DOLORES: Hello and welcome
to today's Tech Talk.
I'm Dolores Bernardo and
I'm with People Development.
I'm so pleased to be
introducing Bill George today.
Bill is an inspiring leader.
His work is often quoted in
Google's leadership development
programs as well as he's
been quoted in Meng's book,
"Search Inside Yourself."
So lots of Google connections.
Bill has spent over 30 years in
executive leadership positions.
As CEO of Medtronic,
he built the company
into the world's leading
medical technology company.
From a market capitalization
of $1 billion to $60 billion.
So he knows business.
Currently he is professor
at Harvard Business School.
His 2004 book,
"Authentic Leadership"
was a "Business
Week" bestseller.
We're lucky to have
him with us today
to tell us about
his follow on book
to authentic leadership,
"Discover Your True
North." which features over
100 profiles of leaders.
In "Discover Your
True North," bill
has profiled what's changed
in the last 10 years
about leadership.
On a personal note, I
turn to Bill George's work
on values centered
leadership whenever
I'm facing a tough challenge.
And I know many
Google leaders do.
"Discover Your
True North" offers
a concrete, comprehensive guide
to becoming an authentic leader
and reveals how you can
chart your path to success.
So please join me in
welcoming Bill George.
[APPLAUSE]
BILL GEORGE: Thank you.
Here, you can take [INAUDIBLE].
Thank you guys for coming.
I'm really excited
about being here.
I want to do a talk today that
goes well beyond the book.
I feel it's a privilege
to be at the world's
most innovative company.
This is something I've said
in writing about Google.
And I really believe that,
that you are indeed that.
I have great admiration
for your leaders.
Eric Schmidt and
I serve together
on the Mayo Clinic board.
And he is an amazing leader,
what he's done in this company.
Larry and Sergey, of course, as
founders have stayed with it,
have grown as
leaders, have wisely
looked to other leaders
like Eric to coach
them through the processes.
And I think it's
pretty remarkable
how this company has grown.
But now I think the
opportunities in front of you
as Alphabet are staggering.
I mean, when I
first heard you're
going into self
driving cars I said,
have they lost their mind?
And then I started learning
more about it and I said,
this is amazing.
And that's just one
of many, many ventures
you're going in to.
And so I think the future
is virtually unlimited.
And your new
organization-- I wrote
an article a few weeks back,
I believe in really setting
the standard for all
innovative companies
because the toughest
problem that companies have
is how do you
sustain your growth.
For 30 years, my role model of
a company was Hewlett Packard.
I met Dave Packard
back in 1968 when
I was leaving the Pentagon.
He was coming in as
Deputy Secretary.
He and Bill Hewlett taught
us a lot about management,
wandering around, being engaged.
But the company lost it.
They went over the hill and
today I don't think any of you
would consider them a
terribly innovative company.
It's true they're a big
company, but not innovative.
So how do you sustain
that innovation?
Because oftentimes bureaucracy
pushes against innovation
and wants to kill it, and
it wants to starve it,
and mavericks get pushed
out of organizations.
And it's a tragedy
when that happens.
And so I want to thank Dolores
for not just your introduction
but for inviting me
here, for Meng Tan who's
done so many great things here.
I interviewed him.
He's in the book talking
about his work on meditation.
And also to Trudi McCanna.
Where'd Trudi go?
There she is.
For the work she's done here.
And I think you've all
done wonderful work
in leadership development.
But I want to talk about
something different today.
It builds on the
book, but I want
to talk about
innovation leaders,
because my conclusion
is that there
are literally tens of thousands
of excellent innovators
out there.
You see them throughout the
world, throughout the country.
This is the most innovative
place in the world,
but there are lots
of innovators.
And if you go to
any of the schools--
I teach at Harvard
Business School-- everyone
wants to be an innovator.
And everyone at Stanford
wants to be an innovator.
And it is a very
innovative place.
And Caltech and I
went to Georgia Tech,
or I'll be later on, they
all want to be innovators.
But the real gap is
with innovation leaders.
Not many people know
how to lead innovation.
So that's what I want
to talk about today.
I'll talk a few minutes about
what the challenges we face
and how leadership has
changed over the last decade
and then kind of move on to what
it takes to be an innovation
leader in today's world, because
I think this is something that
is not well understood.
So let me start with
talking about how
leadership has changed
dramatically over the last 10
years.
You know, when I was
growing up, leadership
was very hierarchical.
And we had very highly
structured companies
like AT&T and General Motors.
And today it's all
about empowerment.
And, to be honest, those of you
who are millennials or Gen Xers
like my family is
aren't going to work
in an hierarchical organization.
You don't want to be directed.
You want to have the freedom to
go out and innovate yourself.
And I think that is-- why not?
But why do we create these
hierarchical structures?
They made everyone comfortable.
Even the military's
gone away from it.
So the second thing
is bureaucracy.
No one wants to work in a
bureaucratic organization.
How do you create a series
of interdependent units?
You're trying to do
that with Alphabet.
You've done it within Google.
How do you have
interdependent teams
so you can learn from each
other, build on each other,
but have the freedom to go
off and do your own thing?
The third thing is
we've gone from an era
of limited information
to full transparency.
Obviously Google's mission is
to support that and help that.
But think what
happened last week
in the congressional testimony.
The CEO of Volkswagen
US, after having admitted
that the engineers intentionally
falsified emissions tests
in cars for 11 million
cars, blamed it
on the lowest level engineers.
I'm very cynical.
I wrote in the
article that's going
to come out tomorrow
on this subject
because we'll blame
it on the engineers.
Let's forget about the
fact that the high level
executives support it.
And he said, no, we're not
going to disclose any documents.
They've committed a crime.
That's the reality.
It's against the law to
falsify emissions tests.
And they're going to
be held to account.
And you know that the
courts and the lawyers
are going to get out
all the documents.
So today you have to
be fully transparent.
I always tell CEOs
you're a public figure.
Everything you say
and think in private,
it's going to be
outside the company.
Everything you do
on your own time,
somebody is going to take
a Facebook picture of you,
or a movie of you, or
tape record what you said.
It's all public, so be
careful what you say.
You just get over there,
that's the reality.
And a lot of people at
heads of organizations
are very uncomfortable.
But today we live in
a transparent world.
I think that's a good thing.
I think we should have access
to all the information.
In my day, it was
all about charisma.
So you didn't feel
like yourself.
I'm not charismatic,
so I can't be a leader.
Yeah, a lot of the best leaders
are not very charismatic.
Do they have to be
like Jack Welch?
Do they have to learn
to fake it to make it?
I don't think so.
I think it's really all
about being who you are.
It's being authentic
and being real.
And that's what
leadership is all about.
And then I think we were trained
in an era of self interest.
Today's era, particularly
with Gen Xers and millenials
has really changed.
I think we're in an era where
we're actually trying to make
a difference in the world.
