Bill George, currently a management professor at Harvard Business School, has spent the past decade researching and writing about the authentic approach to leadership. It's about understanding your motivations, orienting your moral compass, building your support team, empowering others to lead, and staying grounded by integrating all aspects of your life.

George has the right credentials to write as an authority of authentic leadership. Inspired by Medtronic's mission to restore people to full health, George joined the company in 1989 as president and COO. He became CEO in 1991. Under his 10-year leadership, Medtronic's market capitalization grew from $1.1 billion to $65 billion. In 2003, he wrote the best-selling book, Authentic Leadership - Rediscovering the Secrets of Creating Lasting Value. He followed this book in 2007 with True North: Discovering Your Authentic Leadership, which includes vignettes of executives who demonstrate an authentic leadership style.

George is on the board of Novartis, Goldman Sachs, and ExxonMobil. His articles have appeared in the Harvard Business Review and U.S. News and World Report, and many other business publications.

Enterpriseleadership recently sat down with Professor George to discuss what it takes to be an authentic leader, who are and who aren't examples of authentic leaders, and what challenges a CIO faces in becoming an authentic leader, and how governance must change to support sustainable innovation.

EL. What were your  criteria for the executives profiled in True North?

BG. The idea for the research came out of Authentic Leadership where many people wanted to know how to become an authentic leader. We interviewed 125 leaders who we felt were authentic and successful. Measuring authenticity is hard to do. We want back over the interviews and measured our qualitative judgment of their authenticity. Part of our criteria looked at people in all age groups. We had a minimum of 15 people per decade, ranging from more than 20 on up to more than 70. We wanted to get the age dispersion to see what, if any, differences existed between the emerging generation and the older generation.

EL.  Did you look quantitatively at what type of success some of the authentic  leaders profiled in the book had?

BG. To do quantitative research, you need to look at things over a long period. For example, some people asked why we used Jeff Immel, CEO of General Electric, when the company's stock hasn't gone anywhere. He's looking at long-term restructuring.  He's doing a good job. 

EL. Is values-based leadership the same as authentic  leadership?

BG. Authentic leadership encompasses values-based leadership. Authentic leadership goes beyond that, but it certainly requires values-based leadership, especially a sense of purpose, an ability to lead with the heart, which includes having a passion for the work you do, having the courage to make tough calls, being able to build long-term relationships that get the best out of other people, and having empathy for your employees.

EL. Some companies, like Oracle, have had a high turnover in executive talent. What would you say about the leadership style of a CEO who runs a company where this is happening?

BG. These executives would be at the opposite end of the spectrum of what we're describing as authentic leaders. These leaders can be aggressive and manipulative. Oracle has had good people, such as Ray Lane, building the company. Oracle has grown by aggressively acquiring companies, such as PeopleSoft and Seibel Systems.

EL. Jack Welch, the well-respected CEO of General Electric, supposedly has a tough personality.  Would you say he is an authentic leader?

BG. He's right in the middle. He did some fantastic things at GE. He transformed GE in a way that the leaders of parallel companies, such as Westinghouse, Seimens, and Phillips, were unable to do. You have to admire what he did. He has a very rough style, but he has the ability to get the best out of people. He makes people feel like he really cares about having them perform. In the end, his on-the-job values are very sound. He made tough calls about removing some people whose ethnics were questionable.

EL.  Is Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, an example of an authentic  leader?

BG. He's a very difficult case. He has learned from his crucible.  It's obvious that he never had formal training in leadership or management. He had a failed marriage with John Sculley. Jobs went off and formed another company, and he's very well with it.  Now he has come back to Apple where he's doing amazing things. He's a good fit for the Apple culture. He, however still has an arrogant streak. On the other hand, Jobs is an incredible innovative leader who transformed a company with no marketing. Look at what he has done with the Ipod, with the iMac, and now with the Iphone. This country needs people who can innovate and create new things.  He has shown sustainability in creating innovations. Most people are like a one trick pony which can't come up with another exciting product.

EL. Where  does Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard rank on the authentic  leadership scale?

BG. For 40 years now, HP has been my role model for how you run a company. HP became the role model for companies such as Medtronic and others. HP put her in the wrong position. Lew Platt, her predecessor, used to fly commercial, and Dave Packard drove an old car to work. These people used to hang out in the cafeteria. She brought an elitist style, which didn't fair well with employees. She focused a lot of time outside the company. She lost the hearts and minds of the engineers who are the real innovators. Other innovators, such as Bill Gates, stay close to their creative people all the time. She would have been better off staying at AT&T. The bottom line is that she didn't connect in the Silicon Valley, highly creative culture. Mark Hurd has come in and connected, and, as a result, turned HP around very quickly. I wouldn't say she's authentic. She seems to be more focused on the external world.

EL. Can you give an example of a CEO who is an authentic leader and describe what this person has done to create an authentic organization?

