Five Questions to Ask â€¦

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Former chairman and CEO of General Electric Jack Welch lists five questions you should ask yourself before pulling the lever on November 2: Five Questions to Ask�…

Is he real? What a crazy question, right? But authenticity really matters when it comes to crisis leadership. A person cannot make hard decisions, hold unpopular positions, or stand tall for what he believes unless he knows who he is and feels comfortable in his own skin. I am talking about self-confidence and conviction. These traits make a leader bold and decisive, which is absolutely critical in times where you must act quickly, often without complete information. Just as important, authenticity makes a leader likable, for lack of a better word. His “realness” comes across in the way he communicates and reaches people on an emotional level. His words move them; his message touches something inside. …

Does he see around corners? Every leader has to have a vision and predict the future, of course, but great leaders in tough times must have a special ability to anticipate the radically unexpected. In business, the best leaders in brutally competitive environments have a “sixth sense” for market changes, as well as moves by existing competitors and new entrants. For the next president in our new world, a “sixth sense” is not enough. He needs a seventh sense—paranoia about what lurks in dark corners we cannot even see. …

Who’s around him? In tough times in particular, a leader needs to surround himself with people who are smarter than he is, and they must have the grit to disagree with him and each other. …

Does he get back on the horse? Every leader makes mistakes, every leader stumbles and falls. The question is, does he learn from his mistakes, regroup and then get going again with renewed speed, conviction and confidence? The name for this trait is resilience, and it is so important that a leader must have it going in to a job because if he doesn’t, a crisis time is too late to learn it. …

Is he pro-business? Last but not least, the leader of the United States must love business, because a thriving economy is the free world’s last, best hope. It has become very fashionable in the past few years to say that business is bad and crooked. The antibusiness fervor even got to the point that CEOs who outsourced production, in order to stay competitive, were labeled “Benedict Arnolds.” What nonsense.

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Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT
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