A 2 U 0 G 1 U 0 S T
Tru ruee No Nort rth: h: Disco Discove verr You Yourr Authentic Leadership by Bill George with Peter Sims
Leading with Excellence Being true to yourself enables you to empower others to succeed. QUICK OVERVIEW True North explains that anyone who follows their internal compass can become an
authentic leader. This leadership guide is based on research and rst-person interviews with 125 of today’s top leaders—with some surprising insights. In this important book, Harvard Business School S chool professor professor and acclaimed former Medtronic CEO Bill George shares the wisdom of these outstanding leaders and describes how you can develop as an authentic leader. True North presents a concrete and comprehensive program for leadership success and shows how to create your own Personal Leadership Development plan. Learn how to transform your leadership path and become the authentic leader you were born to be.
by Bill George with Peter Sims John Wiley & Sons Inc. © 2007, Bill George ISBN: 97807879875 9780787987511 251 pages, $29.95
SUCCESS Points In this book you’ll learn:
APPLY AND ACHIEVE Consider the following questions as you read True North to help you dene your leadership style—and evaluate where there may be room for improvement. • Is your leadership style consistent with your leadership principles and values? Is it ever inconsistent? • How do you adapt your style to the circumstances facing you and to the capabilities of your teammates? • How do you optimize the use of your power in leading others? • In situations in which you used your power over others inappropriately, how did they respond? • How do you respond to powerful people who use their power over you? What is the most powerful way to deal with very powerful people?
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How to chart your journey to authentic leadership
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The importance of knowing yourself
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How to build your support team
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How to empower others to lead SUCCESS BOOK SUMMARIES
True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership
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our life story denes your leadership. As a child, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz watched his family struggle after an injury i njury cost his father his job. When Schultz started Starbucks years later, the coee company became the rst rst American company to provide access to health coverage for qualied employees who work as few as 20 hours per week. Schultz credits his life story with motivating him to create one of the great business successes of the last 25 years. As the author of your own life story, you can connect the dots between your past and future to nd your inspiration to lead authentically. When envisioning your leadership journey, don’t rely on a carefully planned career map. Instead, be willing to step up to unexpected opportunities. In today’s culture, your journey is more likely to follow a winding path than it is to be a race to the top. There are three phases in this leadership journey: Phase I: Preparing for Leadership—The Leadership—The rst 30 years of your life is the time to prepare for leadership, when your character is formed, and when people become individual contributors or lead teams for the rst time. Phase II: Leading—This Leading—This phase usually involves a crucible, a di cult period that t hat tests leaders to the core. This results res ults in a transformation of understanding what leadership is all about, followed by a rapid acceleration of development. Phase III: Giving Back—The Back—The last 30 years of a leader’s journey can be the most productive and rewarding of all. Instead of retiring, these t hese leaders leaders often realize a new purpose for their leadership: to help develop the next generation of authentic leaders.
South Africa’s apartheid government, Mandela spent 27 years doing hard labor in prison. When elected president of South Africa four years after a fter his release, he was in the perfect position to call for revenge against those who had treated him unfairly and robbed him of so many years of his life. But Mandela, who rose above discrimination, injustice and hatred, oered reconciliation reconciliati on to his oppressors. During his h is incarceration, Mandela realized his leadership was not about the “I ” of getting people to follow him, but the “we” of reconciliation. He saw his role as bringing people from diverse backgrounds together around a common vision for the new South Africa, centered on the values of social justice and opportunity for all. Not many of us can be liberators of an oppressed people, but all of us can make a dierence to the world around us.
KNOWING YOUR AUTHENTIC SELF The advice to know yourself is thousands of years old. But knowing ourselves at the deepest level is not easy, as we are complex human beings with many aspects to our character. Self-awareness is critical to becoming an authentic leader. The better you know yourself, the more likely you are to nd the right role, increase your self-condence, remain consistent, connect with others and have exceptional complementary skills. Without self-awareness, it is easy to get caught up in chasing
To integrate your life, you must remain grounded in your authentic self and maintain your perspective.