BG. Authentic leaders have to be very consistent and true to the roots of that organization.  Take a man like IBM's Sam Palmisano. He has taken IBM right back to its roots in the very best sense. He is also moving IBM forward into the future. He has put in an amazing program in place called Leading by Values. It had a 72-hour online jam for 350 people.  Everyone said what values the company ought to have.  The values aren't unique, but the commitment is. He was taking it from a task-oriented organization to a true values-centered organization. His philosophy is that we have to act as one organization all around the world.  This down-to-earth guy has really achieved this. He has come up from the ranks at IBM, working in just about every aspect of the company. He spends a lot of time with the engineers just tracking their innovations. He is very passionate about going into emerging markets.

EL. As the former CEO of Medtronic, you know that CIOs have to balance the interests of IT with those of the business units. What challenge does this place on CIOs who want to find their authentic leadership?

BG. This is a huge challenge for some CIOs. About a decade, ago many CIOs were spending too much time trying to build their own empires. The emergent CIOs and CEOs really understand how to use information as a strategic weapon to better their business. Take Dick Kovacevich, CEO at Wells Fargo. He has been the most successful banker for 20 years.  He went away from all of the commercial banks using IT to cut costs and to take people out. He, instead, said we want to use it to make our front-line people more effective so they can better service customers with all of the bank's offerings. He saw the opportunity to have all of the customer profiles online. He did it very well. On the other hand, CitiGroup, a larger bank, never could ever do this. You can't even figure out how to get the status of your credit card.

EL. You co-authored a book called, Mastering Global Corporate Governance. If a company wants to improve its sustainable innovation initiatives, how should it modify its governance model?

BG. Boards of directors have been asleep. They need to get engaged in the important elements of the business. The governance model is to focus first on leadership succession and second, to look at how well employees focused are on handling customers.  They need to look at the numbers third and then all of the other formalities.

The boards I'm on do an outstanding job of that, but I lot of boards haven't. The Target board focuses heavily on the needs of consumers. This board which has four women reflects the needs of its key consumers, namely women. The Target board has always been asking tough questions: How well have we been serving the Hispanic market? Are we meeting the needs of young people? Do we use IT effectively so that our merchandise is fast flowing and we can turn it over quickly? If you look at the results, you'll see how well Target has used it IT systems.

EL. How would you rate the leadership styles of most CEO  of Fortune 1000 companies? Are they authentic leaders?

BG. A big change is taking place today among CEOs. My generation, people who are in their late 50's and 60's, didn't do a good job. I call these the pre-Enron CEOs. They focused too much on the trying to meet the short-term needs of the stock market. As a result, they destroyed many great corporations.  I'm speaking of the old AT&T, the old Sears Roebuck, and the old General Motors. These were once great corporations. They are virtually out of business or hanging on for dear life. Their CEOs weren't authentic. They weren't corrupt people, like Enron or WorldCom.  They didn't really build their companies for the long term. You can see this in the pharmaceutical industry. Great companies, such as Bristol Myers Squibb, have lost their position.

Today's CEOs are very different. They know they have to meet the short-term needs. However, they're trying to build organizations for the long term. For example, Anne Mulcahy has brought Xerox back from the brink of bankruptcy. The same goes for Andrea Jung at Avon. These are examples of outstanding CEOs. A.G. Lafley's predecessor at Procter & Gamble turned the company against it culture. Lafley has created an incredible corporation. There is a whole generation of very authentic CEOs, including some very young ones.

EL. How have governance models in Fortune 1000  companies changed?

BG. They are changing, but there is too much emphasis on regulations, such as Sarbanes Oxley. These are your ministerial duties. Boards aren't changing fast enough. Worrying about today's leadership and tomorrow's leadership should rank number one of their list. They aren't doing that. They aren't engaged enough and knowing who the people coming alone are. They're more concerned about who would replace the CEO if he/she were hit by a bus. They get into a panic and have to go outside the organization to recruit. The chief operating office should be thinking about leadership succession. If the COO isn't doing it, then the board has to insist on it. Everyone needs to get to know the candidates by seeing them off site, or seeing them on the job. Jack Welch did this very well. He suggested that the board go visit Jeff Immel on site when he was running GE Medical Systems. Boards that do their job get really engaged with who the leadership is.

I'm on the board of Goldman Sachs. When Hank Paulson, the former CEO, decided to become Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, we moved faster than we anticipated. Fortunately, Lloyd Blankfein had been groomed. We knew him very well. We also knew the people coming up behind him.

Resources

Authentic  Leadership Book Review
PBS Interview With Bill  George
True North Web  Site
Strategy  + Business Interview with Bill George

Author: Elizabeth M. Ferrarini - She is a technology writer  from Boston, Massachusetts. Reach her at elizabethferrarini@yahoo.com.