Lessons on leadership during extreme change from Jeffrey Immelt, former CEO of GE

I’ve recently made a commitment to read more, with a goal of one hour every day. Leaders such as Warren Buffett and Mark Cuban credit reading (and therefore, learning) every day as the biggest reason they’ve been successful. I also believe that, as an entrepreneur, reading is instrumental to improving because there is literally no rulebook for entrepreneurship – its up to you to grow and learn along the way.

So in the spirit of reading more, I’ve subscribed to Harvard Business Review – yes, the print version – didn’t you know I’m a print guy now? :) – and in the recent issue there is an article by Jeffrey Immelt, the former CEO of GE. To put his responsibility in perspective, he lead a team of 300,000 people for 6,000 days. #gulp

In the article, he lists out several lessons for successful leadership during extreme change and transformation that I thought I’d share here.

#1 – You must be disciplined and focused. You need a point of view and your initiatives must be interconnected.

#2 – An ability to believe that the world is changing and that the survival of your company depends on either anticipating the change or being in the vanguard of those reacting to it.

#3 – Get people in your organization to see the need for change as existential.

#4 – Must be all-in – you must make a bold, sustained commitment to the transformation.

#5 – You must be resilient.

#6 – During the transformation, you must listen and act at the same time.

#7 – You must embrace new kinds of talent, a new culture, and new ways of doing things. Embrace the change!