A Special Session with Professor Bill George

Professor William George (Photo courtesy of Forbes)

Professor William George

Professor William "Bill" George is the author of four best-selling books: True North Groups, True North, Finding Your True North, and Authentic Leadership. He is the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Medtronic, the world's largest medical technology company.


True North Leadership

One of my biggest regrets of the day was not being able to take pictures of Professor Bill George during his lecture to our class. I was so intrigued by the topic and eventually got caught up in the discussion that the thought of documenting the occasion completely slipped my mind.

The professor talked at length about values, self-awareness and an unwavering sense of purpose. Let me rattle off the key points of what I would like to call, his sharing, honed from years of experience as a successful and multi-awarded global executive.
  1. As a CEO you are a public figure and your behavior has to be beyond reproach
  2. Leaders are in the business of serving customers and employees
  3. Wherever you go, there you are (read it again and relish its profound implications)
  4. What is your sweet spot - the alignment of internal drivers with external opportunities
  5. Rid your organization of "evil" people because they will cause harm to others in the organization but before doing so have a second look and see if they can be saved
  6. Think about how you are going to change the world - THINK ABOUT IT NOW!
  7. The key to EQ is self-awareness, which comes from understanding your life story, framing your crucible and honest relationships with others
  8. 21st century leadership involves building for the long-term, being customer / value driven, having a global orientation, being a leader at all levels, having an external focus, creating an empowering culture and paying for company results
As you can probably tell, it was a very rich discussion and my attempts at capturing it in prose failed to capture its rich texture and context. I suppose that's what happens when you are with a man who has achieved and who is changing the world and giving back.