TRANSFORMATION FROM ‘I’ TO ‘WE’ To become authentic leaders, we must discard the myth that leadership means having legions of supporters following our direction as we ascend to pinnacles of power. Only then can we realize that authentic leadership is about empowering others on their journeys. This shift is the transformation from “I” to “we.” “we.” Nelson Mandela’s story is one of the most powerful lessons in transformation of our time. For his organized prot protests ests against Page
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external symbols of success rather than becoming the person you want to be. Knowing yourself can be compared to peeling back the layers of an onion as you search for your true self. The outer layers are you as you present yourself to the world, such as your facial expressions, body language and attire. Beneath those outer layers laye rs lie your understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. SUCCESS.com
SUCCESS BOOK SUMMARIES
True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership
Peeling deeper, you gain an understanding of your values and the ways in which experiences often put you in conict with your values. Under another layer, you’ll nd what drives and motivates you. Still deeper lies your understanding of your life story. In the deepest layers, you nd your blind spots and vulnerabilities. At the core of your being is what you believe and how you envision your place on earth. Self-awareness is only half the challenge; you still have to accept yourself. But with self-awareness, accepting your authentic self becomes much easier. By accepting yourself just as you are, you are prepared to interact authentically with others who come into your life. With the center of your compass solidly grounded in selfawareness and supported by self-acceptance, you are ready to focus on your values and principles.
PRACTICING YOUR VALUES AND PRINCI P RINCIPLES PLES In gaining a clear awareness of who you are, you must understand your values and the principles that guide your leadership. Staying centered on your values is not easy. You can easily drift dri ft o course as t he temptations temptations and pressures of the outside world pull you away from your mental center. But if you are centered through a high level of self-awareness, your compass can help you get back on track. Leadership principles are values translated into action. Principles enable leaders to prioritize their values and demonstrate which ones trump others. After dening your leadership principles, you need a clear understanding of your ethical boundaries. Dening your values, principles and ethical boundaries: Values: The relative importance of the things that matter in your life. Leadership Principles: A set of standards used in leading others, derived from your values. Principles are values translated into action. Ethical Boundaries: The limits placed on your actions, based on your standards of ethical behavior. Many companies these days are shifting from managing by objectives objectives to leading by values. IBM CEO Sam Palmisano is using this approach to unite IBM employees as a powerful Page
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global force in information systems. When he took over the company from his predecessor, he employed a companywide online process in which all employees around the globe had the opportunity to participate for three days in determining what IBM’s values should be. Palmisano is using the values emerging from this process to integrate IBM’s 350,000 employees into a global integrated network. As we search for our True North, it is important to acknowledge how easy it is to get pulled o course. By knowing our ethical boundaries and testing our values under pressure, we are able to get back on track.
WHAT MOTIVATES YOU TO BE A LEADER? Because authentic leaders need to sustain high levels of motivation and keep their motivations in balance, it is critically important to understand what motivates them. There are two types of motivations: 1. Extrinsic motivations are motivations measured by the external world such as getting good grades, win ning athletic competitions or making money. Although they are reluctant to admit it, many leaders are motivated to achieve success by extrinsic motivators. They enjoy the feelings of success, recognition and status that come with promotion and nancial rewards rewards.. 2. Intrinsic motivations, on the other hand, are derived from your sense of meaning in your life—your True North. Examples include personal growth, helping other people develop, taking on social causes and making mak ing a dieren di erence ce in the world. Intrinsic motivations come from within you and are congruent with your True North. They are more subtle than extrinsic motivations. John Thain, CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, said, “I am motivated by doing a really good job at whatever I am doing, but I prefer to multiply my impact on society through a group of people.” Many people never tap into their most powerful motivations. With society’s unprecedented attention on material gain, temptations and social pressures cause many leaders to seek the world’s acclaim rather than doing what motivates them internally. In contrast to this mentality, Ann Fudge, CEO of Young & Rubicam, took the lowest-paying oer she received out of business school. SUCCESS.com
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Leadership principles are values translated into action. “You can’t make career decisions just based on money,” she said. “I hoped that the money would come, and it did, but if I had made my career decision based on the money, I would have been on a totally dierent career path.” You will be most eective as a leader when you nd opportunities that highly motivate you and utilize your greatest capabilities. capabilit ies. One without the other ot her is insu cient.
