Jack Welch is Almost Right!

In one of his talks (The Mirror Test) posted on slideshare the legendary retired GE CEO, Jack Welch asks his audience to do the mirror test. This is a test someone performs when they think that their boss is the source of their problems at work. The test he suggests in response to a question from the audience, How to deal with a boss who is a jerk, involves looking yourself in the mirror and asking yourself that dreaded question, Will you work for you?

I think that this is a good way to make people think of their own role in how their relationship with their boss is vitiating their efforts to grow their career and to advance their cause inside their own organization. Surveys conducted over the past 50 years or more have consistently revealed that nearly 80% of the managers are viewed as dysfunctional, incompetent, or even toxic in varying degrees to their employees careers. The interesting thing about these surveys is that they apply to ALL employees, so the same high percentage of employees is similarly disposed when it comes to doing their work and their engagement in it. So, from that perspective Welchs challenge to do the mirror test is apt!

As a career coach most of my practice stems from the problems my clients have with their managers. These clients are not just individual contributors or first-level managers; some of them are senior executives, all the way to C-levels. As a way to addressing this problem I coach my clients to deal with them head-on and to take on the responsibility for their part to improve their relationship with their boss and their higher-ups. But the fact remains that many managers cause untold grief to their employees and get away with it because of their position, disposition, marginal EQs, and learning disabilities. So, while I concede to the point Welch makes in his argument to do the mirror test I implore you to take charge of the relationship with your boss and to try to improve it or remedy it. Here is what I suggest to my clients to follow:

1.Catch yourself in your interactions with your boss early and see if you are seeing patterns and if they are headed in the wrong direction. Acknowledge to yourself about their trend and ask yourself what may be causing this. The common problem is that most clients are good at rationalizing what they observe and take the blame themselves. For example, after a bad meeting with their boss, they will typically say to themselves, Oh, he was in a bad mood, or that his boss must have caused him to get off track today, so I am going to cut him some slack. Then you go about your work expecting things to be different the next day. Taking the blame yourself involves not holding the boss accountable for their role in how you went about to carry out what was expected and not moving to a different working arrangement in future assignments.
2.Make sure that your hidden agenda and what your boss wants you to do are one and the same. If you have disagreement about the agendas then you must have a purposeful discussion with your boss about how to make it work for both of you going forward. If the discord between these agendas is significant you are better off finding another boss or job. Muscling your own way through what you think is better for your company and undermining your boss agenda are not good for your career.
3.It is rare to have a perfect alignment with your boss on every aspect of your job. Differences in points of view are a good way to forge a strong bond and understanding of each others preferences. The problem comes when the two people involved do not engage in a constructive dialog and agree to disagree, but to still respect each others view and station. What this means is that if you disagree with your boss in how they see what is the right thing to do, then after agreeing to disagreeafter a healthy discussionyou must abide by their wishes and not continue to object to what they want done. You can disagree without becoming disagreeable.
4.Learn how to have constructive conversations about your work styles and habits and learn how to respect each others space when it comes to managing. If your boss is an inveterate micromanager or if she undermines your management authority by going around you to your direct reports you must openly discuss what works for each of you and learn how to make it functional in a productive way. Talk to your own team and get them to agree to the working arrangement you have after you all agree what is best for a harmonious work environment. These crucial conversations are best done after you read the book by the same title.
5.Do not complain about a missed promotion. Often there are organizational limitations and a bosss promise may not be viable. So, before you complain about false promises assess the situation and then decide if you have been maligned or sidelined in the move and are better off bowing out to take another position.
Coming back to the Welchs mirror test, I want to showcase some egregious examples where such a test would be redundant. In the case of one client his new manager hired him away from a good job with a lure of a great career for him. The same week my client came on board that manager told him that he made a mistake hiring him and that he would be now on his own. Things went downhill from there for my client. After some investigation we found out that there was a pattern of abuse with this manager and many others had also suffered his wrath in the past. After escalation to HR and the higher ups in that company it took about one year to get that manger fired from the company. During that year my client went through some tough times.

