{"74501":{"#nid":"74501","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Bill George on Authentic Leadership","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBill George (BSIE 1964, Honorary PhD 2008),\nprofessor of management practice at Harvard Business School, is the author of\nfive best-selling books: 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis, True North:\nDiscovering your Authentic Leadership, Finding Your True North (workbook),\nAuthentic Leadership, and the recently released True North Groups: A Powerful\nPath to Personal and Leadership Development. At Harvard, George teaches\nleadership and leadership development.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EGeorge is the former chairman and CEO of Medtronic\nand currently serves on the boards of ExxonMobil and Goldman Sachs. He is also\na trustee of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the World Economic\nForum USA. He has made frequent appearances on television and radio, and his\narticles have appeared in numerous publications. He has been named to the \u201cTop\n25 Business Leaders of the Past 25 Years\u201d by PBS.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EGeorge received his bachelor\u2019s in industrial\nengineering with high honors from Georgia Tech, his MBA with high distinction\nfrom Harvard University, where he was a Baker Scholar, and honorary PhDs from\nGeorgia Tech, St. Thomas University, and Bryant University.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EIn 1999, he and his wife Penny founded the George\nFamily Foundation as a way to foster wholeness in mind, body, spirit, and\ncommunity and to further the development of authentic leaders. Their interests\ninclude integrative medicine, leadership, spirituality, and community.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Georges, who reside in Minneapolis, MN, also\nsupport academia at Georgia Tech through fellowships and an endowed chair in\nthe area of health systems.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat\nare some characteristics you believe every leader should possess?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBG\u003C\/strong\u003E:\nLeadership is about character, not characteristics. I could give you a list of\ncharacteristics that are desirable, but I could also show you leaders who have\nthose characteristics and are poor leaders.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EIn 2006, we conducted research on 125 outstanding leaders\nasking them this same question. What we learned was that these leaders were not\ninterested in talking about characteristics. They wanted to discuss life\nstories and their crucibles, and how they can stay true to their values. This\nresearch was the basis for my book, True North. Your \u201ctrue north\u201d is what you\nbelieve at your deepest level\u2014your beliefs, values, and principles. The essence\nof leadership is captured in your character.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat\nare some frequent mistakes you witness in leaders?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBG\u003C\/strong\u003E:\nOne mistake is when leaders deviate from their true north. It is quite easy\nwhen things are going well to practice good values. It is far more difficult\nand important to stay true when things do not go your way. A good question to\nask yourself is: are you true to your values when the pressure is on?\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EClosely associated with that is putting your own\npersonal interest ahead of the organization for which you are responsible\nbecause you want to get ahead or look good. Another mistake is when leaders do\nnot own responsibility and blame others instead.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat\nadvice would you give students who want to prepare for future leadership\nopportunities?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBG\u003C\/strong\u003E:\nGo lead! There are myriad opportunities on campus to lead, whether at the\ngraduate or undergraduate level. I had tremendous opportunities when I was at\nTech. In my freshman and sophomore years, I lost some elections, until some\nfriends helped me get on track. After that, I ended up leading many student\norganizations at Tech. I learned a lot from those experiences, both in being\nrejected and in landing leadership roles. When I was at Medtronic, some of\nthose early leadership experiences on campus kept coming back to me\u2014the\nmistakes I made, what I\u2019d learned from them, and how to build genuine\nrelationships with people. In my courses at Harvard, students learn to lead\nthrough a lot of personal sharing about their life stories, their crucibles,\nand their leadership experiences.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat\nadvice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first\ntime?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBG\u003C\/strong\u003E:\nI would advise them to learn everything they can about the experience and to\nengage in it 100 percent. Don\u2019t look ahead to your next job, but make it a\nhabit to learn from the people around you, especially from you subordinates.\nTake some risks, and ask for help when it is needed.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EIt is extremely helpful to have a support group of\npeers around you, a true north group. This is a group of trusted peers with\nwhom you communicate on a regular basis. When you face dilemmas and difficult\nproblems, you can take them to your group. They will probably not give you\nmagic answers. However, they will be able to give you insights and help you\nuncover your blind spots which are essential in effective leadership.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow\ndo you select people to participate in your true north group?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBG\u003C\/strong\u003E:\nYou can start with a group of trusted peers. These groups are a two- way\nstreet, as you have to be willing to offer to them as much as they offer to\nyou. You select a group of people willing to be open, honest in giving and\nreceiving feedback, willing to share openly, and willing to be authentic in\ntheir dealings and their relationships. My most recent book, True North Groups:\nA Powerful Path to Personal and Leadership Development is dedicated to setting\nup such a group or enabling your current group to have deeper and more\nmeaningful discussions about the vital questions of life.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat\nare you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as a leader?