Finding Your True North: Bill George

Bill George is former president of Medtronic, and is current Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School and author of "True North."

- You are a child of God. Your playing small is not helpful in advancing His purpose.

- We've been choosing the wrong leaders for the wrong reason. Don't choose them for charisma, style, and image, and then be surprised when our leaders lack authenticity, integrity, and character.

- Quoting Drucker - "Leadership is not money, fame, or power. Leadership is responsibility."

- People in your organization know more than you in the information age. Give them an opportunity to lead.

- People want to be paid fairly, but ultimately want to find meaning and significance in what they're doing.

**Wow. Bill George speaks really quickly. Sounds like Lou Holtz, but after a quadruple shot of espresso**

Job of 21st century leadership:
Align - Bring people together around something. The hardest part of leadership.
Empower - job of a leader not to get people to follow you. To empower them to step up and lead. To unleash their power.
Serve - People are not there to serve us. We're there to serve them.
Collaborate - No single organization can solve all the problems.

- You can be a victim, or you can make a difference.

- The organization was changing me more than I was changing the organization.

- Understand the purpose for your leadership. Are you where you're supposed to be?

- Follow your compass, not your clock. It's not the time in your life, it's the direction of your life.

- If you don't get feedback, you can't grow.

- The real test is when everything you've been building up for the last 10 years is about to go down the drain. That's when you find out what your values really are. That's also when people are watching.

- The time to build your support team is now. If you wait until you're in crisis it will be too late.

- Think about the end of your life. When your favorite granddaughter looks up in your eyes and asks "What did you do to make a difference in the world," what would you say? Don't wait until the end of your life to think about that question.

- Most of us cannot change history alone, but if we come together we can bend the course of history and make the world a better place.

- I learned a lot more working at a soup kitchen than I ever did as the chairman of the board of United Way.

- Everyone I've seen fail as a leader did not fail in leading others, they failed in leading themselves.