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What Made jack welch JACK WELCH: How Ordinary People Become Extraordinary Leaders

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Stephen Baum's leadership book, "What Made jack welch into JACK WELCH: How Ordinary People become Extraordinary Leaders," is this year's business book masterpiece. I regularly read a sampling from the hundreds of business success books published each year. And, in this case, Baum's work is missing the usual after-the-fact braggadocio, and instead is loaded of insight, introspection and reflection, all crafted in useful advice for the aspiring leader.

As I read Baum's work, per his advice to begin my own inventory, I took laptop to lap, instead of pen to hand, and began making notes and holding my own personal introspection sessions related to each chapter. It took me five times longer to read Baum's work than any business book I have read in years as I found myself stopping over and over to add a note here and there about my experiences, as I inventoried my own archetypal shaping experiences.

While I tired of the phrase "swimming over your head" I couldn't offer a more appropriate phrase to viscerally describe the experience of trying new experiences in preparation for assuming the mantel of leadership. I also must commend Baum for the depth of his sourcing from his own interviews, written texts of successful leaders, and confidential conversations from his professional network. This deep insight is successful in reinforcing Baum's theories and concepts in each case. In the personal gut searching spirit of James Lipton's, "Inside the Actors' Studio," this book works.

Baum's text discusses a wide range of shaping experiences he calls "archetypal shaping experiences," helps identify "empty suits" in leadership positions, goes into serious depth about skills and attributes critical to leadership including: action orientation, ethics, managed risk taking, developing confidence, and acting decisively. He concludes the book with two powerful capstone chapters.

Chapter 7 on engaging and inspiring team members by using "signal acts" and authenticity is very thought provoking. He gives some great examples and discusses the concept of parenting. One nit I would pick with Baum is his light treatment or warning around making sure not to treat workers as small children in the family. In my varied career, I have seen many executives bring their parenting skills into the workplace and then complain about how immature their workers are, how they need too much direction and guidance, all the while treating their workers like five-year olds. It would be nice to see how parenting works well and a comparison of when if works to the detriment of an organization. Baum might summarize, we want loyal families, but we also want them to grow up and leave the nest for their own success.

Baum concludes with Chapter 8 on finding a career guide or mentor, which he calls "guardian angels." He discusses the attributes of these angels who ask tough but gentle questions, offer gentle and not so gentle advice, get you to look into the mirror and help shape your character. Baum offers some heartfelt examples of how mentors shaped the successful career launches of some of his interviewees. And last but certainly not least, Baum and his interviewees take time and print to herald the importance of angels at the bottom of the organization, who roll up their sleeves, get the job done, and won't hide or obscure the truth. As I read this chapter concluding the book, it became obvious that Baum has elegantly packaged his experiences as a coach and executive advisor along with his interviewees into an elegant work, and as such has become a mentor to me, and could be a mentor to you through the pages of his book. What a gift!

Baum's text ranks with the best of the best in terms of leadership guidance, inspiration and introspection. As an author, Stephen Baum and his collaborator Dave Conti join the hallowed ranks of Peter F. Drucker (Management), Warren Bennis (The Leadership Advantage), Stephen Covey (7 Habits), Tom Peters (In Search of...), and Peter M. Senge (The 5th Discipline).

If you are in the honored position of mentoring an up and coming leader, I can think of no better holiday gift for the upcoming season than Baum's book. And even if you just see a glimmer of leadership hidden in one of your subordinates or peers, I can think of nothing better than Baum's book as a lever to encourage them in a deep examination of their own soul and capacity to step into a stronger leadership position.

I have a good friend and mentor who taught me the importance of self-reflection and of taking the effort to thank those individuals that have had a great influence on your life and success. I am proud to add Stephen Baum to that list of my great influencers and to thank him for his new book. I believe you will do the same.

One final note, in my professional life I have been exposed to quite a few books from the peer groups and Chairs of Vistage, (formerly TEC), and for once am relieved to see that I was not force fed the value of their groups, no slam against Vistage, I believe whole heartedly in their mission, I just don't like getting force fed the allegories and appreciate the solid research and balance Baum brings to his work while sharing acknowledgment to the contributions of his peer group of CEOs.