We're not just trying
to make a lot of money.
You can make a lot of money
and live a miserable life.
We could all do
well financially,
but that's not the question.
The question is, what are
you going to leave behind?
How are you going to
make a difference?
And how can you work
to serve others?
Because I believe the best
leaders are servant leaders.
So let me site for things
that have really changed.
The first of them
is globalization.
We live in a global world.
Why would we fight immigration?
We're a nation of immigrants.
All of us-- except
if anyone in the room
is a pure native American-- have
all immigrated from somewhere.
Our families have
come from somewhere.
We live in a global world.
Let's honor that global world.
And the global
diversity that brings us
makes us that much stronger.
The second thing, technology
has changed everything.
It's brought us
this transparency.
Its brought us
instant communication.
It's brought us instant
access to what's going on.
You can't just read
the newspaper anymore,
you have to be on
Google News to find out
what happened in the last hour.
Third, I think the millennials
have changed everything
because they are going to
not just ask for, but seek
out and demand
opportunities to make
a difference at a young age.
I had my first general
management position at age 27.
Someone gave me an opportunity.
It was my first leadership role.
But, I tell you, it was
the best learning I had.
I made a lot of mistakes, but
it was the best learning I ever
had having that kind of role.
And then finally back to the
whole immigration question.
We should honor diversity.
See, I don't believe in quotas.
I never have believed in quotas.
What I think you should bring
is people with diverse life
experiences around the table.
I don't care what their gender,
their race, their religion,
their sexual preference,
national origin.
That's not what matters.
It's getting diverse
people around the table,
and I think you're going
to make better decisions
and you're going to
learn a lot more.
If you're just with people of
your own tribe, so to speak,
you won't really learn about how
the rest of the world operates.
OK?
So let me just compare the
old world we grew up in
and how it has changed
today in what I call
the authentic leader's view.
And, unfortunately, we
haven't overcome our tendency
to maximize short term value.
In fact, one of the clever
things about the Google two
class voting structure gives
you some freedom from that.
But I worked a lot with DuPont,
and last week Ellen Kullman
resigned, was fired,
draw your own conclusion,
but it's a real sad
thing because she
was doing, in my opinion,
a terrific job for DuPont.
But it is such a
short term world.
She had a bad quarter.
I can tell you as a leader,
you can have a bad quarter.
You will of a bad quarter.
You'll miss your budget.
The numbers won't go your way.
If you're generating revenues,
they won't always hit.
There's no such thing as
up, up, and straight up.
It's not like you're
on a rocket ship
to the moon with no deviations.
You're going to hit bad times.
Things are not going
to go your way.
And, frankly,
that's a real test.
So I think you've got to
build for the long term.
How do you sustain success?
Achieve short term results,
but sustain success
for the long term.
I think we've lived
in a world which
is very shareholder focused.
And I think it's really
all about the customers.
One of the people
I really admire--
and I focus in the book--
is Narayana Murthy,
the CEO of Infosys, and he
said something very perceptive.
He said, unless you
create sustainable value
for your customers, you cannot
create sustainable value
for your shareholders.
In other words, unless you're
providing value to the people
you serve-- Medtronic at
providing genuine value
from its products,
its defibrillators,
its spinal products,
its diabetes products--
unless it's better than
any of the competitors,
Medtronics is going
to go out of business.
That's what happened
to General Motors.
They lost 65% of
their US market share.
And they wound up in bankruptcy.
The reason was not because
of any exogenous factors.
It was all because
they had failed
to meet their customer's
needs and no one
drove their automobiles anymore.
So I think it's all about how
do you provide sustainable
value to your customers.
Third, most companies have
been driven as multinationals.
You have a strong center and you
branch out to the other areas.
Today we're learning what we
can learn so much by engagement
of the markets.
We let that come back here.
And what people really
want is very different.
Unilever, a great
consumer products company,
has got 65% of its business
comes from emerging markets.
Not from non-US, but
from emerging markets.
And they have a formula where
they go in and really learn
about the markets.
So the soups people
want in Vietnam
are different than the
soups people want in China.
Sometimes they come
up with great products
that are a result of that.
And then they leverage
their corporate strengths
against those needs.
But it all starts
with understanding
what are people's needs.
And I know you face
some difficulties
in certain countries like China.
We'll find a way eventually
I think through that.
It's too important of a country.
And there are ways around that.
But there are differences
in laws and regulations.
And so got to find
our way through that.
Leadership is no longer
just from the top.
And I think this company
illustrates that very well.
We need leaders at all levels
and we need ideas bubbling up.
I've found and I
tell leaders today
find out who the informal
leaders in your organization
are.
Maybe they have
no direct reports.
Maybe they're an innovator
in one of your labs.
Those are the people I
learn from at Medtronic.
Find out who those people are
and really listen to them.
Let them guide you.
If you do that, your
company is going
to be much more successful.
I can tell you.
So you need leaders
at all levels.
We were just working on a
video for future leaders.
It's hard to develop leaders.
It's hard to develop
enough leaders.
At Medtronic we never
had any bench strength.
We never felt like we
had enough leaders.
But you need to do
that, otherwise you'll
get very stale.
And I think today you
need to really flatten
your organization
at the same time.
So I think the key is
not getting tied up
in an internal focus
where all your time is
spent at internal
meetings or in meetings
to talk about customers.
You got to get out
there and figure out
what it is that they
want, what do they do,
be a customer yourself, use the
products, but figure it out.
When I get to Medtronic I
had 25 years of experience
in high tech industries
but zero experience
in the medical field.
The way I learned
the business was not
from the engineers teaching me
how to design a defibrillator,
because I never
could do that anyway.
I went out and gowned up and
saw between 700 and 1,000
procedures over 12 years
where I put on the greens,
go to Stanford University
Medical Hospital,
meet a doctor there at
6:30 in the morning.
I went in to watch
one doctor do heart
surgery and another
doctor doing angioplasty
and a third doctor do
a different procedure.
And so that's how I
learned the business.
And it was the most
invaluable thing.
And I came back and
said to our people,
you need to get out
with the customers.
I remember one guy who
had a masters from MIT.
And he said, look, I didn't
get a masters from MIT
to sit around some
hospital operating room.
I'm here to design products.
I said, how do you
know what to design?
How do you know how people
want to use the product?
How do you understand it?
So I think today it's
having that external focus.
I don't care what
business you're in.
And, finally, you need rules.
You can't run a
company without rules.
You have to have compliance.
But the fewer rules, the better.
What's important
is having a culture
that empowers people, that they
feel they can break the rules,
go beyond the rules.
If you don't do that,
you get very locked
into a stayed place.
So here is four question
to ask yourself.
I'm going to talk more about
"True North," but how will
you discover your true north
as an innovation leader.
How are you going to
continue to develop?
As leaders, we're no different
than musicians or athletes.
We may have been born
with certain skills,
but we have to
continue to develop
our skills-- our capabilities.
