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Subjects:
 Nonfiction 
 Leadership 
 Books-titles -- True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership 
People:
 George, Bill 
Author(s):
 William J. Holstein 
Document types:
 Book Review-Favorable 
Publication title:
 New York Times 
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  What Consultants May Not Know About Leadership
  William J. Holstein. New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, 
  N.Y.: Apr 1, 2007. pg. 3.8

Abstract (Summary)
Howard Schultz, the chairman of Starbucks, describes his key experience as 
occurring in the winter of 1961 when he was 7 and throwing snowballs with 
friends outside the Bayview Housing Projects in Brooklyn. His mother shouted to 
him to come inside. There, he discovered that his father had had an accident. 
While working as a delivery driver, he had fallen on ice and broken his ankle.
In his role at Novartis, he has driven his scientists to come up with 
live-saving drugs quickly because he has an emotional connection with patients. 
''As C.E.O., I have the leverage to impact the lives of many more people,'' Mr. 
[Daniel Vasella] says.
Mr. George tells the story of John Donahoe, who was on the fast track at Bain & 
Company, the consulting firm. As Mr. Donahoe moved up the ranks, he repeatedly 
wrestled with work-life issues. At one point, his wife, Eileen, received a job 
offer that required her to be at work at 7:30 a.m. That raised the question of 
who would take their two children to school every day. Mr. Donahoe went to his 
boss and said he had to quit so that he could do it. But his boss and his 
clients both agreed to allow him to start work at 10 a.m. Mr. Donahoe, now a top 
executive at eBay, actually became more effective as a leader, Mr. [Bill George] 
concludes.
 »  Jump to indexing (document details)
Full Text (1208  words)
Copyright New York Times Company Apr 1, 2007


