Article Review

Discovering Your Authentic Leadership

By Bill George, Peter Sims, Andrew N. McLean, and Diana Mayer

Introduction
Author’s Biography:
Bill George is a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School, where he has
taught leadership since 2004. He is the author of four best-selling books 7 Lessons for Leading
in Crisis,  True North, Finding Your True North, and Authentic Leadership.
Mr. George is the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Medtronic. He joined
Medtronic in 1989 as President and Chief Operating Officer, was Chief Executive Officer from
1991-2001, and Chairman of the Board from 1996 to 2002. Earlier in his career, he was an
executive with Honeywell and Litton Industries and served in the U.S. Department of Defense.
Mr. George currently serves as a director of ExxonMobil and Goldman Sachs, and also recently
served on the boards of Novartis and Target Corporation. He is also currently a trustee of
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, World Economic Forum USA and the Guthrie
Theater. He has served as chair of the board of Allina Health System, Abbott-Northwestern
Hospital, United Way of the Greater Twin Cities, and Advamed.
He has been named one of “Top 25 Business Leaders of the Past 25 Years” by PBS, “Executive
of the Year-2001″ by the Academy of Management, and “Director of the Year-2001-02″ by the
National Association of Corporate Directors. Mr. George has made frequent appearances on
television and radio, including: The Charlie Rose Show, The Today Show, The News Hour with
Jim Lehrer, NOW, CNBC, Bloomberg News, and NPR. His articles have appeared in Wall Street
Journal, Business Week, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, and numerous other publications.
Mr. George received his BSIE with high honors from Georgia Tech, his MBA with high
distinction from Harvard University, where he was a Baker Scholar, and honorary PhDs from
Georgia Tech and Bryant University. During 2002-03 he was professor at IMD International and
Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne, Switzerland, and executive-in-residence at Yale School of
Management.
He and his wife Penny reside in Minnesota.
Purpose of Writing:

The purpose of the article is to discover a frame of an authentic leader. How one can become an
authentic leader.

During past 50 years more than 1,000 studies have been conducted to know the frame for an
authentic leader. None of the studies has produced a clear profile of the ideal leader. Recently
people have developed a deep distrust of authentic leaders. So the need of authentic business
leaders has become necessary.

People including many CEOs have a strong desire to become an authentic leader and they want
to know how they can be.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

• How can people become and remain authentic leaders?

• Recommend the most important capability for leaders to develop?

• How can one learn from his life-story about his leadership skills?

• Are leaders born or made?

• What is the impact of your life on you?

• How criticism develops your leadership skills?

• How do you go about building your support team?

• What tools do you use to become self-aware?

• How one can balance Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivations?

• Is your life integrated? Are you able to be same person in all aspects of your life?
 Body
Summary of the findings
In order to find answers of the research questions, the author included 125 leaders to be
interviewed for the field study. They provided with some brilliant insights into what has enabled
them to be successful and how they developed into authentic leaders. They were remarkably
sincere in sharing their life stories, personal struggles, failures, and triumphs.

After interviewing these leaders, authors come to know that leaders are highly complex human
beings, who have distinctive qualities that cannot be sufficiently described by lists of traits or
characteristics. These leaders did not identify any characteristics, traits, skills or styles that led to
their success.

• You can discover your authentic leadership right now.

• You do not have to be born with the characteristics or traits of a leader.

• You do not have to wait for a tap on the shoulder.

• You can step up to lead at any point in your life.

• You are never too young — or too old.

New Leadership for the 21st Century

Successful organizations in the 21st century will be those that get the best out of people by
motivating them with an inspiring mission and empower people at all levels of the organization.
We need a new kind of leader to lead our institutions in the 21st century — a leader who can
empower and inspire others to lead.

There are following principal areas required to lead yourself:

• Learning from your life story;

• Gaining self-awareness;

• Practicing your values and principles under pressure;

• Balancing your extrinsic and intrinsic motivations;

• Building your support team;

• Integrating your life by staying grounded; and

• Empowering people to lead.

Strengths of the article
 Sample age

 Detailed Interview

 Real Interviews

 Learning from experiences

Weaknesses of the article

This article fails to find specific characteristics of authentic leaders

Conclusion
Learning from the article
 One can find inspiration from his life experience to make impact on the world
 Authentic leaders are effective
 Self-awareness is the biggest tool
 Don’t copy any leader because people follow those who are genuine
 Learn from your own life experiences
 Don’t sacrifice your ethical values
 One can become a Leader
 Openness to criticism

Its relation to the course

This article focuses on developing individual as a leader

Limitations of the article

The interviews for field study are conducted from business executives thus lack the experiences
of political and social leaders.