As we became leaner, we found ourselves communicating better, with fewer interpreters and fewer filters. We found that with fewer layers we had wider spans of management. We weren’t managing better. We were managing less, and that was better.
One reason Jack Welch had an enormous impact on the business community was that he headed one of the world’s most respected, and most imitated, companies. Over the decades, whenever General Electric came up with a new management style, others in American business sought to emulate that style. For example:
- In the 1950s: GE decentralized, and decentralization became the rage.
- In the 1960s and 1970s: GE created enormous bureaucracies, and largeness became a virtue in the business world.
As these examples suggest, GE managers, in Welch’s view, managed far too much. Not so under Welch. He threw out the old rule book and constructed an entirely new set of principles on how to manage.
Or more accurately, how not to manage.
Welch argued that managing less was managing better.
THE WELCH PARADOX OF MANAGEMENT
Welch made it very clear that he wanted his managers to manage less. He wanted them to do less monitoring and less supervising and to give their employees more latitude. Conversely, he wanted far more decision making at the lower levels of the company.
Obviously, he wasn’t suggesting that managers should knock off at noon every day and head for the golf course. Far from it! But he didn’t want his managers interfering with their employees at every turn. Instead, he wanted them to concentrate on creating a vision for their employees and to make sure that the vision was always on the mark and was being acted upon.
This is counterintuitive, right? Aren’t managers supposed to manage? If they manage less, won’t the overall performance of the business suffer? Who will make sure employees are working as hard as they can? Who will monitor inventory levels? Who will worry about maintaining the quality of the product?
In addition, managers want to manage. They want to keep their fingers on the pulse of the business and keep close tabs on their employees.
Welch responds with one word: Relax.
Stop getting in people’s way. Cut them some slack. Stop looking over their shoulders. Stop bogging them down in bureaucracy.
Let them perform.
SHOW RESPECT, INSTILL CONFIDENCE
Behind this prescription lies a key idea: Your employees deserve respect. You’ve hired the best people and trained them well, right?
So treat them with respect. Show them you understand that they are doing something important for the company. Build their confidence—in you, in the company, and in themselves.
And then get the hell out of their way.
One welcome by-product of this approach is an increased management focus on the big issues. For Welch, “managing less” at GE meant that his leaders had more time to think big thoughts and be more creative. They gained time to look beyond their own fiefdoms and think about how they might help other GE businesses.
As the years wore on, Welch felt that his senior managers were getting better and better at helping one another out. Had these leaders spent large amounts of time firing off memos to their subordinates, checking up on them, or worrying about fine-grain issues, they wouldn’t have had the time to devote to the biggerpicture opportunities.
But by managing less, they gained that time and were able to help GE reach the next level.
WELCH RULES
- Manage less. Teach your managers to manage less, even though their training may be to manage more.
- Instill confidence. Treat employees with respect and build their confidence.
- Get out of the way. Employees do not need constant supervision. Let them do their jobs. You will be surprised at the results.
- Emphasize vision, not supervision. Managing less lets managers think big thoughts and come up with new ideas to benefit the business.