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At that time, Jack was famous for his personal leader’s notes. In business, Jack Welch was the most famous advocate of cvs2bvs in the US.
Jack used cvs2bvs at GE to help him change the culture of a 100-year-old manufacturer to the most valuable company (at the time he left it) in the history of the world!
I was invited to GE soon after he became chairman and CEO. In the 1980s I spent several years, at his request, installing the cvs2bvs brain software at GE. He wrote to me saying,
“I would love to have a management team that really understood the cvs2bvs algorithm. It’s the ‘value-added’ role in the management process”.
In his book about his time at GE called, Jack (Warner Books 2001), he wrote, “It would make each of us wake up with the goal of “Finding a Better Way Every Day”. It was a phrase that became a slogan, put up on the walls of GE factories and offices around the world”.
Jack also used cvs2bvs in crisis management situations and on one very serious occasion involving a crisis between GE and President Reagan’s Defense Secretary, Caspar Weinberger, Jack asked me to meet with him privately, in Manhattan, to apply cvs2bvs to finding a solution.
He also told me that it helped him design new concepts like ‘Boundarylessness’ and ‘Work-Out’. He wrote, “Suddenly, “Finding a Better Way Every Day” wasn’t just a slogan. It was the essence of boundaryless behaviour, and it defined our expectations”.
As my Dad used to say, “Nobody’s perfect!” and Jack had his share of setbacks but he was a genuine strategic thinker and one of the most accomplished business leaders of his time.
Jack was famous for the little hand-written notes he would send to people. He sent me several and the one I prized the most was, “Michael, you are a friend of our company”.
Hand-written notes are a very personal and powerful communication. I have known several leaders who use handwritten notes with great effect.
I first was taught to use ‘The Leader’s Note’ in the Army and I saw recently where the Duchess of Cornwall (who is Royal Colonel of the 4th Battalion The Rifles) sent handwritten notes to all the soldiers in her regiment who were wounded in Iraq.
Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Sanders, commander of 4 Rifles, said,
She bled with us throughout the tour. She wrote by hand to all the wounded and the families of those killed. She gave each of the wounded presents – whisky or hampers. We feel incredibly lucky to have her as our Royal Colonel. At a time when people in England did not really know what we were going through, she did.
DFQ #20:
PTO: Write a Leader’s Note!
On a postcard, engraved writing paper or special paper for the purpose (not email), write a short personal note of encouragement (around 10 to 100 words) to someone who sees you as their leader or mentor.
Post that you have completed this PTO within the next 24 hours saying who, when, where etc:
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I sent a note to a person I have worked with for a number of years and for whom I have a great deal of respect and believe will go great places and do great things.
I wrote a note to someone who I treasure
I did it. Just now I sent a postcard to my daughter in Seattle.
I thought about sending a note to a number of different people and in the process came to some conclusions:
> you SHOULD be a leader in your own family, so even though they are very important, they don’t count in this exercise
> there are many people whom I like and would get personal pleasure from sending a message, but the value may not be there for them.
> the person I sent my message to is someone who I know appreciates my advice, and would above all others benefit from the note. It doesn’t matter whether this is one of my favourite friends/ acquaintances, it is about the benefit they receive through the note.
I wrote a letter to my grandson giving him encouragement.
Justin and Simon down loaded our weather stations, ran the disease predictive models and sprayed our field trial when the team was presenting reports at an interstate conference. I wrote them a note on a very nice card to thank them for looking after our work and gave them a small box of Chocolateier chocolates. They were quite chuffed, which surprised me.
which i put on a card this morning
I do a bit of personal training and i wrote to one of my clients that i was grateful to share the time we have and that she had come a very long way and that i was so proud of her.
I wrote a note to my son who has had the toughest year imaginable and has demonstrated incredible tenacity and courage – wrote the note in time, but my computer died, hence the late post!!!
I wrote a note to say thank you for a wonderful round of golf and offered encouragement and best wishes to a young 16 year old girl my husband and I met on the golf course earlier today. After playing golf for just one year she has entered in the SA Junior Ladies Champs this coming weekend.