I have had the pleasure and honor of meeting some of the world’s top leaders and leadership gurus, from Sir Richard Branson, General Tommy Franks, and Captain Mike Abrashoff to Dr. Warren Bennis, Dr. Henry Mintzberg, Marshall Goldsmith, Jack Welch, and Tom Peters.

I recently had the opportunity to interview Bill George, former president and CEO of Medtronic, Inc. turned professor at Harvard Business School and author of the best-selling book, Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value. I met to discuss his most recent book, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership, co-written with Peter Sims.

First, a brief review of the book.

Unlike many leadership books (and I’ve read quite a few), True North is more than just a good read. The activities and exercises at the end of each chapter are designed to help you discover your leadership style and your underlying beliefs and passions—what makes YOU. Bill believes that for leaders to be effective, they must first know themselves. He believes that you can’t read a leadership book to become a leader; you can’t just emulate other great leaders; he cannot review a list of leadership traits or characteristics and simply select those that he will adopt.

Bill George and Peter Sims interviewed 125 leaders to shape the chapters and lessons in this book. The authors asked leaders to define their True North: what is most important to them, their most cherished values, their passions, their trials and tribulations, and how they came to find their True North, their “fixed point in a spinning world.” that helps [them] stay on track as a leader.”

Sara Lee CEO Brenda Barnes agrees that leaders need to discover their true north:

If you are guided by an internal compass that represents your character and the values ​​that guide your decisions, you will be fine. Let your values ​​guide your actions and never lose your inner compass, because not everything is black and white. There are many gray areas in business.

True North is not a “how to” book to help potential leaders learn how to create meaningful mission statements or passionate visions, or how to lead teams through troubled waters. True North is a book that looks inward, one that helps you discover the leader within you. True North is a book that will make good leaders great.

Now the interview.

I met with Bill in his office on the beautiful Harvard Business School (HBS) campus. I’m a little early so I went over the top two questions I wanted to ask:

1. How do you “discover your values ​​and passions” when you are young (knowing that many of Bill’s students are in their twenties)? I remember that I had no idea of ​​my passions when I was twenty years old.

2. Bill and our mutual friend Warren Bennis refer to crucibles as the key to building leaders. Crucibles are life-altering events—the death of a loved one, a big deal gone bad, or a personal tragedy—that make us stronger (if, as the saying goes, they don’t kill us outright). I’ve led a pretty crucible-free life and wanted to know: Can I make my own crucibles (that doesn’t sound like a smart idea) so I can learn from them? Or can I learn indirectly through the crucibles of others?

As a trainer, I believe that many/most skills, including leadership, can be taught. Bill would argue that while many of the behaviors of effective leadership (effective communication, clarity of vision and purpose, requesting and processing input, decision making, etc.) – can be taught, the essence of effective leadership – your True North – has to be discovered/developed. My search was to see if there was no middle ground.

Bill is in his fourth year at HBS, where he currently teaches Corporate Leadership and Responsibility, a course that integrates ethics, law, and economics, and is a direct response to the corporate scandals that have plagued the country in recent years.

This fall, Bill is teaching Authentic Leadership Development, a course that parallels the True North structure and lessons. An integral part of the course are the six-person support groups, which allow participants to explore more deeply the concepts of inner values, passion and personal motivation, and beliefs.

When I asked Bill how a young person, who has relatively few experiences to draw on, could identify personal values ​​and beliefs, he pointed to the power of the support group where others can ask you questions you wouldn’t think of. ask yourself, the answers to which reveal things about you as a person and as a leader.

This support group concept was inspired by the men’s support group that has shaped Bill’s life and, according to him, has played a significant role in his success. “I can go to the group for anything from business to personal, from current issues to discussing what kind of legacy we want to leave behind. I’m a big proponent of having a support group and I think it can be very advantageous for people.”

This belief carries over into his married life; Bill and his wife, Penny, meet monthly with three other couples as they have for the past 23 years. “We talk about what really matters in life, what’s really important. It’s also nice to have a group of people who really know you to give you feedback and help you make decisions.”

Authentic leaders are self-aware. It’s not that authentic leaders possess some innate ability to see themselves more fully than others, authentic leaders seek and listen to feedback from others. A support group provides feedback that is honest and candid.

Most leadership gurus, including Warren Bennis and Marshall Goldsmith, agree that honest and open feedback becomes an increasingly rare commodity as one moves up the ranks. The bill says:

Getting feedback anywhere in an organizational setting is helpful, especially from people who have worked for me – 360-degree feedback. When I was CEO of Medtronic, getting feedback from my board was far less important than the feedback I received from my subordinates.

Getting feedback from sycophants, from people trying to curry favor with you, is the worst kind of feedback and is extremely dangerous; It’s like you start to believe in your own press.

Surround yourself with people who shoot directly with you. This communication needs to be encouraged. It’s easy to shoot the messenger, so I tried to surround myself with people who would challenge me and who care about the organization.

Bill encourages all leaders to solicit feedback and encourage anonymous feedback. “The blind feedback you get on a 360 is valuable because people who might not otherwise have the courage to come tell you what they really think are able to speak up.”

Getting feedback and guidance from others is key to authentic leadership, as is self-awareness. Authentic leaders take self-awareness a step further and examine not just WHAT they learned, but reflect on HOW they learned. Bill calls this “framing.” How do you frame your experiences? Do you ignore them: “I’m glad THAT is over”? Do you tend to normalize them: “Oh, everyone has that experience”? Or the apologies: “That was just a weird thing”? Authentic leaders take advantage of the situation as a unique learning experience. They not only examine the experience and draw lessons from the experience, but also examine themselves in the experience and learn more about themselves in the process.

Experiences don’t have to be life-changing, answering my final question from Bill: How do you create the crucibles that build leaders? Bill explained:

It is important to have those experiences. Don’t walk away from experiences. Don’t take the safe route. Otherwise, you probably have a lot of responsibility and can’t handle it. We all need to learn how to fail and how to come back. You have to learn that on the field of play. You can’t learn it as an observer on the scene; it cannot be learned by strictly observing other leaders.

You also need to learn to frame the experience. Framing sometimes requires a different perspective, to see the experience from another angle or in a different light. It’s hard to be objective when emerging from another less than successful project; important lessons will be missed. Who can help you frame situations? Bill says, “Pretty much anyone: your partner, a mentor, a spouse, your best friend. That’s what I use my support group for.”

Almost any situation, therefore, becomes an opportunity for you to discover more about yourself and grow as a true leader.

Bill states of True North: “I want the book to change leadership.” If any book can achieve such a lofty goal, True North can. Lessons from 125 business leaders help frame activities that, if completed, will help YOU find your True North and discover your authentic leadership.

Terence R. Traut is President of Entelechy, Inc., a company that helps organizations unlock the potential of their people through customized training programs in the areas of sales, management, customer service, and training. Terence can be reached at 603-424-1237 or [email protected].