Jack Welch on leadership: A primer for principals

January 23, 2004

We are convinced that great schools don't have mysterious origins, they emerge from great leadership, and by that we mean the principal.

One of our favorite education reform books is No Excuses: Lessons from 21 High Performing, High Poverty Schools by Samuel Casey Carter. But the book really isn't about the schools, it is about the principals of those schools. Even though it was the teachers in those buildings who taught those kids how to read and do math, and to succeed when conventional wisdom of high-poverty schools says otherwise--these teachers had extraordinary principals.

Today in the Wall Street Journal, Jack Welch writes about the qualities of an excellent leader (albeit in the context of the Democratic presidential primaries).

Every time I speak to a group, I get asked about leadership. Mainly, people want to know how I feel about that age-old question: Are leaders born or made? And I always answer the same way: Who knows? What I do know is what leaders look and act like.

In his decades in the leadership business, he got to know his way around, developing a checklist called the Four E's. But we couldn't think of any presidential candidate as we read his words, all we could think about were school principals.

Basically, my process assesses four essential traits of leadership (each one starting with an E, a nice coincidence). One, successful leaders have tons of positive energy. They can go go go; they love action and relish change. Two, they have the ability to energize others--they love people and can inspire them to move mountains when they have to. Three, they have edge, the courage to make tough yes-or-no decisions--no maybes. And finally, they can execute. They get the job done.

If a candidate for a leadership role has the four E's, then you look for a final trait--passion. By that I mean a heartfelt, deep and authentic excitement about life and work. People with passion care--really care in their bones--about neighbors, employees, colleagues and friends winning. They love to learn and grow themselves, and they get a kick when the people around them do the same.

Passion, luckily, can't be faked for very long, so this is usually a pretty easy call. Either people have a genuine zest for living and giving, or they're just showing up.

Now, an important point. You absolutely cannot even start to think about the Four E's until you get a solid yes on two questions. First: Does the leadership candidate have integrity? That means, does he or she tell the truth, take responsibility for past actions, admit mistakes and fix them? Does he demonstrate fairness, loyalty, goodness, compassion? Does she listen to others? Does he truly value human dignity and voice? These may seem like fuzzy, subjective questions, but you have to get a strong "AMEN" in your gut to all of them to even consider a person as a leader.

Second: Before applying the Four E's, you have to ask, is the candidate intelligent? That doesn't mean a leader must have read Kant and Shakespeare (if it did, I would have been out of a job). It does mean the candidate has to have the breadth of knowledge, from history to science, which allows him to lead other smart people in a world that is getting more complex by the minute. Further, a leader's intelligence has to have a strong emotional component. He has to have high levels of self-awareness, maturity and self-control. She must be able to withstand the heat, handle setbacks and, when those lucky moments arise, enjoy success with equal parts of joy and humility. No doubt emotional intelligence is more rare than book smarts, but my experience says it is actually more important in the making of a leader. You just can't ignore it.

What do you say, principals and superintendents? You think these qualities would work for our schools?