If you're going to
be a great cellist
and go to Carnegie
Hall, you're certainly
not going to go there
without practicing everyday.
And the same thing
is true if you're
going to be a tennis player
and play at Wimbledon.
You're going to
practice every day.
Well, same is true of a leader.
And I say to everyone
in this room,
get leadership
opportunities early.
Jump in and take them.
Even if you have
no direct reports,
take the opportunities to lead.
You learn by bouncing
off the world.
You learn from your
own experience.
I haven't explained what a sweet
spot is and I'll come to that.
But basically, are you
operating in your sweet spot
where you are highly
motivated by your work
and you're using your
greatest strengths?
Don't play to your weakness.
Surround yourself with people
who complement your weakness.
If you're not a
genius in finance,
find yourself a good
financial person
to complement what you're doing.
And then, finally, what's
the purpose of all this?
You're working, what,
60, 70 hours a week,
less time with families.
What's the purpose
of what you're doing?
Because if you don't
have a purpose,
why would anyone
want to follow you?
But if you have a
clear sense of purpose,
you communicate to
people, you get people
together out of common purpose,
passion, things they really
agree on doing, I think you'll
have an unbeatable team.
So why does leadership
even matter?
In my experience, leadership
makes the difference
between success and failure
of all organizations.
I don't know of any exceptions.
And if I looked back
to the financial crisis
of '08, '09, or go all the
way back to the Enron WorldCom
disasters when 200 companies
restated billions of earnings
for each company, the reality
was every one of these can be
traced to failed leadership.
It's not about factors
like credit default
swaps or subprime mortgages.
That's just the vehicle.
The leaders failed.
Why did they fail?
I think they failed because
they put the short term
over the long term.
They played the short term game.
They were gamesmen.
They played the short
term gain and they failed.
You know, you can be a gamesmen,
you can play the game and you
can make it for a while,
but in the end you won't.
People know whether
they trust you or not.
People know who is
authentic and who's not.
And if you're trying
to fake it to make it,
you're trying to be something
different than you are,
in the end it'll
catch up with you.
And that's what happened.
It caught up with a lot of them
that were playing the game.
And eventually it all
caught up with them.
And I think the other thing is,
I think the cardinal sin, when
we're in leadership roles we're
called not to act in our self
interest but to act in the best
interests of the organization
as we see it.
And if leaders on top think it's
their organization, it's not.
Even if you own
the organization,
you have the responsibilities
of all your employees,
all your customers, and
all your other shareholders
and everyone else who has
a stake in the enterprise.
And this is an organization
where a lot of people
have a stake.
And so I think you
have an obligation
to put the institution's
interest first.
OK?
So why did they fail?
Leaders don't fail-- this is
going to surprise some of you--
but they don't fail for
lack of IQ in my experience.
It's not the smartest
person in the room
who makes the best leader.
What you need to have
is a mix of IQ and EQ.
EQ-- Emotional Intelligence--
written about by Dan Goleman.
Knowing who you are,
having a self awareness,
and how to read a crowd.
Knowing how to
motivate other people,
how to build your teammates,
how to be authentic,
how to be real.
And I remember
going to a session
35 years ago out
here in San Francisco
with the famous Buddhist
monk, Tich Nhat Hanh.
And he said something
I never forgot.
He said, the longest
journey you'll ever take
is the 18 inches from
your head to your heart.
The longest journey
you'll ever take
is the 18 inches from
your head to your heart.
The integration of your
head and your heart
is one of the hardest
things you have to do.
But I think great
leaders do that.
And what does it mean
to operate with heart?
It means to have a sense of
passion for what you're doing.
If you don't have passion
for what you're doing,
people aren't going
to work with you.
Do you have compassion for
the people you're serving?
Medtronic is serving patients.
You're serving people
all over the world.
Do you have compassion for
those people and the challenges
they face?
Do you have empathy
for the people
you work with who are going
through difficult times?
There was that long
article on Amazon.
And whether that was
true or not-- this
was in the New York Times--
they were putting forth
an organization that
didn't have any empathy
for their employees.
If you don't have
that, you're not
going to sustain them and
retain them for very long.
You're not going to
get the best of them.
They'll look at as just a job.
And, most importantly,
do you have courage
to go against the grain
and make tough calls,
make hard decisions.
Those may be the best
decisions you ever
make where you have to
go against the grain.
So do you have the
courage to do that?
So if you think about
these qualities--
passion, compassion,
empathy, and courage.
These are all
matters of the heart.
We can't teach these
in the classroom
at Harvard or anywhere else.
We don't try.
What we do is we
provide an environment
where people can learn about
themselves in that environment,
because it's critical that
you have those qualities.
You learn about those by
bouncing off against the world,
gaining experience,
finding out what works
and what doesn't work,
by offending people
and they'll tell you, by getting
open and honest feedback.
Whatever it is, you seem to lack
passion for what we're doing.
Or you seem to be totally
clueless about how
I'm feeling about this.
Those are the qualities that
help make you a great leader.
So you've got the IQ or you
wouldn't have been hired here.
This organization is well
known for hiring people
with very high IQ.
In fact, Laszlo Bock
has a great chapter
in his book on that about
how we hire the best people
and how important that is.
But you have to develop
your EQ over time.
So I want to talk more
about that as we go.
My mentor was Warren
Bennis who died a year ago.
And he said, I think,
some important things.
He said the most dangerous
myth is that leaders are born.
And that's nonsense.
In fact, the opposite
is true-- leaders
are made rather than born.
Now, I actually think it's both.
I think all of you are
born with leadership gifts.
Even if you have
no direct reports,
you have gifts of leadership.
But you have to develop those.
He went on to say
leadership is character.
It's not just a superficial
question of style.
It has to do with who we are
as human beings and the forces
that shaped us.
And the process of
becoming a leader
is much the same as being
an integrated human being.
My colleague,
Michael Porter, who
is the guru of strategy
at Harvard Business School
and the most sited
person in the academy
said, unless you're
a good human being,
you can't be a
good leader, which
is a really interesting
statement if you think about it
for him to say that.
I said, can I quote you on that?
He said, sure, go ahead.
Well, what's the
missing element?
We have plenty of
innovators, we don't
have enough innovative leaders.
What do I mean?
Here are just a few examples.
I mentioned Packard and Hewlett.
Today we have Page and Schmidt.
At Intel we had to Gordon
Moore, Bob Noyce, Andy Grove.
We got Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl
Sandberg, the early act one
of Steve Jobs, which is getting
way overplayed in movies,
in my opinion.
And I don't know if we're
telling the truth or not.
But, you know,
they aren't really
distinguishing between Steve
Jobs, act one, and what
he did in act two.
And he went through
a tough crucible.
And he learned from two
of the great innovation
leaders in the world that
I visited with-- Ed Catmull
and John Lasseter.
They're at Pixar
and they've created
the 12 most successful
animated films of all time.
