Spent the last few nights before hitting the sack reading through former GE CEO's latest book, Winning.  It was easy enough reading but the values he espoused were insightfully presented in the context of his experiences.  I expected it to be more of a blueprint for running a corporation but there was unexpected candor about how people need to figure out what they are really going after, be it money, work-life balance, or becoming the head honcho.

Several points that stood out:
To get a promotion, you have to deliver surprising results above what your boss normally expects from you.  Say you're an engineer, you can't just complete your component on time with quality.  You have to actively seek out additional projects, such as putting in new features or processes that help the team.  In many ways, I did this in my career but didn't see it the way it was explicity spelled out in the book.  I viewed my actions as just doing a great job, but not as a way to force a promotion.  Instead, I would ask my boss what needs to get done to reach the next level, and when I delivered and sometimes still didn't get the promotion, I was frustrated.  Jack Welch points out that if you only deliver the expected, then you're just "doing your job" and you don't get rewarded with fast promotions for that.

Another thing he said, "I don't know if it's good or bad, but the world generally favors people who are energetic and extroverted.  That's also something you learn young, and it's reinforced in school, at church, at camp, in clubs, and usually at home too..."  He goes on to describe that while not a requirement for success, this helps tremendously in many aspects of life and career.  Again, something I always implicitly understood but never thought about explicitly.  Back in the high school days, the intellectual nazi in me would confuse being outgoing and extroverted with boisterous and juvenile.  Later, I came to see it differently, but seeing it in print really cemented that realization.

Apparently he's gotten a bunch of flak for touting GE's practice of differentiation, where people are ranked in the three groups of 20-70-10, the numbers denoting percentile ranking.  I see that at our company, but we don't even come close to GE's candor and transparency of the ranking process and how to move within it.  Welch also mentions people actually do get let go from the bottom 10 group, whereas at our company, I always felt that the bottom five percent (BFP) was just an empty threat.

Many other nuggets of goodness included in the book make for great light reading before bed.  If you get a chance, read it and learn something new and interesting about making it in the corporate world.