8/30/2007 Review by:

Gordon W Stanley
Co-founder and President, Red Team Advisors, Inc.
An advisory firm specializing in workflow efficiency and document management.
[...]

This book reads like an insider's look at the life shaping moments of CEOs and is a who's who of the "C Suite" in American business. I found it to be a very engaging book that links the common threads of people's desire for leadership to the shaping experiences (good and bad) that motivated them to achieve. In the spirit of Harvey Mackay's "How to Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive," the book is written by an author who is an accomplished businessman and trusted advisor. The stories he shares about people behind the public personas are very insightful. I liked the variety of stories and the coverage of men and women in business-stories on Shelly Lazarus and Cathleen Black as well as Jack Welch and David Neeleman. The personal stories of the leaders of American businesses and the synchronistic experiences that landed them in their positions is very inspiring. The author Stephen Baum is a CEOs coach but this book is valuable reading to both current and aspiring leaders. With chapters on Integrity (Doing the Right Thing When No One is Looking) and Angels (If You Want to Climb Everest, Get Yourself a Sherpa)-it is a refreshing take on American business and a reminder of the good that great leaders aspire to. There is alot of wisdom here. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!

In the Introduction, Stephen H. Baum confides that, at one point, the more he had gotten to know great leaders, the more he realized what he did not know. For example, "Who made these men and women who and what they are?" So he set out to find an answer to that question and later realized that what he really wanted to know was the answer to a related question: "How did they develop [various traits of great leadership] in the first place?" In this book, written with Dave Conti, Baum shares everything he learned during research on and -- in some instances from interviews of -- various great leaders, such Gordon Bethune (Continental Airlines), Cathleen Black (Hearst Magazines), Jim Broadhead (Florida Power & Light), Shelly Lazarus (Ogilvy & Mather), Arthur Martinez (Sears, Roebuck & Company), and Jack Welch (GE).

Note: Baum uses lower case to identify exemplars pre-greatness (jack welch) and then upper case upon their becoming great leaders (e.g. Jack Welch or, more irritating, JACK WELCH). In the review that follows, I capitalize all proper nouns, including individuals' names.

In the first chapter, Baum explains how "shaping experiences mold successful leaders," then devotes the remainder of his narrative (Chapters 2-8) to an examination of the process by which "ordinary people become extraordinary leaders." This process bears striking resemblances to the process that Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas discuss in Geeks & Geezers (later reissued as Leading for a Lifetime) and what Bill George describes in Authentic Leadership and then True North.

How to explain the fact that so many CEOs and other C-level executives are ineffective leaders? Baum offers this explanation: "Unable to reach deep into their character and their life experiences for the strength and knowledge to lead, pretenders rely on a variety of false personas or masks to make up for their deficiencies. They use artifice to compensate for the lack of a well-developed core. [George characterizes it as one's "true north."] Their masks and their acting skills can cover up their flaws for a while, but they are eventually exposed. Whether they work in the executive suite or the mailroom, they eventually fail."

That is certainly not true of the exemplars upon whom Baum focuses most of his attention. However significantly different they may be in several respects, all share "a common pattern of [shaping] life experiences" that have guided and informed, indeed nourished their development as effective leaders. Baum's analysis of the causes, effects, and significance of many of those experiences is of uneven quality. He seems to have selected more than he is willing and/or able to discuss with sufficient precision.

Of special interest to me is what Baum has to say about "shaping experiences that whet the appetite to take charge" in Chapter 4. As do Bennis and Thomas in Geeks & Geezers, Baum focuses on "crucibles," noting that the shaping of character begins during the first seven years of life. "It is then that the values of integrity, humanity, respect for others,having the courage of your convictions when it matters, and your work ethic are developed...[however] this early development is worthless if it isn't challenged and cured or hardened in real life -- in [begin italics] crucibles of character [end italics], as I like to call them."