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBG\u003C\/strong\u003E:\nI continue to learn every day. My role shifted completely when I completed my\nterm at Medtronic in 2002. Since then, I have been focusing on helping people\nbecome more effective leaders, from college students up to CEOs. I continue to\nlearn a great deal from my students even though they may be thirty years\nyounger than I. I learn from new CEOs and the challenges they face. These days,\nI\u2019m learning how to lead better by learning directly from other leaders. At\nMedtronic, I learned the importance of learning from my subordinates. Now, I\u2019m\nexpanding my knowledge and focusing on learning from other leaders.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHave\nyou found a vast difference in leadership styles among universities?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBG\u003C\/strong\u003E:\nI have found dramatic differences among academic institutions. Essentially, it\ncomes down to two questions: does the faculty genuinely want to learn from its\nstudents and help them exchange knowledge amongst themselves or is the faculty\nprincipally oriented toward transferring knowledge to students? I see many\nacademic institutions where the latter is the case. This is a missed\nopportunity. Great academics learn from their students every day.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe second question gets to the nature of the world\nin the twenty-first century. Does the faculty work together across disciplinary\nlines? We live in a world of extraordinarily complex and intractable problems\nthat are not subject to single-disciplinary solutions. Solving these problems\nrequires that people work together across disciplinary lines. Although we hail scientific\nbreakthroughs like sequencing of the human genome, without multidisciplinary\napproaches it will take decades to translate that into benefits for mankind.\nThis is one of the things Georgia Tech does very well.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow\ncan universities and businesses work together to bridge the gap from academic\nresearch to technology transfer?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBG\u003C\/strong\u003E:\nSome academic institutions are far too preoccupied with research grants and\nwith publication of knowledge. They have not spent nearly enough time looking\nat how this knowledge is utilized in real-world situations. I think by engaging\nwith business, academics can learn how business operates and how it uses\ninformation. Also, academics should consider how they approach businesses when\nit comes to their theories. I think it is best to come from a place of testing\ntheir theories instead of getting businesses to adopt them. Great academic\ninstitutions seek out businesses to work with to learn what they are doing and\nthen see if they can take those specific cases and translate them to be useful\nto many other organizations.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EOften businesses are too focused on achieving\nmeasurable results and are unwilling to take the disruptive or radical\nsolutions that may be needed to improve performance. Academic institutions can\nplay leading roles by providing test beds for radical innovation. We\u2019ve seen\nthat take place in medical technology. An example is the Georgia Tech-Emory\nresearch collaboration. I\u2019ve seen it in the computing field where academic\ninstitutions were way ahead in spawning innovations like Google, Facebook, and\nApple. That\u2019s why business and industry should be hungry to work with academic\ninstitutions.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat\nare some ways that ISyE could lead more effectively?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBG\u003C\/strong\u003E:\nI think the role of industrial and systems engineering is to become the great\nintegrator and the systems thinker to guide us to those breakthrough ideas that\nwill move society forward. It is essential that we solve critical issues today\nby looking at the whole system, something that is not being done in healthcare,\nfor example.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\n\nI see ISyE as the\nintegrating force throughout Georgia Tech. Every student at Tech, no matter the\ndiscipline, needs to have that broader approach to systems thinking and should\nbe required to take courses in industrial and systems engineering. It is the\nonly way we are going to be able to solve the critical issues we face today in\nhealthcare, logistics, energy, the environment, and manufacturing.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBill George (BSIE 1964, Honorary PhD 2008),\nprofessor of management practice at Harvard Business School and author of\nfive best-selling books, shares his thoughts on leadership.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27511","created_gmt":"2011-12-16 14:16:26","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:10:53","author":"Ashley Daniel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2011-12-31T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2011-12-31T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"74511":{"id":"74511","type":"image","title":"Bill George (BSIE 1964, Honorary PhD 2008)","body":null,"created":"1449178046","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:27:26","changed":"1475894688","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:44:48","alt":"Bill George (BSIE 1964, Honorary PhD 2008)","file":{"fid":"193785","name":"bill_george_0.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bill_george_0_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bill_george_0_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":199183,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/bill_george_0_0.jpg?itok=z1vnLyWF"}}},"media_ids":["74511"],"groups":[{"id":"1242","name":"School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISYE)"}],"categories":[{"id":"130","name":"Alumni"}],"keywords":[{"id":"1614","name":"bill george"},{"id":"1202","name":"H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering"},{"id":"3536","name":"True North"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:barbara.christopher@isye.gatech.edu\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBarbara Christopher\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIndustrial and Systems Engineering\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404.385.3102\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}