In Welch’s final year as CEO he came under fire for GE’s policy regarding the “bottom 10 percent” of its workforce. Each year, GE grades all of its employees, and the bottom 10 percent is summarily fired. The press asked how Welch, the defender of people and ideas, could just wipe out the bottom 10 percent of its workers?  Isn’t that a heartless act that flies in the face of everything he stood for? Many had a difficult time reconciling Welch, the champion of learning, with Welch, the pragmatic coach who wanted only the best employees on his team. In response, the GE chief invoked a sports metaphor (remember, sports are everything).Any professional team drops the 10 percent who aren’t cutting it, he proclaimed.He also explained it this way: “I think the cruelest thing you can do to somebody is give them the head fake…nice appraisals…that’s called false kindness. A removal should never be a surprise.”

在担任首席执行官的最后一年中，韦尔奇因在通用电气公司实施 “末位百分之十”员工淘汰制而遭到攻讦。通用电气公司每一年都对所有员工评级打分，名次排在最末百分之十的员工一总被裁掉。媒体质问说，作为人才和创意捍卫者的韦尔奇怎么能够把员工中的末位百分之十简单地抹掉了事呢？这种无情的举动难道不是与他所主张的一切事情完全对立么？许多人都觉得难以将倡导学习的韦尔奇与那个只想要最好的员工加入团队的实用主义教练韦尔奇调和起来。这位通用电气公司老总在答复时借用了一种体育比喻（别忘了 “体育即一切”），他宣称说，任何职业团队都会放弃掉末位百分之十的选手，这些人不能取得成功。他还这样解释道：“我想你能对别人做的最残忍的事，是给他们做个头部假动作……给他们好评……那叫伪善。裁员绝不应当是意外的事。”

 

It was likely not lost on Welch that, in his final months in office, after chalking up all those accolades (such as the “ultimate manager”), he was being haunted with the same brand of criticism that plagued him in his first years as chairman. During the hardware phase, during downsizing and delayering, he was also condemned for being a heartless leader. But Welch had an answer for his critics. The GE chairman has always thought of sports as an apt metaphor for business and had little difficulty making the same sort of difficult decisions that coaches make every day.Welch always wanted “A” players on his team and thought it perfectly acceptable to have all of GE live up to a certain standard of performance.

韦尔奇在获得了那么多的赞誉后（比如称他是“终极管理人”），却在任期的最后几个月中遭到与他担任董事会主席最初几年里困扰他的同样批评，对这一点他应该不会感到困惑。在硬件变革阶段中，以及在裁员和精简层级期间，人们也谴责他是没有心肝的领导。但韦尔奇从容应对他的批评者。他总把体育运动当成是经营管理的贴切比喻，而且也不怕做出教练们日常所做的那种艰难抉择。韦尔奇总是想要“王牌”选手组成的团队，而且觉得让通用电气公司全体上下遵守一定的绩效标准是完全可以接受的事。

 

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