Live Blog From The 2014 Global Leadership Summit – 49 Leadership Quotes From Jeffrey Immelt

In an effort to add maximum value to pastors and church leaders, INJOY Stewardship Solutions has dispatched me to attend the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit.  During the next two days, I will be bringing some of the top leadership lessons from the incredible faculty the WCA has assembled.

The next session’s speaker was Jeffrey Immelt, President and CEO of General Electric, who spoke on Positioning Your Organization For The Future.  The following are 49 leadership quotes and lessons from his challenging session.

1. When it’s the most important thing the company is working on, you don’t delegate that.
2. Hierarchy in the end doesn’t mean that much.
3. There’s never been a moment when a job in the company was beneath me.
4. In our company, everyone’s a worker.
5. Athletics gives you a chance early on where you do something that is accountable to the team.
6. I’ve always tried to demonstrate self-confidence and self-awareness.
7. For me it was always about the work.  It was not about the career.  It was about creating things.  At GE, you can create the future.
8. Your peers ultimately decide how far you go.
9. If you’re more of a giver than a taker, your peers sense that.  Horizontal strength keeps things together.
10. In my career I tried to be a good friend.
11. Hopefully you don’t cause it, but be around a crisis early in your career.  We can’t tell a lot about you when the sun is up.
12. I became CEO on September 7^th.  (4 days before 9-11)
13. You had Enron and 9-11.  It was the end of a stable time.
14. We live in a volatile time and we’re going to be in a volatile time for awhile.  And people are not going to have the opportunity to go backwards…The best leaders see the world as it is and move forward.
15. I have never seen a time when the value of leadership is more important.
16. There are opportunities out there and you’re going to have to go seize them.
17. We invest $1 billion a year in leadership training.
18. Leadership only has a certain amount of shelf life…You constantly have to be tuning up your leadership.
19. Leadership is a strategic comparative for the company.
20. You never dislike somebody more than the 15 minutes they’re in your office resigning.
21. I want everyone at GE to know they can get another job.  So let’s leave fear out of it.
22. We want people to live their dreams.
23. We’re not a perfect company but GE is about the institution…The company comes first.
24. The willingness to stand apart is a differentiating factor.  I became CEO because I never took no for an answer.
25. You have to be willing to stand apart.
26. Excuses turn everybody off.  Lack of accountability.  We don’t expect people to have perfect careers.  We expect people to learn and get better.
27. You can give negative feedback but you have to do it the tapestry of improving their self-confidence.
28. If you believe in talent and meritocracy, you must believe in diversity.
29. The best ideas, the best people get ahead.
30. Old white guys don’t have every great idea.
31. We live in a time where everybody thinks there’s an angle.
32. Business people, we’re a global enterprise, but we’re proud to be an American company.  A confident society is a competitive society.
33. Institutions, we’re looking for new ways to run institutions.
34. Less Management.  Put the decision-makers in the field.
35. I come to work to satisfy customers.  Become hyper-competitive.
36. Start small but start today.  Test and learn.
37. Use IT to network the company better and make it more transparent.
38. Be externally-focused and focus on speed.
39. You have to be paranoid about being trapped in your history.  Every 10 or 15 years you have to blow it up.
40. I respect everyone who is willing to be a public servant.  But our system for getting things done is antiquated.
41. The matters of corporate governance can be orchestrated in such a way it doesn’t have to be so public.
42. In a time of crisis, the constituency you play to is not the media.
43. I told my team you ‘re going to question my decisions, but not my intentions.
44. If you lead a challenging business life, you need a simple family life.
45. We respect work and workers immensely.
46. It’s heartbreaking but we can’t guarantee outcomes.  But we can guarantee process.
47. Big leadership jobs, you’re on all the time.
48. Leadership is an intense journey into yourself.
49. The ability to sit for an hour and be at peace and listen to someone else talk and get ideas.  That is priceless. – on what you wants in a church.

As a gift to all pastors and church leaders reading this post, INJOY Stewardship Solutions is pleased to offer your the FREE copy of our latest Ebook Nothing Grows A Church Faster.  This resource contains a complete done-for-you sermon series with outlines on stewardship and generosity.  This information will relieve stress and make you a better preacher.  Click HERE or on the image to the left to download this information.  Enjoy!