Now is the need for authentic leadership

True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership

?INTRODUCTION

?The Harvard Business School professor and former CEO of Medtronic Bill George, author of the best-selling book?True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership, highlights and describes how to become the type of leader the world needs now and some future afterward. He has written four books on leadership and has been lecturing on the topic at Harvard Business School since 2004. He recently published a new edition of?True North,?which was written first edition a decade before, that explains the future and present young leaders, how can find their ‘true north’ following the Inside the Strategy, and focuses on emerging leaders. He spoke with Carolyn Dewar, who co-leads McKinsey’s CEO Excellence Practice and is a co-author of last year’s bestseller?CEO Excellence. This is a crisp take away from the transcript of the discussion. ?Now leader is also becoming part of disruptive technology. A leader may be loser after next year if he does not continue reskilling part of his mind sets. So, in this cyber era, not only technology will change but all related to it. This is the era of disruptive technology and the disruptive behavior of the human element. Just think three years before two clear shifts happened. The leaders are already facing burnout and work from home (WFH). We are yet to see a consensus on how to handle particularly WFH.

?The emerging-leader edition is almost an all-new book. We are going through a massive generational change in leadership, from baby boomers to Gen Xers, millennials, Gen Z, and Gen alpha. This book is advice a strongly urgent need of swift action to them to lead authentically and make contributions with a deep sense of purpose. We are often asked where we went to school or what our title is, which tends to push us in the wrong direction—toward money, fame, and power rather than looking for careers where we can make people’s lives better. For the original book, we interviewed 220 leaders in business and nonprofits, and we learned that people’s life stories—their crucibles—help them understand who they are. People must comprehend who they are before they can make a difference in their professions.

Our true north is composed of our most deeply held beliefs and values. You need to decide who you are as a human being. What do you want out of life? That is what the author did when he made the change to Medtronic: What did he really want out of his life? He feels pleasure to see corporations around the world are shifting to authentic leaders and moving away from the power-based command-and-control type leaders. Today, people do not leave companies, they leave bad managers, so we need strong leaders at all levels—not just CEOs.?In the past, we focused on CEO charisma, which led to command-and-control leadership. We also focused on shareholder value to a fault, which brought down many great companies. We need a different kind of leader now because let us face it: we have a lot of intersecting crises. It started with the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on well-being, followed by supply chain shortages, millions of jobs unfilled, a threat of recession, mass-level layoffs by MNC giant companies like google, meta, twitter, Microsoft and newly made startup unicorns in tech of several sectors, and inflation levels we have not seen for 40 years.?Some people, mainly old generation up to Gen X have suggested that the pendulum has swung too far toward purpose and as belts tighten, we may see it swing back that is not realistic and practical. We observe clearly the human civilization is always moving towards north, a single direction.

We are just getting to where it needs to be. Yes, some things need to change. We hear phrases like “quiet quitting.” This is one of the worst ideas the abovesaid author ?have ever heard: “I’m going to do the minimum possible not to get fired and never come into the office.” This will not fly, and it drains our soul. Human beings want to be together. We want to be stimulated. We want to create innovation and build things that matter. The reason for the Great Resignation is that people do not feel a sense of purpose. Making money for shareholders is not a purpose. Saving lives, restoring people to health, addressing climate change, offsetting income inequality—these are valid purposes. Now the purposes have moved from self to society as a collaboration to sustain our life in danger. The author recollects that he was offered a chance to restore people to full life and built a purpose as CEO of Medtronic, both for himself and the organization.

It was a mid-sized company with $750 million in revenue; now it’s $32 billion. But the important thing was not the size but how we helped people. Our metric was how many seconds go by before another person is restored by a Medtronic product. When started, that number was 100 seconds. When left, it was 7 seconds. Today, it is two per second. Now, that is a metric everyone can relate to. They cannot relate to $2.61 a share. Shareholder value is an outcome. If we create great value for our customers, we will increase market share, we will enter new markets, and we will expand our business and business models. But workers on Medtronic’s heart-valve line want to ensure every product is perfect because they know human life is at stake.