There's a reason for that.
That's why Bob Iger at Disney,
who is a great innovation
leader, went out to
them and he said, hey,
you guys take over
Disney Studios
and reform it because we
got a moribund studio here.
And so he recognized
those skills.
They're not just innovators.
And they talk to us about how
they are leading and enabling
other people to innovate.
And so I just got a few
other examples up there.
I think in the medical
field, Roy Vagelos
was a great innovation leader.
His successor, Ken
Frazier, is as well today.
Arthur Levinson at
Genentech is one
of the most spectacular
innovation leaders of all time.
You look at what Martin
or Gilead is doing.
He's done some pretty
outstanding work.
But what are the
characteristics?
I think that innovation leaders
need to be we leaders, not
I leaders.
I think you're not going
to lead anyone just
doing it for yourself.
You need to have, as I
said, the mix of IQ and EQ.
And I think you need to
have passion, compassion,
and courage, and need
to be able to align
your teammates around
clear mission and values.
Do you believe in the
mission of Google?
Do you believe in the
values of the company?
If you don't, you're probably
working in the wrong place,
just to be blunt about it.
But if you believe that, that
gives you tremendous basis.
And that's what you
as leaders need to do.
And I think all good leader draw
upon the talents of their team.
It's never just about
getting people to follow you.
It's figuring out how can you
draw out the best of people.
And this is really hard.
And I've seen so many
organizations stop doing this.
They protect the mavericks.
At Medtronic, I
remember Earl Bakken,
the founder who founded
the company back in 1949.
The first thing he talked
about, supporting the mavericks.
And it's something we
really worked hard.
Some of those innovators
in the labs who were real
mavericks, they didn't
follow the rules,
they were difficult to
deal with, a lot of people
didn't like them, they
wanted to force them out
of the organization, and I
found I had to get in there
and support them.
They wanted to
cut their budgets.
They wanted to do everything
negative because these people
were a threat, but they actually
produced the best innovations
Medtronic came up with in the
13 years that I was there.
And I've seen
organizations, in fact,
my successor
unfortunately squeezed
out most of the mavericks.
I mean, you don't have
to fire them, you just
tell them we don't want you to
do anything creative anymore.
They'll leave on their own.
And I think it's
really important
that that doesn't happen.
It's not the top management
that often does it.
Oftentimes it's down here
and no one even sees it.
They don't do it by
intent, they just
make the environment so
bureaucratic and so negative
that they leave.
And I think it's a great
loss to your organization
when that happens.
Collaboration is
key, but I think
what's really important
is yes we have
to make the numbers, and
particularly people on top
they must make the numbers,
but you don't do it
by cutting the long term.
I used to say to any leader,
if they made their numbers
by cutting out the
investments, they
were not going to get their
bonuses because that was not
acceptable.
To cut out the ventures, to cut
out emerging market innovation,
to cut out R&D was
not acceptable.
And new marketing
ideas, that they
had to make it to good
management, good leadership,
but not in that way.
Well, I have mentioned
that the longest
journey you'll ever take
I think is from your head
to your heart.
But also that journey from being
an I leader to a we leader.
So I want you to
think about yourself
as you look at this chart.
And how do you measure up
on the we leadership side?
I'm going to focus on that.
Are you authentic?
Are you real?
Can you feel comfortable
being yourself,
or are you trying to be
something you're not?
And I think that's all people
can ask from you as a leader,
that you be yourself.
Do you do your decisions
based on purpose,
or are they based
on serving yourself?
And are you willing to work
together and bring people
together for the mission
focused around the values
of the organization?
What's it mean by humility?
You know, there are
times when you have
to make really hard decisions.
I don't think this is about
having any kind of fixed style.
I think you have
very flexible styles.
There are times you
have to let people go.
I don't think that's
lacking humility.
But you kind of know
it's not about me.
It's about us and about this
team who has produced this.
Who is the person here
that created Google Maps?
I understand they
started doing this
on their own time in their
spare time and they're 20% time.
What a brilliant innovation.
How could we survive
today without it?
That's the kind of thing.
It didn't come from on top
that Larry Page had this idea
sitting in his office.
He designed the whole thing
at night and passed it on.
No.
It came gurgling up from
people taking their time
to do these kind of innovations.
And that's where a lot of
the breakthroughs come from.
But that requires
certain humility
to recognize that I don't have
all the great ideas, so I'm
going to coach and
mentor other leaders.
I'm not going to direct them,
I'm going to mentor them.
I've had the privilege
of coaching hundreds
of leaders from MBAs to CEOs.
And I consider it
a real privilege
because all mentoring
is a two way street.
And, you know,
it's really about,
as I said, serving customers
and empowering people.
But, in the end,
who gets the credit?
Do you take credit for all
the things your people do?
Or do you pass them
on to other people?
Does the team get the credit?
And what you found
with a lot of I
leaders is they take the credit.
And a lot of people get
really annoyed because they're
taking the credit for
what other people do.
So what's an authentic leader?
Authentic leaders align
people around shared mission
and values.
At Medtronic, our mission
was to restore people
to full life and health.
And that became what
was really important.
And I say to people, if
that doesn't turn you on, go
to work for Merrill Lynch and
trade stock, because you'll
make a lot more money.
But if that turns you on, you
can't have a better career
than restoring people
to full life and health.
Everything we did was focused
on that singular mission.
And that defined the values.
Did it serve the patients?
Was that product good enough
to put in my mother or my son?
And if it's not, it
doesn't go to market.
It doesn't pass
our quality tests,
it doesn't pass our design test.
It's about empowering
other people to lead,
not exerting power over them.
And it's about serving
all your stakeholders.
I'm not a great
believer that you just
serve your shareholders.
I think the
shareholders are only
served because we create value.
Why do you have such
great advertising revenues
here at Google?
Because you're obviously
serving customers
who are advertising with you
because you're getting access--
I advertised-- give
them access to what they
want to get the information.
And people want to see that.
And it's a great
platform for doing it.
Better than going on NBC or
something like that today.
And so the end we know we
have sustained results.
But I really believe
that in the end,
authentic leaders
are servant leaders.
So what's your true north?
I think your true
north is really
your essence of who you are.
It's your most
deeply held beliefs.
The values and the
principles you lead by.
So think about those things.
If I ask you to do that,
you could write down
what it really is for you.
The problem is you
get pulled off course.
You get seduced or pressured off
to go in a different direction
and you lose sight
of why you're there.
See, each one of you--
there's no such thing
as two people having
the same true north.
We all have our own
unique view of who we are.
And it comes out of
our life stories.
It comes out of the
difficult times we face.
It comes out of times
that we had lost our way.
It really gets to the
essence of who we are.
And it's in those
difficult times in life
you learn who you
are when you had
to fight your way
through something,
you were raised in
a difficult family,
you had a health problem, you
were confronted with poverty,
or whatever it was, that's
when you learn who you are.
