Jeffrey R. Immelt Quotes

I'm an optimist. I've always believed the future is going to be better than the past. And I also believe I have a role in that. The great thing about human beings, myself in particular, is that I can change. I can do better. If you can get up every day, stay optimistic, and believe the future is better than the past, those few things get you through a lot of tough times.

Good leaders don't tell people what to do, they give teams capability and inspiration.

Managing innovation better may be the only way out of the abyss called commodity hell.

Work hard with passion and courage. Life is a marathon of contribution. You really must work hard to accomplish something... Find your passion and get good at it.

The best thing you can give as a leader is a reason to trust. People want to trust. They're hungry for it. But they're selective. They'll only give it to a motivator, a communicator, a teacher, a real person. Someone who in good times and bad always does the right thing.

Values can't just be words on a page. To be effective, they must shape action.

The reason people come to work for GE, they want to be apart of something bigger than themselves, they want to work for a company that makes a difference, a company that is doing great things in the world.

The most important thing I've learned since becoming CEO is context. It's how your company fits in with the world and how you respond to it.

In business as in life, sometimes bad things happen to good people, and sometimes good things happen to bad people. But over time, if you play long enough, everybody gets what he deserves - good and bad.

I think there's a need for somewhat of a mindset change. We need to have a consistent external focus. We've always had the research labs. We've always had the resources to be innovative, and we've been innovative in a number of businesses. But, in any big company, you have to constantly push people to look at markets and customers, rather than look internally at themselves.

Seeing people in person is a big part of how you drive any change process. You have to show people a positive view of the future and say "we can do it"

Surviving a failure gives you more self-confidence. Failures are great learning tools - but they must be kept to a minimum.

Live with passion. Live with purpose.

There is no real magic to being a good leader. But at the end of every week, you have to spend your time around the things that are really important: setting priorities, measuring outcomes, and rewarding them.

I was never afraid of failure. I realized that I was responsible for my own success and that every day offers a new beginning and I was confident in my ability to improve.

Every leader needs to clearly explain the top three things the organization is working on. If you can't, you are not leading well.

And people is the most important part of my job. I spend one third of my time on people.

Leadership is an intense journey into yourself. You can use your own style to get anything done. It's about being self-aware. Every morning, I look in the mirror and say, 'I could have done three things better yesterday.'

It's the sustained ability to change that really counts.

I was Chairman for two days. I had an airplane with my engines, hit a building I insured, was covered by a network I owned and I still have to increase earnings by 11 percent.

You can't delegate growth or customer satisfaction.

I love working with customers. Sales has really influenced everything I do. It has instilled in me the important traits of operating with a sense of urgency and listening to people.

Good leaders are very curious, and they spend a lot of time trying to learn things.

I'm out talking about this company (General Electric) seven days a week, 24 hours a day, with nothing to hide. We're a 130-year-old company that has a great record of high-quality leadership and a culture of integrity.

Enron and 9/11 marked the end of an era of individual freedom and the beginning of personal responsibility.

People ought to invest in us because they like our company and the way they run it. We still do quarterly earnings guidance, but we tell people openly that they ought to look at the company for the long term and that's how they ought to invest.

If the only common thread you have as an industrial company is the fact that you think you're well managed, you can still be a pretty good company, but you're not going to be a dominant company, a competitive company over time.

Really, the one thing that actually works - you know, state-run communism may not be your cup of tea, but [China's] government works.

I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and my parents are really right wingers. My dad watches, like, five or six hours of Fox News every day and stuff like that.

I've been seeing the change. It's been steady. It's been more controlled than people think. And my own belief is that China knows it also needs to be part of the world, and that it needs to be able to have trade with Europe and the United States in order to house and feed a billion people. That's really kind of single-mindedly what they see their role as being.