To make people aware of that understanding of who they are, one method is from Harvard Business School is to chart a lifeline from the day you were born to today. Look at the highs and lows and what you learned from them. You may discover lows that you did not consciously remember, such as being rejected, losing an election, being sick as a child, or your parents’ divorce. Sometimes we find ourselves repeating those patterns in our 30s and 40s. Next, try to process the most challenging time you faced, because through that you will discover what really matters to you. It were seen many people who suffered childhood illnesses or lost siblings devote themselves to healthcare. Others who grew up poor want to help overcome income inequality. That is how you will discover your passions, which lead you to what it calls your “north star”—the purpose of your leadership. The purpose has been to enable people to reach their full potential. Author started when he was a freshman tutor helping people get through calculus at Georgia Tech and continued it by being an organization builder. It was not his genius who invented the defibrillator, but he did try to build organizations of great leaders.

The author just wishes, “Don’t move so far so fast.” He was too eager to get ahead. He was at 30, wanted to become a general manager by the time. He was fortunate enough to achieve that, but why? The second thing he would tell, “Don’t look at size as a criterion.” When he was nine years old, my father planted in his brain the aspiration to lead a major corporation, but smaller companies can grow into major corporations, so do not worry about size—do what want to do. He also says “Find the right culture for you”—one where you feel you can flourish.?People often make trade-offs for a satisfying career, such as spending too much time at work or not maintaining their health. How does personal fulfillment link to the true north?

?Leaders are like Olympic athletes. They must be healthy in mind, body, and spirit. They want to keep expanding their horizon of mind and be engaged outside of their work environment. They also must be in good physical shape, and spirit is about building authentic, long-lasting relationships. Ask themselves, “Did they lead with their values? Did they help other people? Did we find fulfillment in their own work?” Not every day is going to be perfect but take 20 minutes for reflection and introspection. My students sometimes say, “I will spend 12 years making money, then I will do what I really want to do.” This is a fallacy. There is no such example seen anyone do that. It is to get fulfillment now. Find joy. And don’t have to change jobs—as can find it with the people they work with and a deeper purpose.

?Being an authentic leader is being who you are. Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, who can be said ?as fine a leader as anyone else in the world today, found that his late son Zain’s cerebral palsy taught him the value of empathy and compassion. He then used that to transform Microsoft’s culture from what he said was a group of know-it-alls to a group of “learn-it-all’s”—people who cared about learning and helping others. He also requires honest feedback from people who will tell him when he is going off track.

The author recognizes that he ?could not have written the book without one of his partners at Harvard, and we started working together in 2009 when he graduated. He taught me how millennials think. One thing we fell upon is that leadership has shifted from the director model of telling people what to do, then sitting back and evaluating them, to more of a coaching model. Many executives have coaches today, so why shouldn’t every leader be a coach? COACH is also an acronym, which starts with caring about people—people will not follow you unless they know you care about them. Second is organizing them in what we call their sweet spot, where they are using their strengths and are highly motivated. Next, we bring them into alignment around the purpose and values. Then we challenge them. Any good coach will challenge you. “Hey, you have incredible strengths, but here is where you are not at your best,” or, “Here is a way you could step up to the next level. “The last letter in the acronym stands for help: let us work with people. A Harvard study found that CEOs spend 72 percent of their time in meetings and only 5 percent with employees and 3 percent with customers. That is a disaster. At Medtronic, he tried to be out with our employees and customers well over half his time. Baby boomers have many myths about the younger generations which must dispel.

One myth is that millennials are slackers who will leave. It has been heard that from many baby boomers, and but not true. ?The reason they leave any company is that they do not feel a sense of purpose, and with 11 million open jobs, it is easy to be mobile.

Author also elaborated one of the great emerging leaders during the COVID pandemic was Corie Barry, who had taken over as CEO of Best Buy from Hubert Joly. One of Hubert’s mantras was, “Layoffs are the last resort.” She took on the role the year before the pandemic and had to close a thousand stores and furlough 52,000 people, but she held off until the employees could access government unemployment subsidies. Stores re-opened a few months later and many of the employees got called back, but she had to make that tough call. Another person is Aditya Mittal, CEO of ArcelorMittal. Aditya runs the largest steel company in the world and is focused on reducing steel’s environmental impact by investing in carbon sequestration and new fuels such as hydrogen.?There is much discussion about the role that companies should play in society and whether they should take public stands. He explains that how that dovetail with authentic leadership, giving a live example, in a new CEO program lead at Harvard, the number-one question he get is, “When should we speak out on public issues?” It comes down to whether the issue relates to the mission and values of your company. At Medtronic, we had to speak out on healthcare. In Minneapolis, every CEO had to take a stand after George Floyd was murdered. People remember what you do during crises. Did you step up, or did you duck?

