Jack Welch -- Winners Get Back Up on the Horse

A few months ago I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with Jack Welch, past CEO of GE. A fantastic opportunity. Some of the things he said about who they hire and what they are looking for in managers sort of hit home with what I am telling clients, and what I am telling my teen leadership group (our Rising Stars program). The Best Managers Aren't Perfect But They Keep Getting Back on the Horse Jack Welch--"We look for people that are not perfect. People that have made mistakes, but know how to quickly get back up on the horse when they've been thrown off, and those that turn the loss around into a win. It isn't about never making mistakes, it's about getting back up and moving forward toward the results. If someone has never experienced falling off and shown their ability to get back up they might not be the managers we want." "Leadership is about results, not experience, not education, or any of the other things that everyone claims is leadership. It's about o Being able to consistantly deliver results, o Being able to recover from falling off that horse, o And geting right back on until you ultimately deliver results." That's so in line with what I keep telling my clients and my youth leadership groups I work with. The path to your destination is almost never a straight line. There will be zig zags, side trips, and steps backward. Too many people slip off the trail, and just walk away telling themselves they just failed. The winners are the ones that learn from what took them off the trail, figure out how to get back on the trail, and keep steadily plodding toward the goal even with the setbacks. Failure Is a Choice--Choose to Win You only fail one time--when you say you have....and QUIT. When that happens there is only one guaranteed outcome--Failure. That makes failure a choice. Those that choose to not get back on choose to be victims. Those that win choose to get back on the horse, get back on the trail and plod along toward the goal.