“What gets measured gets done,” said Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric.

Welch often credited much of his success during his 30 plus years at the helm of GE to hiring and evaluation of his employees. It is said that he spent as much as 50 percent of his time on talent acquisition, evaluation, and development using four criteria he called the 4 E’s of leadership, as reported in the book Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah.

The 4 E’s of Leadership

  1. Energy—Individuals with energy love to “go, go, go.” Boundlessly active, they arrive every day ready to attack the job at hand. High energy people move at 95 miles-per-hour in a 55 mile-per-hour world.
  2. Energizers—These people know how to spark others to perform. They cast a vision and get people to carry it out. Energizers know how to get others excited about a cause or crusade. They are selfless in giving others the credit when things go right, but are quick to accept responsibility when things go wrong.
  3. Edge—People with edge are competitive types. They know how to make really difficult decisions, such as hiring, firing, and promoting, and don’t allow the degree of difficulty to stand in their way.
  4. Execute—This is the key to the entire model. Without measurable results, the other “E’s” are of little use. Executers recognize that activity and productivity are very different. They convert energy and edge into action and results.

Jack Welch spent much of his time recruiting talent, evaluating performance, and developing performance using his 4E’s. This process and these ideas can help you develop the right framework and criteria to evaluate current employee performance and future development of your team.