As word has spread that General Electric is trying to increase “inclusiveness,” cynics might snicker and comment that Jack Welch was mistaken to hand over the CEO reigns to a teddy bear like Jeff Immelt. They would be wrong.
Implicit in any criticism is that GE is getting soft. That’s highly unlikely. A core value of GE’s culture is a passion for excellence..that’s not going away. The problem at GE, and in many other organizations, is that under employee performance ranking systems, employees who are not rated in very highest category can begin to feel like second class citizens, especially if the top ranked employees treat them as such. It may be that they’re not kept in the loop or given an opportunity to share their ideas and opinions anywhere near as much as the stars, so they may not feel like they are valued or have a voice.
To Immelt’s credit he knows that these are the core employees of GE. If GE thrives, it will be in part because the core employees are playing at the top of their game which means they need to know and feel like valued members of the team.
There’s no management problem that I can’t find a sports analogy for, including GE’s current situation. Consider Michael Jordon and the Chicago Bulls predicament before the Bulls dynasty run of six NBA Championships. When Phil Jackson became the Bulls’ coach, he helped Michael Jordan see that the Bulls would never be champions if the rest of the Bulls’ players didn’t feel like they were Michael’s teammates, which they didn’t because Michael hung around with his entourage all the time and hogged the ball, especially at critical moments. When Jordan became inclusive by hanging out with the other Bulls, coaching some of them, and trusting them enough at critical moments to pass the ball to them, well, that’s when the Bull’s dynasty was born.
At GE, the stars need to learn to be inclusive in dealing with core employees. They need to be inclusive socially (by getting to know them), economically (by paying them fairly), and politically (by keeping them informed and considering their opinions and ideas). Doing so will meet their human needs for respect, recognition and belonging. Failing to be inclusive will result in low employee engagement and potentially sabotage behavior.
Leading GE is one of the most challenging leadership assignments in the world today. GE’s “inclusiveness” agenda is yet another reason to believe Jack Welch knew what he was doing when he handed the baton to Jeff Immelt.
