Somu's Scribbling Pad: Do you know Jack Welch ?

I had a presentation on a case study yesterday. I was glad that it went on well. Nevertheless, what I was impressed with was the main character in my case study. Am sure most of you would know Jack Welch, the EX-CEO of GE. It’s surprising to know the kind of things a leader with so much power would do to keep his employees happy.

** Jack sent a bouquet of roses to an employee’s wife when the individual complained to him about how his wife was paranoid about a presentation he was to make to Jack. With the roses was a note that read, " Your husband did a wonderful job. Am sorry I had to put you two through this in the last couple of weeks"

** He personally writes a two page handwritten note to every directly reporting associate on his / her performance.
Now that’s something interesting, coz I normally end up having a 15 min session with my boss with a couple of advises, few appreciations and a lot of brick bats.

** He once said, "I do not know how to build an aircraft, I don’t know what to run at 9.00 PM on a Thursday in NBC, I leave it completely to my guys"
Wow! Is that not what you call trusting your subordinates to the core?

** Out of 7800 applicants for the post of CFO, Jack chose a 38 yr old employee of his who was two rungs below.
That’s what I call the right kind of reward for excelling in performance.

** He is always known to be preaching from the top and people at the bottom see it clearly. This is an example of how effective communication needs to be in a corporate environment.

** There were also few flip sides to his leadership. He used to be blunt, sarcastic and used to put his managers to shame through personal attacks. 100,000 employees lost their job as part of his restructuring plans and business close downs. This is what earned him the name "Neutron Jack", an explosive that leaves buildings untouched, but killed all people within.

Am sure Forbes named him "The Manager of the Century" for reasons that are completely justified. There is more to this guy than what I have mentioned. I am so impressed with this guy who rewrote the corporate history of America, that am gonna spend time reading more about him.

Given the few instances that I had explained above, I was wondering if one would like to work under a guy like Jack Welch. What anyone of you will ?