Bill George is the best-selling author of the 2003 book Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets of Creating Lasting Value. He has followed this with a guide to authentic leadership True North: Discover your Authentic Leadership (2007). Having read George’s first book, I was certain that his next offering would be anything but the regular leadership ‘fare’.
Considered an ‘academic’ now (professor of management practice at Harvard Business School), George established himself as a management and leadership icon as the chief executive officer and chairman of Medtronic (the world’s leading medical technology company). He engineered an incredible 11 year run; growing Medtronic’s market capitalization from $ 1.1 billion to $ 60 billion, averaging 35 % per year. He continues to serve as a corporate director for a number of notable companies, including Goldman Sachs and ExxonMobil.
George sets out to demonstrate how anyone who follows their internal compass can become an authentic leader. George, supported by colleague Peter Sims, undertook interviewing 125 leaders (ranging in age from 23 to 93) that represent a truly diverse group of women and men from different backgrounds. These leaders (including Andrea Jung of Avon and Howard Schultz of Starbucks) were chosen as a result of their reputations for being authentic and achieving success. Distilling George’s message to its base element, when you are aligned with who you are, you find alignment between the story of your life and your leadership… Authentic Leadership.
The Five Dimensions of an Authentic Leader
• Pursuing purpose with passion. Without a true sense of purpose, leaders are at the mercy of their egos.
• Practicing solid values. Leaders define their values; they are not determined by others. Values are a personal.
• Leading with heart. Truly authentic leaders lead with heart and head.
• Establishing enduring relationships. Authentic leaders develop lasting relationships.
• Demonstrating self-discipline. To produce results authentic leaders understand the need for a consistently high level of self-discipline.
George posits that leadership is not a destination, rather a continual journey that travels through stages until you reach the pinnacle of your leadership. George describes the stages as:
Phase I – Preparing for Leadership. This is the first 30 years, preparing for leadership, character is being developed and people become individual contributors or lead teams for the first time.
Phase II – Leading. The next phase is characterized by the accumulation of leadership experiences and opportunity, reaching a peak in the 50’s.
Phase III – Giving Back. Leaders share experiences with numerous groups, mentoring and coaching new or young leaders.
George shares that on occasion people with excellent potential get derailed. This is often linked to two critical questions - ‘What motivates me to lead?’ and ‘What is the purpose of my leadership?’ If the answer is power, prestige and wealth then the leader will be cornered by external gratification and never reach their full potential. In addition, leaders that avoid risk will not be prepared to manage the many increasing challenges that come with executive level positions.
A critical element of authentic leadership is the transformation from “I” to “We”. This is a shift from the leader attending to personal needs and focusing on the development of others. Only then can the leader provide the motivation to assist people in reaching their maximum potential. This transformation appears to be a critical ‘go’ or ‘no go’ in achieving authentic leadership.
George devotes a great deal of his book to discovering your authentic leadership and, in particular, knowing your authentic self. It only makes sense that you ensure you are clear on the direction (your compass) if you desire to be successful on your journey.
In an effort to know your authentic self it will be critical to become self-aware. It is often difficult to see ourselves as others actually view us. We need to open ourselves to colleagues in order to uncover our blind spots and provide an opportunity to explore new ways of doing things. Knowing and accepting yourself are essential in achieving your personal True North.
The author also highlights the importance of clearly understanding what motivates you to be a leader. There are two types of motivation – extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic are measured by the external world, while intrinsic motivation is derived from a personal sense of the true meaning of your life. Moving away from external validation of your achievements is very difficult. We are used to successive ‘wins’ (as defined by our supervisors or the street) and it takes a real dose of courage to shift to a focus on intrinsic motivation. But there is good news! George found that the leaders that focused on the intrinsic (an example would be turning down a lucrative pay cheque in order to pursue the roles they enjoy) still came out ahead in the end in both compensation and satisfaction.
An aspect of leadership that receives less attention is the support system that a leader needs to establish and maintain in order to effectively maximize your development plan. So what exactly is a support system/team? Essentially, it is a consistent nucleus of resources that can act as a ‘sounding board’ for you. They can be trusted advisors, mentors or a professional support network of peers within and from outside your organization. The key is that we all need that person(s) that we can trust so that our greatest fears and challenges can be discussed without risk of inappropriate disclosure. This kind of real-time feedback is essential to the leader’s development.
Optimizing Leadership Effectiveness
George recommends that every leader be very clear to ensure that their use style and power be consistent with the situation that they are facing. In considering your leadership style and power, consider the following:
• Is your leadership style consistent with your leadership principles and values? Is it ever inconsistent? Believe, your colleagues will be the first to notice!
• How do you adapt your style to the situations that you are addressing and to the specific competencies of your team?
• How do you get the most of your personal power in leading people?
• When you have used your power over others inappropriately how did they respond?
• How do you respond to powerful people who use their power with you?
