Abstract
The purpose of this document is to candidly assess myself on each of Jack Welch's 4 Es and 1P, including my strengths, weaknesses, and what I can do to improve. I will provide examples of occasions during my career when I demonstrated my strengths, and when my weaknesses came into play.

Introduction Using Jack Welch’s 4Es and 1 P, I will provide a candid assessment. Jack Welch uses this framework because he found this was consistently effective, year after year, across businesses and borders (J. Welch, & S. Welch, n.d.). Therefore, this assessment will include my strengths, weaknesses, and what I can do to improve my performance. This document will provide examples of occasions during my career when I demonstrated my strengths, and when my weaknesses came into play. Energy Energy is one of my fundamental character traits. Several of my performance appraisals describe my energetic attitude toward getting the job done and leading my team. My supervisors have loved having me work in their organization because I bring energy to the team, and it is contagious. Actually, I have had supervisors tell me to treat my job as a marathon and not a sprint because they do not want me to get burned out. I then inform them that I am always this energetic and will be as long as I am around. I demonstrated my high energy level when I was a human resources leader on a deployment in the war zone. When we are in the war zone, we sleep, eat, work, and exercise on the base; therefore, everything is within a 30 mile radius. Military time will be used for this itinerary for ease, so 0:00 is midnight and anything after 12:00 pm, just add the hours i.e. 12+7 =19; therefore, 19:00 is 7:00 pm. My itinerary for that day was: worked a full day from 06:00 to 19:00, went to the gym from 19:30 to 21:00, ate dinner at 22:00, and then arrived at the passenger terminal at 23:30. The plane arrived late at 01:00, taxied, and we unloaded the baggage. The passengers went into the terminal where they were handed water and told to take a seat. We then took roll call, briefed them about the status of our operations, rules of engagement, the law of armed conflict, and the customs and courtesies of the host nation. We finished the briefings around 05:00 and loaded six deuce and a half military trucks with the baggage, and drove 57 Airmen to the barracks by 06:00. After they unloaded all of the 225 bags, I gave them their room assignments, briefed them about where the dining facility was, told them that if they needed anything to contact me, and gave them my phone number. After this briefing was over and I corrected all of the missed bags and room assignments, it was about 08:30. Then I had to get back to work because while I was processing our new Airmen, I received a phone call from the Red Cross about a death of a family member of one of our Airmen. I completed the process of notifying the Airmen, had the Commander approve the leave, arranged transportation back to the US, and coordinated the chaplain to see the Airmen by 14:45. Then I took care of other tasks at the office until 17:30, ate dinner, and drove this Airmen and his supervisor to the Doha Airport for his 21:00 fight. This day was a long, tantalizing because of all the arrangements that had to be made; however, I had enough energy to get it all complete and take care of my team members and the organization. My energy level is definitely one of my strengths, but my weakness in this area is that it discourages some people and they become passive. The assessment of my energy level is that I have inexhaustible energy that I use to energize people that work for and with me. Energized When I am the leader of a team, I make sure that I include people as much as I can in the process. Additionally, as defined in Jack Welch book Winning “WHAT LEADERS DO,” I make sure that employees not only see the vision, they live and breathe it (2005, p. 63). Furthermore, as defined in Winning, I will inaugurate trust into the culture with candor, transparency, and credit, have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls, and inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example (Welch, 2005, p. 63). Jack Welch also emphasizes, “to manage people well companies should: Create effective mechanism-read: money, recognition, and training-to motivate and retain” (2005, p. 98). I agree with this philosophy and have used it in the past. My ability is another one of my stronger traits because being an iD I have been blessed to be able to persuade people to see things my way; however, one of my weaknesses is that people who are more analytical may confront some parts of the proposal I may have left unaddressed (Wiley & Sons, 2013, p. 4). The following illustration would be a good example of me energizing my team. The team was instrumental in assisting me with the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force (CMSAF) transition ceremony, and I made sure each of them was personally recognized for his or her contributions. The CMSAF came and gave each Airman a coin, a token of appreciation for a job well done, and took a picture with each person individually. This simple recognition made people feel appreciated and valued. A few months later, I had another arduous task to accomplish so I called a few key players that were with me during the CMSAF transition ceremony. These Airmen were enthusiastic and eager to find out how they could help. The self-assessment of my ability to energize people is that I have the ability to inspire other people to help me with projects. This quality goes with my leadership style iD, “You may be fairly ambitious, and you’re probably attracted to high-profile assignments that will allow you to maximize your talents” (Wiley & Sons, 2013, p. 4). This high-profile assignment allowed me to energize people and accomplish the CMSAF Transition ceremony. Additionally, being an iD helps me maintain a good edge over others because I enjoy leading teams to accomplish these types of insurmountable tasks effectively. Edge
Edge is more difficult because leaders are responsible for the direction and effectiveness of the team they are in charge of and when not all of the information is available it is more difficult to make a command decision. However, as the leader of a team a decision has to be made; therefore, I will make one within a reasonable time line. My weakness can come into play because at times I find myself over-analyzing situations taking too long to make a decision; however, a strength is that sometimes I can make command decisions when needed. A good example is when I was a First Sergeant (human resources manager) and the Drug Demand Reduction people called and told me that one of the Airmen in my organization tested positive for drug use. I gathered the little bit of evidence I had available at the time, and approached the Commander (CEO). He asked me what action I recommend, and I told him we had to revoke his security clearance and put him on details until Office of Special Investigations (OSI) concludes their investigation to which he agreed. OSI completed the investigation and concluded that the Airmen did indeed unlawfully use narcotics, so the Commander processed the Airmen for a discharge from the military. The self-assessment of edge is I have a good ability to make decisions without all of the information at hand. I trust my gut and analyze the people I work with to make the best decision at the time with the information available. However, when I make a mistake I accept the consequences and do what I can to make it right. Being an iD helps me maintain a good edge over others because I do not overanalyze problems and enjoy leading teams to execute these types of challenging tasks efficiently.

