Recently I attended a reunion of HR Professionals who are former GE employees at Crotonville, GE’s Leadership Development Center. I was impressed that Jeff Immelt came and spent time with us – mostly answering our questions. My question: What are your greatest learnings as a leader and what advice would you give someone early in career who hopes to have your job one day?

His candid, thoughtful response:

Perseverance. You can’t be in this business these days and not have perseverance.

Listening. It’s not that it was a development need for me, but I have learned just how important deep listening is.

Bringing people along with you. Loyalty in times of crisis is key. I have been through 3 recessions in 8 years.

Other key comments:

The future of GE is outside the United States. American companies must have a global footprint. The new currency of business is who has jobs in the U.S. We can’t keep exporting jobs.

My lesson from the Board is to question: “What is the value of financial services?” This business will be smaller but now is not the time to get out.

As a country and as a company, we can’t take our reputation for granted.

Copyright 2009 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC             www.sagelead.com