Then in Chapter 6, Baum explains how great leaders develop the capacity to act decisively and effectively." This material will be of special interest and value to those who now have what Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton characterize as a "knowing-doing gap." Baum clearly agrees with Thomas Edison that "vision without execution is hallucination." He cites several examples that demonstrate that knowing what direction to take and which actions are required is not enough. "To be truly effective, the ability to act must be accompanied by the ability to engage and inspire others to act with you." This is among the most important traits of great leaders.

Baum immediately establishes and then sustains a personal rapport with his reader. He shares the lessons to be learned from exemplary leaders are help his reader to initiate, expedite, and eventually a process by which to become an "extraordinary" leader of others. It is worth noting that, in the final chapter, he discusses the importance of finding "guides" to complete that difficult "journey." He identifies his, explaining his relationship with each, and encourages his reader to find her or his own. How? "Imagine that you have a personal board of directors in charge of your career...Think about the individuals who might be willing and able to occupy each of the chairs. Are they in your midst? Have you spoken to any of them yet? Go off and ask one to `be on your board.' You'll be surprised by the responses - good leaders and good people will be flattered to be asked."

In this context, I presume to add a few thought of my own. Great leaders are obviously very busy people but a high percentage of them make time to serve as a mentor to others. (The current CEO of GE, Jeff Immelt, spends at least 25% of his time and energy helping to develop leadership skills in members of GE's middle management group.) Those who read this book are well-advised to seek out appropriate "guides." Once they then become the leaders they aspire to be, I hope they will eagerly agree to be "guides" to others as they embark on a "journey" of their own.

I've been having this book for quite sometime now, but just a couple of days I decided to pick it up and read it. I couldn't put the book down. Stephen Baum knows what he is talking about. LEADERS ARE NOT BORN, BUT RATHER MADE AND SHAPED THROUGH EXPERIENCE.

I don't quite agree with the title, the book is not only concerned with the leader Jack Welch, but others as well. David Neeleman, Gordon Bethune and Jim Broadhead to name a few. The book is well organized and provides enough examples and experiences of how these leaders acquired there leadership skills.

This book should be used as a reference. One read is not enough to grasp it all.

The following review appeared in Forbes.com (http://www.forbes.com/leadership/2008/02/22/reading-baum-executives-lead-manage-cx_mk_0222welch.html)

Apparently, it's not rocket science. Anyone can be a leader. Really. That's not to say the average Joe could manage $20 billion in assets and a 50,000-man workforce, but if you've got the right mixture of traits, all it takes is the experience and desire to reach that point.

This is how Jack Welch and a host of other big-name corporate American leaders did it, explains Stephen H. Baum, author of What Made Jack Welch Jack Welch: How Ordinary People Become Extraordinary Leaders.

In his book, Baum taps into the minds of some of the best business leaders of the 20th century, taking an anecdotal approach to revealing the secrets of what makes a guy like Jack Welch, former chief executive of General Electric (nyse: GE - news - people ), and others like him, legendary.

"Leadership boils down to some very simple--not rocket science--ideas: character, confidence, critical thinking and the ability to engage other people," Baum said. "It's all about know-how and learning that stuff in life, what works and what doesn't."

Baum has been an adviser and coach to CEOs for more than 20 years. This book is a product of the relationships he's forged in that time. With their trust, he interviewed business leaders about some of the most intimate details of their lives and how the events molded them.

"It's a leadership book in practical, daily ways," Baum said. "Learn from what other people have done and get your own experiences, big or small. Take your own inventory. Look in the mirror. It's all about personal growth."

Baum met with Forbes.com to discuss proven and failed leaders, their decisiveness, humility and character and how a U.S. Navy Seal instructor could size up who has "it" and who doesn't in a day.

Forbes.com: With all the leadership books already on the shelf, what inspired you to write this and take a more human approach to the subject of building great leaders?

Stephen H. Baum: A few years ago, I decided I had a calling, a passion, when I was coaching. Even when you're doing studies with analytical results with charts and stuff, when you examine those results, it's important. Part of all of that I love is when a CEO would say, "Hey Stephen, you going to hang around afterward? I want to talk to you about something. I can't talk to the board about it. I can't talk to the team about it. My wife's tired of hearing it."