Execution
Execution is the most important part of any task. People spend months preparing to have a successful ceremony but if the execution of the ceremony falls through then all of the preparation was done in vain. When a company provides successful execution they will get a business over and over because people love to talk about extremely good and bad service. Therefore, word of mouth is the best advertisement for a company and that is why it is essential a company executes its mission on time and for a good price. A good example of execution is when I was in charge of a six-week extravaganza call Operation Holiday Cheer. This free event had dodgeball, three-on-three-volleyball tournament, bowling, paintball, a scavenger hunt, 3-on 3-basketball tournament and a huge celebration at the end. There was a team event planned for six weeks on a Friday or Saturday that would compete for cash prizes: $300 for 1st $200 for 2nd, and $100 for 3rd. I made sure the venue was reserved, equipment needed was available, and the advertisement went out to all seven bases in the D.C. Metropolitan area. On the day of the event, I would arrive one hour early and make sure nothing was needed and everything was there to execute the activities. This event was a huge success and everyone loved it. The self-assessment of execution is I have been blessed with good teams that can execute the mission at hand with little oversight. I believe because my iD leadership style enables me to persuade others to adopt my vision and my persuasive influences allow me to gain the buy-in of the people I manage (Wiley & Sons, 2013, p. 4). Additionally, I have passion for the task I take on and can effectively paint a picture to my team of what we need to get accomplished.

Passion
Passion drives people to do things to the best of their abilities. Passion gives people drive and purpose to complete whatever they want to accomplish. When I am assigned a task and I am passionate about it, I can get it done correctly in record breaking speed; however, if I am not passionate about the task I have been given I will drag my feet and make excuses to put it off until later. When I lack passion about tasks procrastination is my weakest area and could use improvement because I want to be passionate about all of the tasks I have to do and do not want to procrastinate until the last minute. I can take a different look at the task and reevaluate my perspective about it and look for a reason to be passionate about it. These are two good examples of when I was passionate about something and when I procrastinated. Previously, I would attend Transition Assistance Programs for Service members (TAPS) offered by the military to help us shift to the civilian sector. Counselors recommend attending TAPS about a year before getting out of the military. Before I knew I was going to retire from the armed forces, I attended TAPS but really did not pay attention to all of the advice the speakers were giving because I had no intention of getting out within the next few months. Conversely, now that I am getting out in three months I attended TAPS again and asked about four or five questions to each speaker because I was much more passionate about getting the information.
Conclusion
Jack Welch’s 4Es and 1 P framework provided me with a means of candid self-assessment. My strengths, weaknesses, and what I can do to improve my performance were all included in this assessment. Furthermore, there were several examples of occasions during my career when I demonstrated my strengths, and when my weaknesses came into play.
References
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2013). DiSC Management tool. Retrieved from the DiSC Management Profile.
Welch, J., & Welch S. (n.d.). The 4 Es: Traits That Get You Hired And Promoted retrieved from http://www.askmen.com/money/career_150/150_career.html
Welch, J., & Welch S. (2005). Winning. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publisher, Inc.