Best 201 quotes of Jack Welch on MyQuotes

Above all, good leaders are open. They go up, down, and around their organization to reach people. They don't stick to the established channels. They're informal. They're straight with people. They make a religion out of being accessible. They never get bored telling their story.

A company has only so much money and managerial time. Winning leaders invest where the payback is the highest. They cut their losses everywhere else.

Again, your challenge is not just to improve. It is to break the service paradigm in your industry or market so that customers aren't just satisfied, they're so shocked that they tell strangers on the street how good you are.

A good leader remains focused. Controlling your destination is better than being controlled by it

A leader's job is to look into the future and see the organization, not as it is, but as it should be

All of management is about self-confidence

An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.

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.

Any company trying to compete...must figure out a way to engage the mind of every employee.

Any jerk can have short-term earnings. You squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and the company sinks five years later.

Any time there is change, there is opportunity. So it is paramount that an organization get energized rather than paralyzed.

Approach every meeting with a purposeful, high-energy, ready-to-make-a-contribution attitude, and watch how fast leadership’s perception of you follows your behavior.

Arrogance is a killer, and wearing ambition on one's sleeve can have the same effect. There is a fine line between arrogance and self-confidence.

Arrogance is a killer, and wearing ambition on one's sleeve can have the same effect. There is a fine line between arrogance and self-confidence. Legitimate self-confidence is a winner. The true test of self-confidence is the courage to be open - to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source. Self-confident people aren't afraid to have their views challenged. They relish the intellectual combat that enriches ideas.

As a leader, you have no right to have any employee wonder how they fit in and where they are going.

As a leader, your job is to energize people around the mission and vision you've articulated.

As leaders, we owe it to every employee to let them know where they stand in the organization.

Be candid with everyone.

Business is a game, and as with all games, the team that puts the best people on the field and gets them playing together wins. It's that simple.

Business success is less a function of grandiose predictions than it is a result of being able to respond rapidly to real changes as they occur.

Cash is king. Get every drop of cash you can get and hold onto it.

Celebrating creates an atmosphere of recognition and positive energy. Imagine a team winning the World Series without champagne spraying everywhere. And yet companies win all the time and let it go without so much as a high five. Work is too much a part of life not to recognize moments of achievement. Make a big deal out of them. If you don't, no one will.

Common mission trap for companies: trying to be all things to all people at all times.

Companies don't give job security. Only satisfied customers do.

Control your destiny or somebody will.

Control your own destiny or someone else will.

Creative artists have great passion.

Culture drives great results.

Don't make the process harder than it is.

Don't take a job because your mother wants you to. Don't be a victim. You own your decision.

Every employee, not just the senior people, should know how a company is doing.

Every great leader has a generosity gene.

"Every leader makes mistakes, every leader stumbles and falls. The question with a senior level leader is, does she learn from her mistakes, regroup, and then get going again with renewed speed, conviction and confidence?

Excellence and competitiveness aren't incompatible with honesty and integrity.

Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.

Face reality as it is, not as it was, or as you wish it were. Be candid with everyone. Don't manage, lead. Change before you have to. If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete. Control your own destiny, or someone else will.

Failing to differentiate among employees — and holding on to bottom-tier performers — is actually the cruelest form of management there is.

First and most obvious, bring out the three old warhorses of competition - cost, quality, and service - and drive them to new levels, making every person in the organization see them for what they are, a matter of survival.

Focus on a few key objectives ... I only have three things to do. I have to choose the right people, allocate the right number of dollars, and transmit ideas from one division to another with the speed of light. So I'm really in the business of being the gatekeeper and the transmitter of ideas.

For a large corporation to be effective, it must be simple. For an organization to be simple, its people must have self-confidence and intellectual self-assurance. Insecure managers create complexity, real leaders do not clutter.

For a large organization to be effective, it must be simple.

Genuine leadership comes from the quality of your vision and your ability to spark others to extraordinary performance.

GE's businesses turned in a terrific first quarter. Our products and services are being well received in unusually robust global markets.

Get the best player because whether it's soccer or whether it's anything else the team with the best players wins. So focus your energy on getting the best and getting rid of the weakest.

Getting candor right - with your reports, your peers, and your boss - is a skill that can make or break your career.

Getting every employee's mind into the game is a huge part of what a CEO job is all about. Taking everyone's best ideas and transferring them to others is the secret. There's nothing more important.

Getting the right people in the right jobs is a lot more important than developing a strategy.

Globalization has changed us into a company that searches the world, not just to sell or to source, but to find intellectual capital - the world's best talents and greatest ideas.

Globalization has taken a hit in that there is some sand in the gears because most of us have supply chains that are all over the world that we've had to lengthen.

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.