I found that sort of intimate relationship very satisfying, if I could help them chart a course. In consulting, you're supposed to provide answers; in coaching you're suppose to provide questions. That's one data point. I was sort of focusing my career on coaching in a private practice.

I had this prospect who was a 28-year-old CEO. I was asking myself, "Why would this guy think that someone nearly twice his age is relevant as a coach for him?" I started to write down the experiences that I've had that make up my behavior, my beliefs.

And I went to somebody I knew who was then chairman of Sears. I said, "Arthur, I want to run this by you and see how it goes." And for the next two hours, instead of looking at my own tape, I listened to him. When we finished, he said, "You know, I've never seen anything in the literature about this. You ought to write a book."

Do existing leaders pick up books like the one you've written, or is it just the aspiring that show an interest?

I already know for a fact that business owners, especially entrepreneurs, have read the book and given me feedback. The fellow I mentioned who owns an insurance agency in Connecticut, he wanted to take his community activities to a different level. He read the book and decided he could do what he thought he couldn't.

They use this kind of information to get ahead then?

There are very few leaders that don't want to have an edge, to be even better than they are. There are some who don't. There are some who think, "I already know what I need to know."

Guys who run companies, they're in a war for talent. So they ask, "Is there anything in your book that'll help recruit, develop and keep good guys?" The answer is yes. I didn't write it for HR people.

In your book, it's clear that you explain that good leadership can be taught, and in the battle of nature vs. nurture, it's nurture that prevails. Is it always that cut-and-dry? There are plenty of people who believe otherwise--leaders are born, and all that.

I'll answer your question in two ways. The first answer is the theory of the case. That is, if you have a minimum level of intelligence. If you have a deep-seeded motivation to take control of your own destiny, to take charge of your life, you will test yourself in taking charge and being a leader. You may find you don't like it. You don't like being on the hot seat. You don't like the pressure. You don't like the rejection. You want something else. There's nothing wrong with that.

There has to be followers, independent practitioners. There's room in the world for a group of people who do not want to oversee a group of other people.

I had an experience last fall. I went out to the [U.S.] Navy SEALs training grounds in San Diego. I've never been there before. I had a private conversation with the commanding officer of the Navy SEALs training base. I got a chance to ask him about the class ... you have a 30% success rate. That's how many people get to be SEALs.

Well, they all want to be. That's why they're there.

But want to be how bad? These are all people who are fit. They have some level of intelligence. [The commanding officer] said that in the incoming class, in a day or two, "I can tell that 10% or 15%, that if I cut off their left leg, they will still make Navy SEALs. I can also tell the 10% or 15% that will never make it. They're going to opt out."

He said the sad part is that the 75% to 80% left, those are the ones who make the best platoon leaders. So nature vs. nurture? We'll see. But it's mostly nurture.

Do you consider yourself a leader?

Now that's a tougher question. I am much less on the firing lines than somebody who is actually responsible for a group of other souls. So I could be a thought leader, sure. I have to be responsible for my group of chief executives whom I meet with all the time. It's not the same thing as if you've had the profit-and-loss responsibility for their livelihoods. I can't lay claim to that.

Just to underscore that, God help me if I think I am.

Are good leaders good followers? At some point in our lives we've all had to take orders and play by someone else's rules.

There are situations in which a good leader has to be a good follower because there's something in the community that's going on where they play a role and they're not the leader of it. There may be situations in an industry where they have to let somebody else take the lead. There are sometimes good reasons to let somebody be out front. But it is over their contravention of their preferences, that they would prefer to take charge. By the time they are well along in their careers, that's the seat they're used to.

Are the leaders you see in corporate America, like the ones making headlines right now, true leaders, or did they just work their way up the ranks and make it to the top job?

Obviously not all of them. If they're leading by fear when the company is three days away from bankruptcy, no. That's not a way to build an institution. The way to build an institution is to make it the best damn place to work.