Or you really lost sight
of your true north.
I'll talk about a
time in just a minute
where I lost sight of
what my true north was.
But, see, I think the tough
things today are seductions.
And the three main seductions
are money, fame, and power.
Abraham Lincoln once said,
if you want to test a person,
give them ultimate power.
And that's putting them
in a difficult situation.
You'll find out how they use it.
And the people that
don't have a sense
of who they are overuse that
power and they self destruct.
We know that.
We know that people
with ultimate power
do self destruct.
And so you get
pressured off course
because you're not willing
to face difficult situations.
See, I think it all starts
with your life story.
You look at a guy like
Howard Schultz who
grew up in the Bayview
housing projects.
He takes his
daughter back there.
He's proud of where he grew up.
It was a terrible place.
He had to walk up 12 flights
of stairs to his apartment
because the elevators didn't
work and there were drugs
and there was crime and
his father lost 30 jobs.
As Howard later
said, 30 rotten jobs.
They never had any money.
In fact, when his father lost
his job one time and his mother
was seven months pregnant,
they couldn't pay the bills.
He couldn't wait to
get out of there.
Howard said the
saddest day of his life
was the day his father
died because he'd
been very critical of his
father for being negative,
not fighting his
way through, and not
taking more responsibility.
He said he realized
the die he died,
his father never had a shot.
He said, my dream is to create
a company that my father would
be proud to work at.
And that's what he's
tried to do at Starbucks.
Try to create a
company where everyone
is proud to work there.
And never lose sight of
why we're in business.
We're only make a couple
of bucks above minimum wage
as a barista, but we treat
customers really well
because we enjoy working here.
The company gives us stock
in a rapidly growing company.
The company gives us healthcare,
even though I work part time
here for 30 hours a week,
they give me healthcare.
So Howard created those
things all coming out
of his life story.
And he never loses
sight of that.
But he also has a sense of fear.
We all have that.
We have the positive
narrative about the dream
of creating a great company.
We also have a
negative narrative.
I could feel like
my old man did.
Whole of Starbucks it collapsed.
He went back in there
about six, seven years ago
because he was afraid
it was collapsing.
And, by the way, it's
done spectacularly well.
Howard said, I never lose
sight of that fear of failure.
And that drives me, as well.
So there are negative factors
that drive him, as well.
But it all comes out
of his life story.
And many of us face
very difficult crucibles
in our lives.
Very difficult times
we go through when
things don't go our way.
Early in my life, I thought
I wanted to be a leader.
I was kind of making up
for my father's failures
in leadership roles.
He wanted me to be head
of a major company.
As a kid, I was never
selected to lead anything.
I joined everything, never
selected to lead anything.
Thinking I could be a
leader I never was chosen.
I never liked student council.
I never was chose as
head of an organization.
I was good enough tennis
player to play college tennis
and I wasn't even co-captain
of my high school tennis team.
So, finally, my senior year
I put my hat in the ring
against one other guy to run
for office against president
of the senior class.
I was clear I was a
better leader than he was.
I was better organized.
I knew what to do.
The votes came in.
I lost by margin of two to one.
So, you see, no one thought
I was a great leader.
So I went 800 miles away from
my hometown to Georgia Tech
to school.
I could have gone to
Michigan just across town,
but I was really
escaping myself.
And I was trying to
find an opportunity
to get a fresh start.
But I didn't realize that
wherever you go, there you are.
If you change venues-- you could
leave Google and go somewhere
else-- but if you take
your same self with you,
just repeat what you did.
And that's what I did.
Georgia Tech I ran for office
six times, lost all six.
And I'll never forget,
a group of seniors
took me aside and said,
Bill, no one is ever
going to want to work with
you, much less be led by you,
because you're moving
so fast to get ahead.
You don't take time
for other people.
And that was like a
blow to the solar plexus
because I realized
that I was never
going to have the opportunity.
And I had to do a lot
of soul searching.
I spent a whole year doing that.
I eventually came
back and held a number
of leadership positions.
And then I had a second set
of crucibles in my early 20s.
My mother died one day.
And I'd been very close to
my mother, but never close
to my father.
I'm an only child
of older parents.
And she died very suddenly
of a heart attack.
And I went into a period of
mourning and depression--
not quite depression,
but certainly
a real difficult
grieving process.
And I recovered from my
mother's death-- this is 1968,
about a year and half
after my mother died--
I fell in love, got
engaged to be married.
I was living in Washington
with a bunch of guys.
I fell in love with a woman
who lived three blocks away.
She was from Georgia.
And I remember we got
engaged to be married.
It was August of '68.
And she'd gone home to Georgia
to prepare for the wedding.
She'd been having
some headaches,
we didn't think much of it.
And she was preparing
for the wedding.
And the very next
morning I learned
that she'd died of a
malignant brain tumor.
It was three weeks to the
day before our wedding.
And I was totally devastated
because I could explain--
even though I am a person
of faith-- my faith had
no explanation.
I could explain
my mother's death
in the natural order of things.
Some of you in this room
may have lost parents.
It's sad, but is the
natural order of things.
I just got word of somebody
we were very close to
lost an 8-year-old daughter-- we
have a granddaughter that age--
in a skiing accident yesterday.
And it's just tragic.
But I'd lost my fiance and
she was doing great work
in the Appalachia
Regional Commission.
What happened up there?
And I lost and I really
felt like I was lost.
So that was my crucible.
A pair of crucibles.
But one of the
things I realized--
and I would say
this to all of you--
I wanted to change the world.
But you can't change the world.
You want to eliminate poverty.
You want to eliminate
all health in the world.
Maybe some people can.
But, I tell you, the biggest
impact you can have to do
are the people all around you.
The people you touch every day.
And I had to learn
that because I'd
been looking so far ahead
that I wasn't thinking
about every single action.
The people you have the
greatest impact with
are the people you work with
every single day of your life.
And that's what I want
you to think about.
So my defining leadership
experience came in 1988.
I was en route to
the top of Honeywell.
I was one of two leading
candidates to be the CEO,
maybe the leading candidate.
My father always wanted me to
be the head of a great company.
I thought Honeywell
was a great company.
My wife had a great job.
But I was doing a
series of turnarounds.
Instead of being the
growth oriented leader
I wanted to be, I was trying
to turn businesses around.
And I got through one set of
them in about three years,
then came another set
for a year and a half,
and then they gave
me a third set.
And one day I'm driving home--
[TONE]
You OK here?
I have to tell you at this
time that I have a good life.
I had two kids in high school.
My wife has a good job.
And I'm driving home.
I have a good career.
We have lots of friends.
Driving home and I look at
myself in the rearview mirror
and what did I see?
A miserable person.
Me.
How can you be
miserable when you
got everything going for you?
I was miserable inside
because I was losing it.
I was losing site
of my true north.
