnolds.” What
nonsense.

Posted by omor at October 29, 2004 07:14 PM

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