He relates how can executives other than the top leaders influence the corporate culture. Many mid-level managers who come to our classes have bosses who manage in the old style which creates friction. They are advised to keep their heads down and create the culture they want on their teams, then let the top management see the impact it has. Show them the outcomes, whether it is productivity or higher revenues, but also tell them what you are doing to inspire people. For far too long, we have looked to the top to solve problems. In an article in the?Harvard Business Review, I talk about the need to put the frontline people on top. They are the ones serving customers. So do not wait for your boss to change—do it on your team, bloom where you are planted, and you have an opportunity to stand out. The top CEOs are all looking for people like this, who are willing to change the culture and get results. Do not wait for your boss to change—do it on your team, bloom where you are planted, and you have an opportunity to stand out.

Has the culture changed because your business has changed or because someone is pushing it the wrong way? We saw the latter happen to MD Anderson, the cancer institute. John Mendelsohn built it, then a new CEO came in and took in the culture in the wrong direction, but he did not last. Dr. Peter Pisters came to MD Anderson from Toronto General and transformed it. Companies can lose their historical roots, but you may find that the leadership changes, so do not jump too quickly. Instead, consider pushing back against some changes and be the calm, steady voice that stands for doing the right thing. You may also have to change yourself. Many people want everyone else to change, but they also must adapt. With all the crises we have, one of the keys to being an authentic leader is being adaptable to constant change.

As organizations grow, they tend to become more bureaucratic and less innovative. It is the CEO’s job to bust up that bureaucracy, and the way to do it is to work directly with the innovators. At Medtronic, we had our mainstream businesses, but we also had a business with our new ventures. He wandered into the labs regularly. They came up with the breakthrough ideas that sometimes-created tension in the organization, but he had to support the innovators because they could easily be crushed by the mainstream organization.

Another approach is to talk to the front lines because that is where you find out what is going wrong. Richard Davis, who ran U.S. Bancorp, said, “I go out to the branches all the time and meet with the tellers. I do not even talk to the branch managers; I learn everything I need to know from the tellers.” He had that personal touch of really listening. Hubert Joly spent his first week at Best Buy not at the headquarters but in St. Cloud, Minnesota. He put on a blue shirt that said “CEO in training” and met with customers and employees. He told, “I learned everything I needed to know about our problems in that first week and got all the ideas for how to restore this great company from our own employees.”

The biggest message to readers of his book take away from this new edition of your book. We need to develop moral leaders who are authentic, compassionate, and driven by a sense of purpose. We have been critical of some business schools for training too many managers and not enough leaders and not talking about the values that matter. Do you have the courage to do the right thing? The best example of that is Ken Frazier, former CEO of Merck. When he got the job, he had the courage to say, “If we continue on our guidance to Wall Street, we will continue cutting R&D and will never be successful,” so he abandoned the guidance, and he focused on research. Later, when he was confronted with the events [following the Unite the Right rally] in Charlottesville, he made the bold decision not only to resign from President Trump’s business council but to issue a statement saying that America’s leaders must be committed to the principle that all people are created equal. An amazing event occurred after that: 43 CEOs of America’s largest companies followed him out the door. It is easy to follow the person with courage out the door, but who has the moral courage to say, “We have to do the right thing”? The last chapter of the book is about that moral compass. Your true north keeps you from getting off track. He accepted that he ?was getting off track, but he had enough of a moral compass to pull ?back: “Bill, wake up. You’re going the wrong way.”

?T Bill George sets a course for ‘true north ‘Former Medtronic CEO Bill George guides emerging business leaders through the management transition of a lifetime. Your “true north,” amid the most disruptive era in recent history. To survive compounding crises and create long-term shareholder value, he says businesses need emotionally intelligent leaders who do not just uphold their stakeholders’ principles but truly share them. The reason is because we are seeing a massive change in leadership from the baby boomers to the Gen Xers, millennials, and Gen Zers. It is a very different leadership style, moving away from command and control to authentic leadership, from self-interest to being focused on purpose, making a difference, and having an impact—managing not just with the head but, if you will, with the heart as well. It is kind of a shift from IQ leaders to EQ [emotional intelligence] leaders. You still need to be very smart, but it is a combination of the two: head and heart. This is, I think, the largest shift we have ever seen in my lifetime by far, maybe all the way back to the Greatest Generation. It is a big shift. Today’s crises are demanding a different kind of leader. Many of the baby boomer leaders were trained in stable times, relatively speaking, in the ‘60s through the ‘90s. The last 20 years have been one crisis after another, from 9/11 to?COVID-19, the?war in Ukraine, and now?high inflation, which we have not seen for 40 years—just massive changes. We need leaders who can adapt to that rapid rate of change and lead differently with people. The demands of people are totally different today. Employees now have agency. Are today’s emerging leaders truly more authentic than leaders from the past? You never can speak too generally about leaders, but today’s leaders are more authentic. He saw a lot of it in his “growing up” era: leaders leading with charisma—more for show—and with how they dressed. People do not care about that now; they want to know who you are. Are you the real deal? Can I trust you? If I cannot trust you, I’m not going to work with you, much less follow you. Millennials are very discerning about this. They are quite rejecting of phonies.

