I like this word: Candour
You hear a lot about Jack Welch, CEO of GE and responsible for bringing GE’s market capitalisation from $14 billion to $410 billion.
I read his book “Winning” recently and got some really interesting points from it. The one point that really stands out in my mind though is his philosophy of “candour”.
What is candour? I liked this one from Princeton:
candour: the quality of being honest and straightforward in attitude and speech
This is something that I’ve really come to appreciate in business and something that we are looking for from all of our team in our internal relationships and in our relationships with our clients.
It’s about telling people where they are going right and where they are going wrong. It’s about accepting the harsh reality of the situation and then doing everything in your power to embrace the change that’s required to turn it around. It’s about actively seeking change and continually improving even in those areas that are already going well.
I can definitely say that’s it’s a characteristic of all of our business mentors, but it’s also a characteristic of other people I admire. I also know it’s something that doesn’t necessarily come naturally to me but that I look to practice every day.
If you want to see candour in action, then here’s a video of Jack talking about the book – there is no doubt he tells it like it is (or like he thinks it is!) and for me, it’s something to aspire to. His comments on candour are in the first 3 mins (it’s 1:02 hours in total) but I watched the first 15 minutes and enjoyed it thoroughly. I think I’ll go back and watch the rest now!
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