Have you watched David Feherty’s show on the golf channel? It’s one of about 3 shows I look forward to every week. Feherty is a former Tour player and he interviews celebs and other people of influence. Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Jack Nicholas, Bobby Knight. . .great interviews. So the other night he interviews former CEO of GE – Jack Welch.

I guess it was about 8 years ago that my buddy and Co-worker Jack Galloway and I read Welch’s autobiography Straight From the Gut. It’s a great book and I highly recommend it. I just resonate with so much of Welch’s leadership philosophy.

The other night he talked briefly to Feherty about differentiation. B/c I believe this is so important my ears perked up when I heard them mention it. I referenced this is an earlier post (Core Value #2) but think it’s so important for leaders that I wanted to hit it again.

Differentiation is simple.You reward your players who are consistently knocking it out of the park. (Top 20%) You coach and mentor the middle rung to get them to that top 20% (middle 70%) and you help the bottom 10% move on. That’s right. You don’t keep folks on the team if they’re not getting the job done. No matter how “good of a person they are”. It just kills the morale of your A players. If you have a few minutes take the time to read this interview I found with Welch on this topic. It’s fantastic. Here is a brief clip from the article but I encourage you to read the whole thing:

I didn’t invent differentiation! I learned it on the playground when I was a kid.

When we were making a baseball team, the best players always got picked first, the fair players were put in the easy positions, usually second base or right field, and the least athletic ones had to watch from the sidelines. Everyone knew where he stood. The top kids wanted desperately to stay there, and got the reward of respect and the thrill of winning. The kids in the middle worked their tails off to get better, and sometimes they did, bringing up the quality of play for everyone. And the kids who couldn’t make the cut usually found other pursuits, sports and otherwise, that they enjoyed and excelled at.

Not everyone can be a great ballplayer, and not every great ballplayer can be a great doctor, computer programmer, carpenter, musician, or poet. Each one of us is good at something, and I just believe we are happiest and the most fulfilled when we’re doing that.

Welch on Differentiation

Here are some other thoughts that stuck with me from the interview the other night:

Evaluations:
“No fancy forms, just a hand written note every 3 to 3.5 months to all my direct reports. Here’s what I like about what you’re doing, here’s what you can do to improve.”

Integrity:
Playing golf with an employee and saw him drop a ball out of his pocket. (cheat) I called him in the following week and confronted him with that. “Told him that he really didn’t have a place with us and I thought he ought to start looking for a job elsewhere.” It’s a character flaw. If he would do that what else would he do?

Bureaucracy:
“We had a value that we put on our cards. Hate Bureaucracy and the Bereaucrats that practice it”

Retirement:
Question: What do you miss most about being the boss?
Answer: Zero. I turned the page. I’ve never been back to the office. Goodbye.

Learning:
I like to learn. I’m 77 and I’m learning everyday. I’m smarter today than I was yesterday.

Education:
You shouldn’t poo poo the education and the letters and all that b/c in the end you set out to do something and you did it. You finished it.

Good stuff.