Coach Talk: Wallow In It

Bob Craig

Beth Comstock, CMO at GE, has a funny post on LinkedIn about the best advice she ever got. One afternoon over 10years ago, she was talking on the phone to her boss, former GE Chairman and CEO Jack Welch, when the line went dead. She called his assistant, Rosanne Badowski, to say they had been disconnected.

“No you weren’t,” she said. “Jack hung up on you.”

“Huh?”

“He wants you to know that's what it's like to be in a meeting with you,” Rosanne said. “You're too abrupt.”

Point well made and with humor as the tutor. Jack himself had been pretty abrupt a few months previously, when he called her into his office. He said, “You have to wallow in it.” That’s what he said. “Take time to get to know people. Understand where they are coming from, what is important to them. Make sure they are with you.”

As a leader you need to take time to think and time to connect with people – it’s just as important as getting everything done. Sometimes you have to go slow before you go fast.