Now in some businesses, the culture of the industry doesn't look like that. There are serious issues about the financial industry where the culture by and large is all about the financial returns. One of the reasons Stan O'Neal (former CEO of Merrill Lynch) failed, in my view, he didn't feel responsible for the human capital, only the financial capital. And I don't think we're finished seeing lawsuits that expose what they knew and when they knew it.

Are leaders ever to weight the two equally, financial and human capital, in a business?

You can't balance it minute by minute. You can't keep it equal all the time. You just can't do that. You have to know what the non-negotiable is for each constituency. You have to put credit in the bank for each of them from time to time, is the way this works.

When Gordon Bethune took over Continental Airlines, he looked out at a defeated workforce. Shareholders had driven the company into bankruptcy. He had to put the employees first at that moment, not forever. He had to prove to them this was worth investing in from their point of view in a book he wrote: From Worst to First.

It's all about signal act, as I call it--when deeds speak louder than words and get the employees involved. He couldn't have turned the airline around if he just looked at the numbers.

I have read Stephen H. Baum's book and reread it three times. Each time a new concept is revealed or an old question is answered. Hence, the title for this review.
This book is a very readable and practical guide to taking your leadership up a notch,and growing the people in your company.
It is full of CEO's own vivid stories of their learning moments that made them ready to be the boss. Baum adds insights into the patterns along with specific suggestions.He even brings the book to life with CEO videos and articles on his website (www.stephenhbaumleadership.com) and blog.
Oh yes, another thing: parents who read this book will change their view of what will prepare their kids for survival in a competitive world.

Nabil Yacoub, P.E.
Principal
Greenwich Engineering, LLC

Baum has captured in very real, easy-to-get language what it takes to prepare for a larger role, job and greater responsibility. The book is full of practical, implementatable ideas that Baum has successfully used in mentoring CEOs of high growth companies. I know CEOs who are actually using these ideas, with great success, in their companies. This is an easy take- with-you-on-the-plane great read!

The author had a brilliant and precious idea, what makes these leaders leaders and not posers? In a series of interviews, and reflections on a lengthy career with Booz Allen & Hamilton. he has succeeded in putting out a noteworthy book. IN our Rocket Builders practise we talk about the "school of experience" that practitioners need to have gone through to be leaders. Baum uses the term "shaping experiences". He has listed ten of these:

* 1.Swim in the water over your head
* 2. Make the tough choices
* 3. Solve the Key Puzzle.
* 4. Parent at Work.
* 5. Sell Something/Get Others to Buy 1n.
* 6. Connect with Others.
* 7. Build a Team.
* 8. Get Good on Your Feet
* 9. Develop Your Crap Detector.
* 10. Look in the Mirror.

This book is useful to all ages and experience levels of business leaders, that is if you want to be one of the top 5. Posers need not apply. Good easy read, that lasts a lifetime. Lessons from those who have done it.

This fascinating book accomplishes something unusual: it provides both penetrating human insight and practical value for managers. It asks a question which, I must admit, I had never really thought about: Why do great leaders become so effective? It seems that it has to do with early formative experience. Parents take note. Just going to Harvard Business School (as I did) probably isn't enough. More important is the kind of experience which builds character. And the practicality arises from an ample set of suggestions for would-be leaders to follow in order to develop their potential. I found the importance of connecting with a good mentor to be particularly useful. The big message for me in all of this is that it is not relentless predatory ambition that counts but genuine character. It could make unpleasant rating for anti globalization protesters and other anti-capitalists who assume that all top managers are flawed and reprehensible human beings. If you have big plans, read this book.

I read up to page 190 when I finally got irritated enough with the authors writing that i just had to stop! The guy talks in circles, and never gets to the point. The book basically talks about a leaders past experiences, and then the author jumps in and says "that's what shaped him into the leader he is today!"
I was expecting more analysis over Jack Welches life, but instead I got a cluster of "leaders" ive never heard of, and whose experiences werent all that amazing.
I would not recommend anybody to read this book unless they want something to put them to sleep.