The author feels that the more power that an individual accumulates the less often it should be used. Powerful leaders use persuasion rather than force to build consensus. In demonstrating the link between leadership style and power, George identifies five different styles that convey your sense of power:
Directive Leaders – Create dependent relationships with their subordinates, who faithfully complete their orders and respond to their demands.
Coaching Leaders - Create interdependent relationships.
Consensus Leaders - Use power in subtle ways to reach agreement without offending others or isolating people with a different perspective on an issue.
Affiliative Leaders – Readily accepted by others for their empathic approach to relationships.
Expert Leaders - Believe knowledge is power and it is better to be right than develop relationships.
The lasting message woven into True North: Discover your Authentic Leadership is that authentic leaders are more effective at realizing superior long-term results than others. This is achieved through a clear understanding of their own moral compass and a commitment to building/developing their organization. The authentic leader can take comfort in the realization that they will get superior performance from their team.
Next…..
Stay tuned for a piece on the unique challenges that women face in their leadership quest!
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Monday, September 3, 2007
You Just Never Know Where you are Going to Learn about Leadership….
While waiting for a flight, I was browsing the magazine offerings in departures when I noticed a magazine called Scientific American Mind. This magazine had a number of interesting articles, including an article by Stephen D. Reciher, S. Alexander Haslam and Michael J. Platow entitled The New Psychology of Leadership. Given the incredible depth in which leadership is covered today, it is helpful to have the definition of Leadership that is being referenced. The authors’ reference to leadership is defined as ‘the ability to motivate people to act in concert – something that requires an internalized social identity.’
The authors challenge the notion that charisma, intelligence and other personality traits are the key ingredients to being recognized as an effective leader. The authors suggest that an entirely new framework of leadership exists. This framework is anchored by the notion that effective leaders must strive to comprehend the values and opinions of those that they lead. This approach represents a much greater emphasis on a collaborative/cooperative model rather than the ‘command and control’ leader focus.
This new approach resists the temptation to try and hold out fixed personality traits as an assurance of good leadership. It is the authors’ position that that the traits required will be dictated by the make up of the group(s) that is being led. Rather than relying on matching the perfect leader with the right challenge (or opportunity), the successful leader will be one that has the genuine ability to be recognized as a true team member that shares the same interests as the group they serve.
The article references the concept of the ‘social identity’ (a term that was minted by Henri Tajfel of the University of Bristol in the 1970’s during his work on groups) as an important component of the new psychology of leadership. Tajfel defined social identity as the part of a person’s self that is defined by a group. This allows people to identify and act together as a group. The authors state that leaders and followers must be connected by a shared identity and a plan to utilize that identity as a strategy for action.
Issues such as favoritism and high salaries (examples of things that can set the leaders apart from the group) can quickly derail the effectiveness of the leader. Failing to treat subordinates with respect will undermine the leader’s influence and credibility.
How to Lead
A new psychology of leadership suggests that effective leaders must understand the values and opinions of their followers – rather than assuming absolute authority – to enable a productive dialogue with team members about what the group stands for and thus how it should act.
According to this new approach, no fixed set of personality traits can assure good leadership because the most desirable traits depend on the nature of the group being led.
Leaders who adopt this strategy must try not only to fit in with their group but also to shape the group’s identity in a way that makes their own agenda and policies appear to be an expression of that identity.
The authors challenge the notion that charisma, intelligence and other personality traits are the key ingredients to being recognized as an effective leader. The authors suggest that an entirely new framework of leadership exists. This framework is anchored by the notion that effective leaders must strive to comprehend the values and opinions of those that they lead. This approach represents a much greater emphasis on a collaborative/cooperative model rather than the ‘command and control’ leader focus.
This new approach resists the temptation to try and hold out fixed personality traits as an assurance of good leadership. It is the authors’ position that that the traits required will be dictated by the make up of the group(s) that is being led. Rather than relying on matching the perfect leader with the right challenge (or opportunity), the successful leader will be one that has the genuine ability to be recognized as a true team member that shares the same interests as the group they serve.
The article references the concept of the ‘social identity’ (a term that was minted by Henri Tajfel of the University of Bristol in the 1970’s during his work on groups) as an important component of the new psychology of leadership. Tajfel defined social identity as the part of a person’s self that is defined by a group. This allows people to identify and act together as a group. The authors state that leaders and followers must be connected by a shared identity and a plan to utilize that identity as a strategy for action.
Issues such as favoritism and high salaries (examples of things that can set the leaders apart from the group) can quickly derail the effectiveness of the leader. Failing to treat subordinates with respect will undermine the leader’s influence and credibility.
How to Lead
A new psychology of leadership suggests that effective leaders must understand the values and opinions of their followers – rather than assuming absolute authority – to enable a productive dialogue with team members about what the group stands for and thus how it should act.
According to this new approach, no fixed set of personality traits can assure good leadership because the most desirable traits depend on the nature of the group being led.
Leaders who adopt this strategy must try not only to fit in with their group but also to shape the group’s identity in a way that makes their own agenda and policies appear to be an expression of that identity.
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