BUILDING BUILDI NG YOUR SUPPORT TEAM TE AM Your support team sits at the base of your compass. Members of your team help you stay focused on your True North, keep you grounded in reality and provide the support you need on your leadership journey. Your support team st arts with w ith having at least one person in your life with whom you can be completely vulnerable and open. Most leaders have their closest relationship with t heir spouses, although some develop these bonds with other family members, a close friend or a trusted mentor. When leaders feel unconditionally loved by another person, they are more likely to accept themselves for who they really are. This enables them to become less dependent on external reinforcement. Many leaders develop professional peer networks both within and a nd outside their organizations. This can be invaluable. invaluable. Colleagues may be facing comparable experiences or be in a position to oer you real-time feedback on your leadership. CEOs look to members of their boa rd of directors for advice at critical points, so why not have your own personal board of directors? Your board might include several highly tr usted personal and professional advisers, people you respect for their professional expertise, close friends, mentors, your lawyer, nancial planner or personal coach. Your journey to leadership is likely to take many unexpected turns. At times, you may feel you are losing your way. Getting back on track tra ck alone is very d i cult. That is when you most need your support team. It is important to build your team long before there is a crisis in your life, because that assures you that people will be available to help when you need them the most.
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STAYING GROUNDED— INTEGRATING YOUR LIFE Without realizing it, we make hundreds of choices every day. Ultimately, our life stories become an expression of the choices we make. Dening what is important in a leader’s life enables him or her to make conscious choices. Leadership can require signicant sacrices, especially during intense periods. Former AT&T executive Gail McGovern said, “A lot of people ask if it is possible to have a rich personal life and a great work life. I say unequivocally, it is entirely possible. You just have to realize you can’t give 110 percent to everything.” To ease the pressures, McGovern hires people to help with child care and does not worry if her house isn’t perfectly clean. “If you realize you can’t be super-housewife, super-careerperson, super-mom and super-wife, there is absolutely no reason why you can’t have it all,” she said. To integrate your life, you must remain grounded in your authenticc self and maintain your perspective. Decide what the authenti most important parts of your life are to you. You can have a family, professional prof essional life, spiritual and religious practices, and friends and community involvement involvement if you commit to living a life with integrity.. Real integrity results from integrating all aspects integrity as pects of your life so that you are true to yourself in all settings. Think of your life like a house, with a bedroom for your personal life, a study for your professional life, a family room for your family, and a living room to share with your friends. Can you knock down the walls between the rooms and be the same person in each of them? t hem?
LEADERSHIP WITH PURPOSE AND PASSION What is the purpose of your leadership? Are you following the True North of your compass or the timetable of your clock? For some of us, it can take many years to nd the purpose of our leadership—and the right place to devote our passions. When Baxter Healthcare’s Michelle Hooper was a child, she went over to a friend’s house, only to be met at the door by her friend’s father. Hooper’s friend was no longer allowed to play with black children, the father told her. Years later, as she advanced through the ranks at Baxter, Hooper found her purpose: to be a role model for people coming up and to provide them with opportunities such as she had. SUCCESS.com
SUCCESS BOOK SUMMARIES
True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership
“It goes back to my days when I was rejected by my friend’s father,” Hooper said. “You have to accept people for who they are. There are so many good people out there. All they need is an opportunity and a platform.” Gaining alignment a lignment around purpose is the greatest challenge leaders face. To sustain the motivation of teammates and a successful track record, authentic leaders convey such a sense of passion for their purpose that people share it and feel inspired by the mission. Leaders can sustain susta in their eectiveness only if they empower employees around a shared purpose. As a leader, you must convey passion for the business every day while maintaining clarity about the mission of your organization.
EMPOWERING PEOPLE TO LEAD Mutual respect is the basis for empowerment. There is no substitute. Here are some things leaders do to gain the respect of their colleagues: • Treating others as equals. By being authentic in their actions, leaders empower people to lead in their own authentic ways. • Being a good listener. Active listening is one of the most important abilities of empowering leaders because people sense such individuals are genuinely interested in them and not just trying to get something from them. • Learning from people. We feel respected when others believe they can learn from us or ask for our advice. • Sharing life stories. When leaders are willing to be open and share their personal stories and vulnerabilities, people feel empowered to share their own stories and uncertainties in return. When it comes to empowering people to lead, authentic leaders take six steps that typically show up in dierent forms: • Showing up. Surprisingly, many leaders get so busy they don’t take the time to be there for people. As a result, their teammates never get to know them on a personal basis. • Engaging people. This means being with w ith people face face to face; inquiring about their work, their families, their personal lives and their careers. This may make some leaders uncomfortable, uncomfortabl e, but it is a powerful means of establishing deeper connections. • Helping teammates. Authentic leaders help their teammates, whether it is with a personal problem or a career
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problem, by counseling with problem, w ith them, oering suggestions or assisting them in making vital contacts. Challenging leaders. Challenging people’s ideas and helping them sharpen their ideas through dialogue is an extremely empowering response. Although people may be uncomfortable in being challenged at rst, they are usually engaged with the leaders and anxious to respond. Stretching people. Most people want to be stretched in assignments that enable them to develop. Aligning around a mission. It’s not easy to align an entire organization around a mission, but it is the most empowering condition of all and it is worth whatever eort it takes.