FOR many years, choruses of management coaches, consultants and business school 
professors have proclaimed that they can teach executives how to become leaders. 
The avalanche of words spilled on the subject -- many of them simplistic and 
repetitive -- would fill many libraries.
Now comes a truly worthwhile look at leadership, ''True North: Discover Your 
Authentic Leadership,'' by Bill George with Peter Sims (Jossey-Bass, $27.95).
Mr. George was chief executive of Medtronic for 10 years and is currently on the 
boards of Exxon Mobil, Goldman Sachs and Novartis. He also teaches at Harvard 
Business School. The book is based on interviews with 125 other leaders.
One view that emerges is that the soul of leadership cannot be taught. Instead, 
leaders are shaped by personal crises or other life experiences -- often early 
in life but also in the middle stages of life -- that give them a burning sense 
of mission. If Mr. George is correct, much of the money spent on leadership 
development has been wasted.
Howard Schultz, the chairman of Starbucks, describes his key experience as 
occurring in the winter of 1961 when he was 7 and throwing snowballs with 
friends outside the Bayview Housing Projects in Brooklyn. His mother shouted to 
him to come inside. There, he discovered that his father had had an accident. 
While working as a delivery driver, he had fallen on ice and broken his ankle.
The father lost his job and benefits, and soon began arguing with his wife at 
the dinner table over how much money the family needed to borrow. ''I was 
surrounded by people who were working hand-to-mouth trying to pay the bills, who 
felt like there was no hope,'' Mr. Schultz is quoted as saying. ''That's 
something that never leaves you -- never.''
According to Mr. Schultz, the stigma of his family's experience equipped him 
with an ambition to succeed and helped spur him to build Starbucks into what it 
is today. It also drove him to pay more than the minimum wage, offer substantial 
health benefits and grant stock options to all his workers.
Then there is Daniel Vasella, chief executive of the Swiss company Novartis. He 
suffered from asthma, tuberculosis and meningitis as a child in Switzerland and 
had to spend long periods away from his family. A sister died of cancer and his 
father died in surgery.
Mr. Vasella initially decided to become a doctor so that he could help ease the 
type of suffering that he and his family endured, but he then was drawn to the 
pharmaceutical field.
In his role at Novartis, he has driven his scientists to come up with 
live-saving drugs quickly because he has an emotional connection with patients. 
''As C.E.O., I have the leverage to impact the lives of many more people,'' Mr. 
Vasella says.
That's a common thread in the strongest leaders, Mr. George argues: they have a 
deep desire to serve a greater goal beyond simply making money.
In general, the book paints a portrait that clashes with the image of isolated 
and greedy C.E.O.'s that appears in the popular press. Those certainly exist, 
Mr. George says, but he argues that many of them are impostors certain to fail. 
The best leaders are those who have values, or a ''true north,'' that other 
people in their organizations come to appreciate, he said.
''Leaders whose goal is the quest for power over others, maximizing wealth or 
becoming famous tend to look to other people for satisfaction and acknowledgment 
of their status,'' Mr. George writes. ''In public and in private, they display a 
high degree of narcissism.'' 
''True North'' also reflects a clear change in ideas on leadership , a moving 
away from command-and-control figures like Maurice R. Greenberg, former chief 
executive of the American International Group, and toward more collaborative 
management styles.
Increasingly, the key is to realize that the game isn't about ''I,'' meaning the 
C.E.O., but rather about ''we,'' meaning the team. ''The role of leaders is not 
to get other people to follow them, but to empower others to lead,'' Mr. George 
writes. ''They cannot elicit the best performance from their teams if they are 
in the game primarily for themselves.'' 
Several other insights in the book help put the issue of corporate leadership in 
a new light. One is that a leader can, in fact, display certain vulnerabilities 
to others. A leader does not have to pretend to have all the answers all the 
time.
Anne M. Mulcahy, chief executive of Xerox, faced the possibility of a company 
bankruptcy filing in 2001 and described how she felt: ''Around 8:30 p.m. on my 
way home, I pulled over to the side of the Merritt Parkway and said to myself, 
'I don't know where to go. I don't want to go home. There's just no place to 
go.' ''
Her display of personal vulnerability -- combined with a determination to 
succeed -- helped Ms. Mulcahy rally her team and cut billions of dollars in 
expenses and reduce debt by 60 percent, saving the company. In the final 
analysis, leadership is personality-based.
It is perhaps surprising how much time Mr. George spends talking about the 
work-life balance that the best leaders must have. That is certainly at odds 
with the stereotype of business leaders who put in monster 16- and 18-hour days 
and never see their families.
Mr. George tells the story of John Donahoe, who was on the fast track at Bain & 
Company, the consulting firm. As Mr. Donahoe moved up the ranks, he repeatedly 
wrestled with work-life issues. At one point, his wife, Eileen, received a job 
offer that required her to be at work at 7:30 a.m. That raised the question of 
who would take their two children to school every day. Mr. Donahoe went to his 
boss and said he had to quit so that he could do it. But his boss and his 
clients both agreed to allow him to start work at 10 a.m. Mr. Donahoe, now a top 
executive at eBay, actually became more effective as a leader, Mr. George 
concludes.
''Integrating their lives is one of the greatest challenges leaders face,'' Mr. 
George writes. ''To lead an integrated life, you need to bring together the 
major elements of your personal life and professional life, including work, 
family, community and friends, so that you can be the same person in each 
environment.'' Leaders who are well grounded in this way avoid the trap of 
isolation and arrogance.
THE best leaders are also capable of developing a virtuous, or reinforcing, 
cycle of leadership, Mr. George explains. They are driven people with moving 
personal stories and they empower the people around them. That leads to business 
success, and attracts even more ideas and people.
Not everything about ''True North'' is compelling. The analysis sometimes seems 
wooden and repetitive; at other times, it veers into inspirational mode. The 
do-it-yourself leadership exercises at the back of the book (''What are your 
strongest capabilities or talents?'') are irritatingly sophomoric.
Even so, this is one of the most important books on leadership to come along in 
years, because it is based on so much up-close-and-personal observation. It is 
far more reality-based than the theories peddled by the bulk of management 
pundits.
      [Illustration]
      Photo


  
Indexing (document details)
      Subjects:Nonfiction,  Leadership,  Books-titles -- True North: Discover 
      Your Authentic Leadership
      People:George, Bill
      Author(s):William J. Holstein
      Document types:Book Review-Favorable
      Column Name:Off the Shelf
      Section:3
      Publication title:New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, 
      N.Y.: Apr 1, 2007.  pg. 3.8
      Source type:Newspaper
      ISSN:03624331
      ProQuest document ID:1247859521
      Text Word Count1208
      Document 
      URL:http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1247859521&sid=3&Fmt=3&clientId=3851&RQT=309&VName=PQD


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