I didn't use that
phrase in those days,
but I was losing site
of who I am as a person.
And I went home and told
my wife, Penny, this.
Penny has always been my
closest, confident advocate.
I met her the year
following my fiance's death.
And we've been together--
we just had our 46th wedding
anniversary.
But I told her
what I was feeling.
And she said, Bill,
I've been trying
to tell you that for a year.
You just refused to listen.
See, it's the person closest to
you that sees you as you are.
And I couldn't fake her.
I couldn't fake it out with her.
And so I have a men's group.
Actually, you guys
won't believe this.
We have a meeting every
Wednesday morning 7:15 to 8:30.
Eight of us the last 40 years.
We had four of us that
started, four have been added.
Then a couple of them went away.
One died.
Anyway, we have eight of us.
No change in the last 20 years.
So I went and told
my men's group.
And they said, Bill, you turned
down Medtronic three times.
Why'd you do that?
And I said, you know, well--
listen to the ego here--
I always thought
I was going to be
head of a really large company.
Medtronic is a mid-size company.
And they said, why don't
you give it another shot?
So I called Win Wallin,
the CEO, back, I said,
is the job I just turned down
four months ago still open?
He said, yeah, but we
got other candidates.
You're going to
have to get in line.
I remember talking
to the founder.
And eventually I accepted the
job in the number two role
for a business about
a third of the size
I was running at Honeywell,
about a quarter as many people.
And I had to overcome some
ego challenges with that.
But, you know what?
I walked in there and I
felt like I was coming home.
Kind of like how I feel
when I come in here.
To a group of people that I
can really learn from you,
and we can come together and
really make a difference.
And I can tell you
that the 13 years
I spent there were
the greatest 13 years
of my professional career.
And everything that has
happened to me since then
opened up because of that.
And I wasn't passionate
about Honeywell's business.
I loved being head
of a global company.
I didn't even love the business.
I didn't like going
down to the boiler room
and looking at valves
and stuff like that.
And I wasn't interested in the
aerospace and defense business.
And that was a third
or 40% of the business.
And that's part of
what I was running.
That wasn't where
my passion was.
My passion was
making a difference
in the lives of
people we served.
And I hadn't seen Medtronic.
I had to close that Honeywell
door behind me psychologically
before I could open
the door to Medtronic
and see the opportunity
right there.
So I resigned from Honeywell
and went to Medtronic,
and it was the best
thing I ever did.
I just wanted to show
you my crucible and my,
what I call, defining
leadership experience,
because that opened
up everything for me.
And sometimes midlife you
hit those kind of things.
You hit the wall.
And you hit those
difficult times,
but you can't see
the opportunity right
in front of you.
You can't see it's right there.
And that's what I had to do.
I guess we're back live.
So quick comment on Steve Jobs
from his Stanford commencement
address.
You can't connect the dots
of your life looking forward,
you must connect
them looking back.
See, you can see the
connecting the dots
in my own life between losing
those elections because of ego
and being ego driven to
try to be CEO of Honeywell
when I didn't love the business.
Your time is limited,
so don't waste
it living someone else's life.
Why am I trying to carry
out my father's desire
to have me be CEO
of a large company?
I mean, that wasn't my
desire, that was his desire.
My poor, deceased father.
Don't let the noise of
other people's-- it's one
of the hardest things to do.
Everyone is telling
you to go left,
and you know you
ought to go right.
And everyone is going to be
mad at you for going left,
but you make that turn.
You know it's the
right thing to do.
And to do that, you
have to have courage.
And no one can teach you
that in the classroom.
You experience that in life.
To follow your heart
and your intuition.
I remember I said that to
a group of Harvard Business
School students who all wanted
to go to work for hedge funds
and they laughed at me.
I was visiting one
of the classes.
They said, what's your
one piece of advice?
I said, follow your heart.
And they laughed.
But I tell you, a lot of
them have come back and said,
you were right.
That wasn't what I wanted to do.
In fact, one of them that did
go to work for a hedge fund
is now working at Google.
He said, I finally found
where I wanted to be.
So that's kind of cool.
So, very quickly, and then
I want to have a chance
to answer some questions.
I'm going to skip
over a lot of this.
I'll put it online for you.
But, basically, if you want
to be an authentic leader,
you have to be self aware.
You have to test your
values under pressure.
No one can tell you
what values to have.
You need to find your
sweet spot, which I want
to describe a little bit more.
You need to build a
support team around you
like I have my wife and my men's
group and my couples group.
And you need to lead
an integrated life.
So the way you gain self
awareness-- two ways.
One is I think you have
to process your life
story and your crucibles.
In other words, you have
to know who you are.
Second, I think you need an
ongoing practice of reflection.
I meditate.
I've been meditating 40
years, 20 minutes twice a day.
My friend, Meng, teaches this.
We need to have some practice.
Maybe that's not your thing.
Maybe it's prayer.
Maybe it's a jog.
Maybe it's a good walk with
someone you care about.
Maybe it's a walk by yourself.
Something.
Maybe it's just
sitting in your room
and staring at the ceiling.
It's something where you
have a chance to reflect.
Because if you go hard
24/7 all the time,
you'll never get the clarity.
You'll have all this stuff
going around in your head.
You'll have 40 things
on your to do list,
you'll never get the clarity
about what you want to do.
In addition to that, I
think you need feedback.
Feedback is what we call
the breakfast of champions.
In other words, you need
to get honest feedback.
It's hard.
My men's group gives
me honest feedback.
Do you have mentors
in your life?
Do you have people in your life
who will tell it like it is?
That's really essential,
because without honest feedback
we can be off track.
Who would pull you
back from that?
I've seen some people
lose their way.
They need people to pull
them back and get on track.
I'm going to skip ahead
here because I want
to talk about your sweet spot.
I hope you're in
your sweet spot now.
It's the place where you find
you're most highly motivated.
Not just by money,
fame, and power.
But you're
intrinsically motivated.
You can create a product that's
going to make a difference.
You can have a situation where
you're helping a customer--
in my case-- helping a patient.
It's something you're
really passionate about.
I wasn't passionate about
Honeywell's business,
so I wasn't in my sweet spot.
And you want to play
to your strengths.
If you get a job here, you
ask for a higher level job,
and there are a lot of areas
you're not very good at,
you better surround yourself
with people who are.
That's why at
Medtronic I had a vice
chairman who knew everything
about the medical business.
I had a CFO-- even though
I was very analytical-- who
knew a lot more about
financial markets.
And so you got to
surround yourself
with a team of people who know
more about things than you do.
That's pretty critical I think.
And so I just as you to look
at these intrinsic motivations
and say, does your job fulfill
one or more of these things?
Do you find meaning
in your work?
Are you able to
make a difference?
Do you feel like you can
be true to your beliefs?
If the answers to
all these is no,
you may fall back on
money, fame, and power,
and you may live to regret
it because it may take you
off course.
Just play to your strengths.
