Bill George's 'Authentic Leadership': Passion Comes from People's Life Stories

Summary

Bill George, probably best known in the business community for his former position as chairman and CEO of Medtronic, is also an author. In 2003 he published a book called, Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value. This month he published his second book titled, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership, described by George and his co-author Peter Sims as a way to “locate the internal compass that guides you successfully through life.” George is also a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. He has been recognized as Executive-of-the-Year by the Academy of Management, Director-of-the-Year by the National Association of Corporate Directors and was included in a book by Knowledge@Wharton called Lasting Leadership: What You Can Learn from the Top 25 Business People of Our Times. We asked him and Michael Useem, director of Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management, to talk about authentic leadership, both the book and the concept.