AUGUST

2010
True North: Discover Your
Authentic Leadership
by Bill George with Peter Sims

Leading with
Excellence
Being true to yourself enables you to
empower others to succeed.

by Bill George with Peter Sims

QUICK OVERVIEW John Wiley & Sons Inc.
© 2007, Bill George
True North explains that anyone who follows their internal compass can become an ISBN: 978078798751
authentic leader. This leadership guide is based on research and first-person interviews 251 pages, $29.95
with 125 of today’s top leaders—with some surprising insights. In this important
book, Harvard Business School 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. SUCCESS Points
In this book you’ll learn:
APPLY AND ACHIEVE • How to chart your
Consider the following questions as you read True North to help you define your journey to authentic
leadership style—and evaluate where there may be room for improvement.
leadership
• Is your leadership style consistent with your leadership principles and values? Is it
ever inconsistent? • The importance of
• How do you adapt your style to the circumstances facing you and to the capabilities knowing yourself
of your teammates?
• How do you optimize the use of your power in leading others? • How to build your
• In situations in which you used your power over others inappropriately, how did support team
they respond?
• How do you respond to powerful people who use their power over you? What is the • How to empower
most powerful way to deal with very powerful people? others to lead

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 True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership
Y
our life story defines your leadership. As a child,
Starbucks founder Howard Schultz watched his
family struggle after an injury cost his father his
job. When Schultz started Starbucks years later,
the coffee company became the first American company to
provide access to health coverage for qualified 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 find 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 first 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 first time.
Phase II: Leading—This phase usually involves a crucible,
a difficult period that tests leaders to the core. This results in
a transformation of understanding what leadership is all about,
followed by a rapid acceleration of development.
Phase III: Giving Back—The last 30 years of a leader’s
journey can be the most productive and rewarding of all.
Instead of retiring, these leaders often realize a new purpose
for their leadership: to help develop the next generation of
authentic leaders.
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.”
Nelson Mandela’s story is one of the most powerful lessons in
transformation of our time. For his organized protests against
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South Africa’s apartheid government, Mandela spent 27 years
doing hard labor in prison. When elected president of South
Africa four years after 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, offered
reconciliation to his oppressors. During his 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 difference 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 find
the right role, increase your self-confidence, 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.
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 lie your understanding of your strengths and weaknesses.
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 conflict with
your values. Under another layer, you’ll find what drives and
motivates you. Still deeper lies your understanding of your
life story. In the deepest layers, you find 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 self-
awareness and supported by self-acceptance, you are ready to
focus on your values and principles.
PRACTICING YOUR VALUES
AND PRINCIPLES
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 off course as the 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 defining your
leadership principles, you need a clear understanding of your
ethical boundaries.
Defining 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 to leading by values. IBM CEO Sam Palmisano
is using this approach to unite IBM employees as a powerful
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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 off 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, winning 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
financial 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 a difference 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 offer she received out
of business school.
SUCCESS BOOK SUMMARIES

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 different career path.”
You will be most effective as a leader when you find
opportunities that highly motivate you and utilize your greatest
capabilities. One without the other is insufficient.
BUILDING YOUR SUPPORT TEAM
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 starts with having at least one person
in your life with whom you can be completely vulnerable and
open. Most leaders have their closest relationship with their
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 outside their organizations. This can be invaluable.
Colleagues may be facing comparable experiences or be in a
position to offer you real-time feedback on your leadership.
CEOs look to members of their board of directors for advice
at critical points, so why not have your own personal board
of directors? Your board might include several highly trusted
personal and professional advisers, people you respect for their
professional expertise, close friends, mentors, your lawyer,
fi 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 alone is very difficult. 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. Defining what is important in a leader’s life enables him
or her to make conscious choices.
Leadership can require significant sacrifices, 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
authentic self and maintain your perspective. Decide what the
most important parts of your life are to you. You can have a family,
professional life, spiritual and religious practices, and friends
and community involvement if you commit to living a life with
integrity. Real integrity results from integrating all aspects 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?
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 find 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 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 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 their effectiveness 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 different 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 people face
to face; inquiring about their work, their families, their
personal lives and their careers. This may make some leaders
uncomfortable, 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 them, offering 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 first, 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 effort it takes.
HONING YOUR LEADERSHIP
EFFECTIVENESS
The style of the effective 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 effective use of their power. That style is effective 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 flexible manner to adapt to
the situation they are facing and to rally people to the cause. In so
doing, they improve both their effectiveness 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 difference in
the world through your leadership.
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?
3. Peel back the layers. What are your core values? What
drives you? In what areas are you vulnerable?
4. Define your leadership principles. Translate your values
into actions.
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 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.
Recommended Reading
If you enjoyed reading True North: Discover 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
Sales Process That Is Changing the Way
People Sell by Keith M. Eades
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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
Your True North and Authentic Leadership.
George is the former chairman and chief executive officer
of Medtronic. Under his leadership, Medtronic’s market
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 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.
George received his bachelor of science in industrial
engineering with high honors from Georgia Tech; his MBA
with high distinction from Harvard University, where he was
a Baker Scholar; and honorary Ph.D.s from Georgia Tech and
Bryant University.
He and his wife, Penny, 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, John Wiley and Sons, 989 Market St., San Francisco, CA
94103. True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership by Bill George with Peter Sims. © 2007 by
Bill George.
SUCCESS BOOK SUMMARIES