With yet another client his manager was oblivious to his personal life. Within a short time after onboarding he told my client that he expected a response to his calls and emails within an hour, no matter when a message was sent. Soon, my client realized that his boss was sending him message at midnight or at 2:00 AM, expecting a response. As my client struggled to keep up with this demand his manager further ratcheted his demands and soon it became impossible for my client to perform. Similarly, this manager was also fired from his job after about a year.

The reason for bringing up these use cases is that in such situations Welchs mirror test would be redundant. You must know what is right, what is not, and take a position to decide how you want to deal with it, even if it involves your higher-ups and risking your own job, as my two clients did in these examples.

Good luck!

About Author

Dilip has distinguished himself as LinkedIn’s #1 career coach from among a global pool of over 1,000 peers ever since LinkedIn started ranking them professionally (LinkedIn selected 23 categories of professionals for this ranking and published this ranking from 2006 until 2012). Having worked with over 6,000 clients from all walks of professions and having worked with nearly the entire spectrum of age groups—from high-school graduates about to enter college to those in their 70s, not knowing what to do with their retirement—Dilip has developed a unique approach to bringing meaning to their professional and personal lives. Dilip’s professional success lies in his ability to codify what he has learned in his own varied life (he has changed careers four times and is currently in his fifth) and from those of his clients, and to apply the essence of that learning to each coaching situation. After getting his B.Tech. (Honors) from IIT-Bombay and Master’s in electrical engineering(MSEE) from Stanford University, Dilip worked at various organizations, starting as an individual contributor and then progressing to head an engineering organization of a division of a high-tech company, with $2B in sales, in California’s Silicon Valley. His current interest in coaching resulted from his career experiences spanning nearly four decades, at four very diverse organizations–and industries, including a major conglomerate in India, and from what it takes to re-invent oneself time and again, especially after a lay-off and with constraints that are beyond your control. During the 45-plus years since his graduation, Dilip has reinvented himself time and again to explore new career horizons. When he left the corporate world, as head of engineering of a technology company, he started his own technology consulting business, helping high-tech and biotech companies streamline their product development processes. Dilip’s third career was working as a marketing consultant helping Fortune-500 companies dramatically improve their sales, based on a novel concept. It is during this work that Dilip realized that the greatest challenge most corporations face is available leadership resources and effectiveness; too many followers looking up to rudderless leadership. Dilip then decided to work with corporations helping them understand the leadership process and how to increase leadership effectiveness at every level. Soon afterwards, when the job-market tanked in Silicon Valley in 2001, Dilip changed his career track yet again and decided to work initially with many high-tech refugees, who wanted expert guidance in their reinvention and reemployment. Quickly, Dilip expanded his practice to help professionals from all walks of life. Now in his fifth career, Dilip works with professionals in the Silicon Valley and around the world helping with reinvention to get their dream jobs or vocations. As a career counselor and life coach, Dilip’s focus has been career transitions for professionals at all levels and engaging them in a purposeful pursuit. Working with them, he has developed many groundbreaking approaches to career transition that are now published in five books, his weekly blogs, and hundreds of articles. He has worked with those looking for a change in their careers–re-invention–and jobs at levels ranging from CEOs to hospital orderlies. He has developed numerous seminars and workshops to complement his individual coaching for helping others with making career and life transitions. Dilip’s central theme in his practice is to help clients discover their latent genius and then build a value proposition around it to articulate a strong verbal brand. Throughout this journey, Dilip has come up with many groundbreaking practices such as an Inductive Résumé and the Genius Extraction Tool. Dilip owns two patents, has two publications in the Harvard Business Review and has led a CEO roundtable for Chief Executive on Customer Loyalty. Both Amazon and B&N list numerous reviews on his five books. Dilip is also listed in Who’s Who, has appeared several times on CNN Headline News/Comcast Local Edition, as well as in the San Francisco Chronicle in its career columns. Dilip is a contributing writer to several publications. Dilip is a sought-after speaker at public and private forums on jobs, careers, leadership challenges, and how to be an effective leader.

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