Winning, Jack Welch

Apparently Jack Welch was hated by many many people that worked for him. Despite that, he did demonstrate success from all the standard corporate measures.  In this economy, that may not be saying much, but his book Winning really resonated with me.

While his particular implementation of differentiation doesn't sit quite right with me, I do agree with the underlying concept.  He proposes that you manage your people in one of three categories: the performers (20%), the sustainers (70%), and the cruft (10%).  The performers are the top talent and you reward them and set expectations appropriately.  The sustainers are the heart-and-soul.  You develop them and manage them upwards.  The cruft are the ones you manage out.  He takes a much stronger stance on 'manage out' than I would.  I personally feel that 'out' might simply be out of your department.  I suppose he was writing from a holistic corporation perspective, so maybe his 10% are those folks that don't fit anywhere within the organization.

At smallish numbers, I don't think this necessarily holds.  It is implicit that you replace the 10% you manage out and then determine who the bottom 10% are at that point.  With small numbers of people, and a few iterations of this strategy, you may be creating more instability that costs more than the gains of such a strategy.  As always, good judgement should prevail.

Having said that, this did make me comfortable with accepting that there may be a bottom 10% that, no matter how much I like them, I do no good by retaining them.   This applies to shit-disturbers as well.

Some other concepts I liked are his commentary on mission and vision statements.  Nothing new there: make them practical, etc., etc., but well written.

He also reminds us that candor is key.  I've been trying this out more explicitly at work with good success.  I doesn't always sit well with everyone, but it does focus discussion.

Good read, but take with a grain of salt.