And I think in the
end you're never
going to get perfect
balance in your life.
You're not.
Life is such that
you don't get it.
But I can say this, put
this test to yourself,
are you the same person at home,
at work, with your families,
and in your personal life?
You know you're going to spend
more time at work than anything
else, including
sleeping, by the way.
If you do the studies, you'd
like to say you sleep more than
you work but you don't.
You work more than you sleep.
Some of us actually
during your sleep.
So you're thinking about
things or waking up
in the middle of the night.
But can you be the same person?
And that's having that sense
of integration or integrity.
The French word is "couer,"
it means from the heart.
And if you can operate
there from your heart,
you'll be an effective leader.
So here's just a checklist
we'll put up online for you
to ask yourself a few questions
about am I staying on track.
And I think it's really good
to have a list somewhere.
Make up your own list.
But have a list
where you're doing
a daily check in with yourself.
Am I staying true
to what I believe?
That's really important.
Let me just close with a little
exercise I'd like to ask you.
You're 97-years-old.
Some of you probably
can't think about that.
You're on your death bed.
You've got three hours to live.
And the good news
is you lived to 97.
The bad news you're
on your deathbed.
All your adult
children have come in
and gathered around you
and your grandchildren.
Coming in from all
over the world.
And your favorite
granddaughter looks up at you--
and I'm thinking of my
granddaughter, Dylan, who is 8,
came in this morning as I
was leaving Dallas where
I'd spent the weekend taking
care of her-- I can't call it
babysitting, child care I
guess, with her and her younger
sister.
And she looks up at me--
and she calls me Papa Bill--
and she says, Papa
Bill, what did
you do to make a
difference in the world?
How are you going to tell her?
Don't wait.
Take it now.
What are you doing
to make a difference?
What's your lasting mark?
This world has 7 billion people.
You can make a difference.
You may not change
the whole world.
You may not be able
to eradicate poverty.
You may not be able to
eradicate health problems.
But you can make
a big difference.
Robert F. Kennedy in 1966 went
to Johannesburg, South Africa
and he said, few will
have the greatness
to bend history itself.
Now, he was sitting in the
shadow of Nelson Mandela, who
actually did bend history.
And your leaders here
are bending history.
But I know I will not.
And maybe some of you will.
But he went on to say
something very profound.
Few will have the greatness
to bend history itself,
but each of us can
commit ourselves
to a series of actions to make
this world a better place.
And the sum total
of all those actions
will write the history
of this generation.
Your generation.
And that's what I'm
doing when I'm doing.
That's why I write books.
That's why I'm teaching.
It's trying to ensure that we
have better leadership going
forward.
We don't have people like
the head of Volkswagen
denying the problem or the
head of FIFA getting involved
in corruption scandals.
We have people who are authentic
and real who really can
make a difference in the world.
Margaret Mead, the
great anthropologist,
once said, never doubt the
power of a small group of people
to change the world.
Indeed, it is the only
thing that ever has.
You're part of a
small group of people.
It's getting big, but you're
part of a small group of people
that is changing the world.
And I just think how exciting
that is and what you can do.
Because when you
do leave this life,
the only thing you can take with
you is what you leave behind.
And I think you can leave
behind a legacy that
really makes a difference.
And the time to think
about that is now.
And to stay on track of your
true north throughout your life
and to create great innovations
and to be that innovation
leader that can really have a
positive impact on the world.
Thank you very much.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.
So we have a few
minutes for questions.
Questions?
I hope you'll ask.
Please ask.
AUDIENCE: Thank you so
much for being here today.
BILL GEORGE: Thank
you for having. me.
AUDIENCE: It's really a
privilege to learn from you.
I was very much struck by your
comment about the men's group
that you've been a
part of for 40 years
because I find that it
seems like leaders today are
incredibly isolated given
how much they have going on
and lack that kind
of support system.
So I'm curious about
how that formed
or what we could learn from
you in that, because whenever
we try and construct them
if they're overly engineered
they don't really work.
So that was one question.
The second part of that is,
have you ever in the 40 years
talked about including a
woman as part of that group?
BILL GEORGE: Good question.
I think it's invaluable to
have a small group in your life
you can talk to.
They're the ones I want
to talk to about moving
from Honeywell to Medtronic.
They encouraged me
to make the move.
When my wife, Penny, had breast
cancer almost 20 years ago,
I was in denial
and they helped me
see I was in denial
because of my fiance
dying and my mother dying
that I couldn't face the fact
my wife might die--
the three women I've
been closest to in my life.
And they helped me see that.
And that was extremely helpful.
So I've learned so
much from these guys.
We've all gone through
difficult times.
And it's a group to share with.
I think it has to come from
chemistry between the people
and a group of people who
are willing to go there.
They're willing to share openly.
It doesn't work if one
of us won't share openly.
If you go around and
tell me the challenge
that you're facing but they
come to me and I say, I'll pass.
I'm not going to
share with you guys.
It's got to have a
group of people that
are really explorers, seekers.
We came out of a retreat we
went off to at a seminar.
And four of us decided
to form 40 years ago.
And we've just stayed
together ever since.
You know why?
Because we get so
much out of it.
We actually have a program.
Everyone gets two weeks
to do the program.
And so it rotates
throughout the group.
And I've not been a
very good member lately
because I've been teaching at
Harvard a lot and gone a lot.
I'm going to be gone this
Wednesday because I'll
be in North Carolina.
But I'm there when I'm
in town, I assure you.
And everyone else is there.
We also have a couples group.
No, we don't have a
woman in the group.
We've talked about expanding.
We can't get anyone
to want to expand.
But we have a couples group
that we all went to Burgundy
on a little barge trip.
In fact, that's where I
read Laszo's book last week.
It was fantastic.
We had a whole week just
with our couples group
and had a chance to do
a lot of reflecting.
But this is a group that has
similar types discussions.
And we get together and
share the difficulties
but the good times
we're having, too.
So this group meets once
a month, the men's group
meets once a week.
But it's chemistry.
And maybe you can find
it in the company.
It's great.
You get into some issues
with that in terms of-- I
think everything's got
to be confidential.
And I even wrote a book
called "True North Groups"
to explain how this works.
But we all sign a
contract to say everything
will be kept confidential.
Nothing goes outside the room.
And we've been forming these
groups at Harvard Business
School and now have had 6,000
people go with these groups.
It's been the most
significant thing
we've done in the last
decade at the school.
It's very threatening to
the faculty, I might add,
because it's kind of
threatening to someone
who has been practicing their
teaching in a classroom for 25
years to find out
people would rather
be with five of their
peers in a six person group
than they would be hearing
a lecture from someone
or even engaging in
a dynamic discussion.
So thank you for the question.
Other questions?
Abby.
This is Abby [INAUDIBLE] who has
formed a fantastic organization
to provide a gap year-- or
a year between high school
and college-- that I
think is an amazing thing
to help people go off
into emerging markets
and learn about themselves
through that experience.