HONING YOUR LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS The style of the eective leader must come from an authentic place. That will only happen when you have a high level of self-awareness, are clear about your values and understand your leadership purpose. As leaders mature through multiple experiences, they develop an authentic primary leadership style that works well for them and makes eective use of their power. That style is eective as long as their situation or context stays the same. But when the context changes, leaders must be able to shift to a more urgent style to address the situation. Through multiple experiences, authentic leaders learn to use their power and style in a nuanced and exible manner to adapt to the situation they are facing and to rally people to the cause. In so doing, they improve both their eectiveness and the results their organizations generate. Superior results over a sustained period of time are the ultimate mark of authentic leaders. At the end of the day, you can honestly say that you followed your True North and made a dierence in the world through your leadership.
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SUCCESS BOOK SUMMARIES
True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership
ACTION STEPS Get more out of this SUCCESS Book Summary by putting what you’ve learned into action. Here are few questions and thoughts to help you get started. 1. Identify a mentor who has successfully maneuvered your current leadership phase. 2. Make a list of the key players on your team. What can you do to help each of them excel?
About the Author Bill George is a professor of management practice at
Harvard Business School. He is the author of four best-selling books: Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis , True North , Finding
3. Peel back the layers. What are your core values? What drives you? In what areas are you vulnerable?
Your True North and Authentic Leadership .
4. Define your leadership principles. Translate your values into actions.
of Medtronic. Under his leadership, Medtronic’s Medtronic’s market
5. Are you motivated by your current work? What changes could you make to align your responsibilities with your key drivers? 6. Make a list of the most important i mportant people or things in your life. What are some things that are not important to you but are draining your time and energy? Delegate those activities or delete them from your to-do list. 7. What is your team’s mission? Clearly define your team goal and then communicate that goal to your team members. Encourage others to stretch themselves to contribute to this unified purpose.
George is the former chairman and chief executive officer
capitalization grew from $1.1 billion to $60 billion, averaging 35 percent per year. He currently serves as a director of Exxon Mobil and Goldman Sachs. He has been named one of top 25 business leaders of the past 25 years by PBS, Executive of the Year in 2001 by the Academy of Management, and Director of the Year-2001–02 Year-2001–02 by the National Association of Corporate Directors. He has made frequent appearances on television and radio, including The Charlie Rose Show , The Today Show , The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer , NOW , CNBC, Bloomberg News and NPR. His articles have
appeared in The Wall Street Journal , BusinessWeek , Fortune , Harvard Business Review and numerous other publications.
Recommended Reading If you enjoyed reading True North: North : Discover Your Your Authentic Leadership you may also like:
Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value by Bill George The Flawless Consulting Fieldbook and Companion: A Guide to Understanding Your Expertise by Peter Block The New Solution Selling: The Revolutionary Revolutionary Sales Process That Is Changing the Way People Sell by Keith M. Eades
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George received his bachelor of science in industrial engineering with high honors from Georgia Tech; Tech; his MBA with high distinction from Harvard University, where he was a Baker Scholar; and honorar y Ph.D.s from Georgia Tech and Bryant University. He and his wife, Penny, reside reside in Minnesota. © 2010 SUCCESS Media. All rights reserved. Materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without prior written permission. Published by SUCCESS Media, 200 Swisher Rd., Lake Dallas, TX 75065, USA. SUCCESS.com. Summarized by permission of the publisher, publisher, John Wiley and Sons, 989 Market St., San Francisco, CA 94103. True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership by by Bill George with Peter Sims. © 2007 by Bill George.
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