As professor of management and ethics at Harvard Business School, Bill George teaches from personal experience on the topics of leadership and leadership development. He is the author of the best-selling books True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership and Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value. George is the former chairman and CEO of Medtronic, the world’s leading medical technology company. Under his leadership, Medtronic’s market capitalization grew from $1.1 billion to $60 billion, averaging 35 percent annual growth.
- Are you fulfilling God’s calling on your leadership?
- Examine yourself.
- Are you letting your light shine?
- Two goals for my life
1) To become a value-centered leader of a corporation
2) To help other people to become value-centered leaders
- We’ve been in a leadership crisis where leaders have put themselves ahead of their organization. Many have failed us.
- We are all leaders, but we have to develop our leadership skills and use them.
- We were born to make manifest the glory of God. It’s in all of us.
- We’ve been choosing leaders for the wrong reasons. More for style than substance. Why should we be surprised that our leaders lack integrity.
- 20th century leaders were command and control
- In the 21st century…
- People know more than their bosses
- They are looking for meaning and significance in their work.
- Align, empower, serve, and collaborate
- The job of the leader is not to get people to follow, but to get people to step up and lead.
- Today’s problems are so big that no one organization can fix them. Leaders need to be able to bring people and organizations together in collaboration.
6 Things you need to develop your leadership (edited 8/11)
1) Understand the purpose of your leadership
- Out of people’s life story comes their passion to lead. Not as important as competency.
- Bill’s life story… ran for leadership in school 7 times and lost all 7 elections… mother and fiancé died… in working to become CEO of Honeywell he realized the company was changing him more than he was changing the company.
- Follow your compass not your clock. Go where God is leading and don’t worry about the timing.
2) Become self-aware.
- Get feedback.
- Go through a period of introspection.
3) Be true to your values
4) Do something you’re really motivated to do.
5) Build a team. Starts with faith in God. Next you need one person who you can be totally honest with.
6) Live an integrated life. Can’t have a perfectly balanced life, but can live a life of integrity where you are the same person in all roles in life.
What did you do to make a difference in the world?
Robert F. Kennedy – (paraphrase) Few individuals can bend history, but each of us making a small difference can change history.
Why do leaders lose their way?
- Didn’t fail to lead others, failed to lead themselves.
- Weren’t well grounded.
- Got caught up in power, money, fame.