Do you feel like the millennial search for authenticity is part of the reason we’re seeing so much job turnover right now?

Millennials today are trying to lead with a sense of purpose. If there’s no deeper purpose, and there’s no clarity about the values that are expected,?they’re going to leave and find someplace where they can align?their personal purpose with the company’s. Millennials today are trying to lead with a sense of purpose. If there’s no deeper purpose, and there’s no clarity about the values that are expected, they’re going to leave and find someplace where they can align their personal purpose with the company’s.

Many baby boomers have dismissed the millennials and say, “Oh, they can’t handle this.” Well, the reason they’re leaving is that you haven’t given them clarity over how their purpose aligns with the company’s purpose. The companies that do that well are flourishing.

What is the relationship between developing your sense of purpose as a leader and developing your company’s purpose?

Before you can become an authentic leader, you have to know who you are. That’s your true north: your most deeply held beliefs, your values, the principles you lead by, and what inspires you. Where do you find fulfillment? Until you define your true north, you won’t know what your purpose is. Your purpose is your “North Star”—that’s that constant point in your life that your true north points you to. You carry that purpose throughout your life, and you want to find a company where you can align with that, where you feel a sense of purpose inside the company. Today,?emerging leaders are looking for a place where they can carry out their purpose?with a company that is also committed to purpose.

How have crises taught emerging leaders lessons on what not to do?

Crises are teaching leaders today that you cannot just rely on what you learned in business school, that everything is going to be long-range planning and process controls. Those things are important, but you must be able to adapt very rapidly to changing conditions as a leader today. Go put yourself in a situation where you learn how to lead in crisis. Do not just lead in stable times, because you’ll never know what to do when the big crisis comes along- like?COVID-19, where everything shut down, and you had to adapt your entire business model like Corie Barry did at Best Buy.” When that happens, you must change everything, so if you do not have that sense of adaptability, if you are just waiting for the stable times to return, you are not going to get there. There is no dispute that?this is a very disruptive and unpredictable time. We have never seen anything like this in my entire lifetime, where all these crises are converging and interacting. You must be clear about where you’re going. You never want to lose sight of your organization’s vision or its values, but you need to bring people in very close with you and have contingency plans and adapt rapidly to what is happening in the marketplace. Today, it requires us to be much closer to the market on a rapid-change basis so that we know what our customers are thinking, we know?what consumers are thinking, and we have a sense of their needs so we can tailor our goods, services, and offerings to their needs.That takes a very different kind of leader. For the emerging leaders that I wrote this book for, it’s both a guide and an inspiration of how you lead through a crisis and how you stay true to what you believe and have the moral courage not to back off.

In my day, the thinking was, “Who is the smartest person in the room? They are going to make the best leaders.” We know now that is not the case; it is simply not true. You must have qualities of the heart that we tended to dismiss in the past. For instance, you must have passion for the business, compassion for the people you’re serving, empathy for your employees, and most of all, you have to have courage. If you think about those qualities—passion, compassion, empathy, and courage—those are all matters of the heart. The interesting thing is that your IQ really does not change between the ages of ten and 60—either you can handle rapid changes in numbers or computation or you cannot—but your EQ, which is those qualities I mentioned, does change, and you can develop it. You develop a self-awareness. You must have passion for the business, compassion for the people you are serving, empathy for your employees, and most of all, you have to have courage. If you think about those qualities—passion, compassion, empathy, and courage—those are all matters of the heart.You can only have courage by working in situations where you’re thrown into it and learning courage; you’re not born with courage. People are looking to leaders today that have those personal qualities because without that, they are not going to follow them, and they’re certainly not going to give their full selves—their hearts as well as their brains.

