BY: MARY KATHRYN GRANT, PhD
Two books currently on the market, Jack Welch's Straight from the Gut1
and Katharine Graham's A Personal History2 offer much food
for thought about leadership, as well as highlight the qualities and frailties
of successful leaders. The lives of Jack Welch and Katharine Graham reflect
several of the core leadership competencies in the CHA Mission-Centered Leadership
Model: personal integrity, performance excellence, change-oriented leadership,
and organizational shaping.
Jack Welch
Welch, former chief executive officer of General Electric (GE), was born into
a Massachusetts blue-collar family. The vigorous pursuit of advancement characterized
his career from an early age. He ultimately concluded his full-time professional
life with GE by assisting with the Honeywell-GE international merger (which
failed because of regulatory constraints) and is now a consultant. He is credited
with redefining business culture in America as one that values excellence and
teamwork.
Three traits characterize Welch's vision of success:
- A passion for the work one is doing
- High regard for the intellect, intuition (gut), and curiosity
- Deep personal and professional integrity
His successes — as well as his failures — at GE provide tremendous lessons in
leadership. Perhaps the hallmark of his leadership style was his commitment
to empower people and credit others for their contributions to GE's successes.
Never one to take all the credit or acclaim for a new initiative, Welch writes
of his commitment to identify, retain, and value talent, which in turn became
a hallmark of GE itself. Emulated throughout the United States, his passionate
commitment to meritocracy and teamwork is part of his legacy to GE and to the
American workplace.
Welch's autobiography vividly portrays his raw ambition as a young man; his
desire to "pull away from the pack" and distinguish himself was characteristic
of his entire career. He learned many lessons on the way to the top, including
the importance of excellence (Six Sigma is a GE initiative), negotiation with
a win-win philosophy (GE and Honeywell standing up to the European Union), and
empowerment (mentoring Jeff Immelt, his successor at GE).
Welch could not claim a balanced life, however, and for his ambition paid
the high personal price of a divorce. Although the jury may still be out on
"Neutron Jack" (as he was labeled, much to his dismay, after a particularly
difficult downsizing), he nevertheless led GE to incredible heights of success
and built an organization that even during layoffs recognized and developed
talent. Today, the GE approach to talent development is a model for many companies.
Katharine Graham
Graham, the late publisher of the Washington Post, was born into a wealthy
entrepreneurial family and ostensibly never needed to work. Early in her professional
life she tried to hide her identity, taking minor journalistic positions well
outside the Washington Post, which was run by her family. She did, however,
ultimately return to the Post at her father's urgings and eventually
took over the reins after the death of her husband, Phil Graham.
Her very candid biography reveals her early personal insecurity and lack of
self-confidence, characteristics she ultimately transformed into leadership
qualities. Manifesting incredible fortitude, equanimity, and integrity, she
is remembered for ordering the publication of the Pentagon papers and the Watergate
exposé, withstanding a major pressmen's strike against the paper, and ultimately
bringing the Post to international recognition. Her ability to remain
calm under enormous pressure, to develop and nurture relationships in a political
setting that still maintained and upheld the integrity of the press, and to
believe in her own intuition is detailed in the narrative. She was still active
in journalism when she died at age 84.
Graham's leadership qualities of humility, belief in her own intuition, personal
and professional integrity, and trust and empowerment of employees made her
one of America's most remarkable and accomplished women. Constantly struggling
to improve and develop herself and her coworkers, including a son who ultimately
succeeded her at the Post, she represents a model of self-development
and personal growth. She struggled, as did Welch, with being "married to the
job" and, like Welch, suffered the loss of relationships as a result.
Graham's sense of social responsibility, not personal ambition, guided her
decisions with regard to publishing the truth. She approved the publishing of
the Pentagon papers after a federal judge had prohibited the New York Times
from continuing to publish them — a bold and daring move. During a contentious
and sometimes violent strike, she managed to maintain daily publication almost
without interruption.
These two autobiographies showcase extraordinary professional successes and
failures that exemplify several of the core competencies for mission-centered
leadership. Both public figures were devoted to the rigorous pursuit of excellence,
a selfless passion for developing colleagues and coworkers, uncompromising personal
and professional commitment to integrity, and a deep, abiding love of their
professions — all hallmarks of Catholic health care leadership. Imagine the potential
impact of combining these competencies with the power of spiritual grounding!
NOTES
- Katharine Graham, Personal History, Alfred E. Knopf, New York, 1997.
- Jack Welch and John A. Byrne, Jack: Straight From the Gut, Warner
Books, New York, 2001.