Authentic Leadership

Today our series on leadership reviews Bill George’s concept of Authentic Leadership

Bill George and Peter Sims wrote True North Discover Your Authentic Leadership. Bill George studied leadership for decades. He practiced it as CEO of Medtronic. He teaches leadership at Harvard. He’s authored best sellers on leadership. He focuses on helping leaders discover or rediscover their true north, their authentic leadership. He recently released a new book called True North Groups.

Bill George wrote “The reality is that no one can be authentic by trying to be like someone else…Leaders are highly complex human beings, who have distinctive qualities that cannot be sufficiently described by lists of traits or characteristics.”

Keep Your Leadership Compass Pointing to True North

George and Sims interviewed 125 leaders including Jon Huntsman Sr. Oprah Winfrey, Howard Schultz, Ellen Breyer, and more. They researched their background, leadership successes and leadership mistakes. The book weaves their stories—both complimentary and cautionary—into the five key principles of authentic leadership:

1. Knowing your authentic self
2. Defining your values and leadership principles
3. Understanding your motivations
4. Building your support team
5. Staying grounded by integrating all aspects of your life

The authors use the compass model at the top of this post. All five facets must be balanced to point you to your true north, your authentic leadership. Stories from George’s dream team of leaders illustrate each of the facets. Exercises help readers ponder and apply the principles to define their true north.

Our Journey to Authentic Leadership

The authors compare leadership to a journey with three phases:

• Phase I: We learn the principles of leadership. We practice our leadership, and amass a following not of people who support our “glorious ascension”, but people we have empowered on their journeys. We journey in phase 1 until about age 30
• Phase II: Defines our best leadership, our prime years of leadership. We step into leadership prepared by phase I and deliver our most active leadership. If we work hard, we stay true to our authentic leadership without losing our way. Phase II typically runs from age 30 to about age 60.
• Phase III; Provides our opportunity to give back, mentor, and coach upcoming leaders. Many leaders move from for-profit endeavors to non-profit or charitable boards and leadership.

So we begin our study of authentic leadership. We will continue with 2 more posts. In the meantime, I strongly encourage you to visit Bill George’s web site. You can begin a great study on leadership by reading the articles he has posted since 2003 until now.

On Wednesday, we analyze 5 archetypes that can help you lose your way as an authentic leader