Businesses are chartered by society to serve society, and we have lost sight of that in thinking it is all about serving the shareholder. Businesses must go beyond that today. That is a big reason people want to work for them. In the Edelman Trust Barometer today, business is the most trusted element in society. I think the reason is that people have given up on politicians who seem to be out for themselves and gridlocked. Most of the top-ranking politicians are in their 70s and 80s, and they really are not in touch with what people need. People are looking to business to help solve problems like?climate change, healthcare, income inequality,?food shortages, and?supply chain. Government is not set up to deal with those things. They can pass laws, but they cannot really address them, which is why everyone is looking to business. That is the challenge for today’s leaders: if they will not address today’s problems, they will not be good leaders.

’Let us take Satya Nadella at Microsoft: he totally transformed that company. Mary Barra brought General Motors out of bankruptcy and is making it into a new company. Hubert Joly was very committed to purpose at Best Buy, and now his successor, Corie Barry, is doing a great job. These are the forerunner leaders. Those kinds of leaders are influencing the younger leaders who are coming along that are featured in the book as well. We need role models. We need?quality?role models. We do not need people who are just out for themselves. The baby boomer role models and their responsibilities to be mentioned must, frankly, be the ones to help develop, guide, and groom the next generation of leaders. That’s what?Paul Polman—who’s been an advocate for climate change—has done,?what Indra Nooyi did in nutrition, and now, what her successor at PepsiCo, Ramon Laguarta, is doing.

People like these leaders have a responsibility to provide guidance to younger leaders coming along, be role models, stay true to their values and sense of purpose, and to also say, “Here’s how our organization can make a difference in the world. Here’s how we can have an impact.” They should move on to the next stage of leading and?turn the leadership over to the younger leaders coming along. It is the right time. In working with many leaders over the years, found many of them want to jump into leadership roles and get the power too quickly. Maybe we fell into that trap, too. Today, you must know yourself first before you can be a great leader.

You cannot go out and change the world before you know yourself, and until you do, you’re always subject to what I call the adulation trap, where people on the outside are saying, “You’re terrific. You have this great title” or “You have all this power, all this money. “I have gotten a lot of critical feedback over the years, and it’s the best thing that ever happened to me because the hardest thing you have to do is see yourself as others see you. We need to have leaders today who take the time to know themselves, have good mentors, have good people, and take honest feedback—those who surround themselves with truth tellers who will tell them what they don’t want to hear. I’ve gotten a lot of critical feedback over the years, and it’s the best thing that ever happened to me because the hardest thing you have to do is see yourself as others see you. The crises we are going through have forced people to look externally at problems instead of measuring themselves by internal metrics. In measuring themselves by external metrics—or what’s happening around them—people have had to take a real look at what they stand for. Crises force you to do that—personal crises as well as external crises. So, crises are not a good thing, but they sure sharpen the mind and the heart. Let us face it: their business time started with 9/11 when, for the first time in anyone’s lifetime, America was under direct attack. Then, we got to the financial meltdown of 2008, followed by the more recent crises like?COVID-19. The geopolitical disturbances. That strips away all pretenses. Today’s world is much more diverse in terms of leadership, and that is a good thing. Women are finally able to step into key roles. BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and People of Color] employees are contributing so much, and LGBTQ employees as well, because they are now able to be who they are. If you don’t represent all of your employees as a leader today, you’re not going to make it. You are never going to be accepted.

The key is not just having diversity, though, it is creating an inclusive organization where everyone feels a sense of belonging. When you create that kind of organization, you are going to be very successful. Leaders today are recognizing they need to create not just diversity but inclusion within their organization. The key is not just having diversity, though, it is creating an inclusive organization where everyone feels a sense of belonging. When you create that kind of organization, you are going to be very successful.

CONCLUSION

Every leader today has a sense of purpose. At the end of the day, they can make a difference in their short time on Earth in how they are impacting human beings. We do this largely through our work and our organizations. If we get committed, we can change the whole world. When you get committed to making a difference in an area like climate change, like inclusive organization, like healthcare, like income inequality, then you can feel, when you get into your 60s or 70s, like you have really contributed. Now you can help other people make contributions that they are passionate about. Today,?emerging leaders are looking for a place where they can carry out their purpose?with a company that is also committed to purpose. Crises are teaching leaders today that you can’t just rely on what you learned in business school, that everything is going to be long-range planning and process controls. Those things are important, but you must be able to adapt very rapidly to changing conditions as a leader today. We need role models. We need?quality?role models. We do not need people who are just out for themselves.

We need to have leaders today who take the time to know themselves, have good mentors, have good people, and take honest feedback—those who surround themselves with truth tellers who will tell them what they do not want to hear.