So ask your question please.
AUDIENCE: Well, thank you.
I mean, I just I wanted to
thank you for the opportunity
to be here with all of you.
BILL GEORGE: She is
a real entrepreneur.
A social entrepreneur.
AUDIENCE: A lot of what you're
describing speaks to me.
We first met when I was at
Harvard Business School.
And I can see in the five,
six years since leaving there
my own trajectory and how much
of what you teach actually
proves to be so true and
so valuable in practice.
And so my question to you--
the organization I lead,
Global Citizen Year, is
structurally a not for profit.
We like to say that's our tax
status and not necessarily
our management style,
which is part of why
I went to business school.
But what interests me in this
notion of the innovative leader
and the idea that you need to
be focusing on long term value
and not making short term
decisions is how constrained
we often are in
the not for profit
sector where if we're reliant
on philanthropic capital
there are rarely
opportunities to really invest
in R&D, in marketing, in all of
the things that drive long term
value in the corporate sector.
And so I can feel like
my hands are sometimes
tied because I've got
a long term vision
and I know what it would take
to get from here to there,
but it's going to
require taking some risks
and having some failures.
And, traditionally, again,
in the not for profit
sector-- which I wish we
called the for impact sector
to frame it as what we are
and not what we're not.
I feel like it's
much harder to do.
And, candidly, these
are some of the problems
that we all would agree are the
most important to be solving.
So how do we reconcile?
BILL GEORGE: Let me get on
the other side of the table
and say that what we've
done about 20 years ago--
and the last 12 years my wife
has run our family foundation--
which we took about a third
of our net worth which
we gained in Medtronic stock.
Eventually we're going
to put it all over
there into a foundation.
And we believe that
philanthropies are-- my wife,
Penny-- calls a passing
gear of society.
And so where other things
are funded routinely,
this is the thing that
makes it go ahead.
What you're talking about is
being in the passing gear.
Other people could fund their
kids to go overseas and living,
but you're providing
that breakthrough idea.
And I think that's why--
and I'm excited, actually,
that there's so much
philanthropy in the Valley
and so much philanthropy
in general right now.
I think it's a tragedy that
Steve Jobs made so much
and he never gave
any of it away.
Again, you can't take
it with you, guys.
And so we're going to
eventually give everything away.
And why not do it
in your lifetime?
So I think that
philosophically we just
have to find those
people that resonate
with what you're trying to do.
And I know what
hard work that is.
And I know what Wendy Kopp went
through in Teach for America
in a similar way of
starting from scratch
and being totally
dependent and not
having an institution to come in
and put a lot of money into it.
But I hope and pray that
you'll find those people that
will allow you to do that
because that's all we
fund in our foundation
is people that
want to do leading edge
breakthrough things.
We don't want to just
find the routine things.
We want to fund the things
at the leading edge.
And, by the way, that's what
Google has to keep doing, too.
Keep funding things
that leading edge
that don't pay the bills but
[INAUDIBLE] the opportunities,
because they're the ones--
back to Margaret Mead--
they're the ones that
really make the difference.
Other questions?
Yes?
Thank you.
AUDIENCE: So you
mentioned kind of going
against the grain,
which is something
quite challenging to do
especially in these bigger
organizations.
What are some tips that you
have for authentic leaders
kind of going against the grain
and going for things that they
believe are true?
BILL GEORGE: Well, the
question is, what do you
do to go against the grain, and
what are some tips you have?
It does take a lot of courage.
And I think you want to
consult with a lot of people
before you go against the grain.
But, you know, again, the
people that are really
making a difference
are ones that
are going against the
grain or not just playing
the game by yesterday's rules.
And so I think making
sure you have some support
team around you that's giving
you that courage to go forward,
even though there is
opposing forces out there.
Even though people say what
you're saying is crazy.
A lot of ideas when I came
out with them 10-12 years ago,
everyone said was crazy.
No one thinks like this.
Well, I think that's
the way it's moving.
I think the best leaders
today are authentic leaders.
And they're the ones
making a difference.
There's a few jerks left, but
we'll try to get rid of them
as fast as we can.
I try to work on that
in the classroom.
But I think there really
are authentic leaders.
So you make progress
and you have
to have the courage to
keep going, keep going,
keep going because
you believe in it.
So you have to have
the passion behind you.
And, again, it's the
bandwagon effect.
I did some things early
in my career you guys
will think, well, old fashioned.
We started the consumer
microwave oven business
in the United States.
We had to get people
on the bandwagon.
Need to do the same thing
when you have an idea.
Get people behind it and then
it becomes, oh, that's obvious.
Google Maps.
That's obvious.
Well, it wasn't so obvious
when it got started.
I still haven't figured
out how anyone did it.
But, again, you need mentors
to help you to stay on track.
And you need to have the
courage to your convictions.
And you need to have
someone like my wife, Penny,
who can be your counselor
to say, Bill, OK, so you're
getting this opposition.
Keep going.
Don't stop.
And sometimes you have to
put it all on the line.
At Medtronic a
couple of times I had
to put it all on the line to
go totally against the grain.
And I thought we were losing it.
Everyone wanted to
go this way and we
decided to go the other way.
OK.
Took some huge risks.
I might have destroyed my
career, but sometimes you do.
And sometimes it
doesn't work out
and you have to start all
over, but it's worth it
because that's what
really makes a difference.
So thank you for
that great question.
So how we doing time wise?
One more.
Do I have one more question?
Yes.
One last question.
Here we go.
Thank you.
AUDIENCE: I think
it's somewhat related.
But if you are trying
to follow this,
but then your leads and
the leads above them
are not, how do
you deal with that?
Like going against the grain
when the rest of the culture,
and especially people
above, are a little more
self interested and are
like the lefthand column.
BILL GEORGE: Yeah.
I got it.
AUDIENCE: So any
suggestions on how
to handle those
kinds of situations?
BILL GEORGE: Be yourself.
I know some people
in organizations
where they're
really lone rangers.
They're really going
against the grain.
But just be yourself.
Build a team around
you that believes
in that and gains success from
doing it and just stay with it.
My son, I was telling
him last night,
he's facing a lot of this
kind of opposition of people
saying don't go there.
Just do this.
Well, I said, Jeff, that's
what made you successful.
Stay in the direction
you're going.
Don't get off course.
And believe in
what you're doing,
but also get your team to
produce results so they
can see that it produces.
That it's getting
whatever the results are
that it is actually working.
And I think you'll find, again,
back to the question that she
asked, that bandwagon effect.
When they see you're successful,
people want to get on board.
And maybe your boss
learned a little bit
about from the way you operate.
And that may just
influence them to the good.
And it's hard for people
to change, particularly
when they get older.
But I think we all have
the capacity for change
if we're willing to
be introspective,
look Inside ourself, and say
what's really important to me.
And so I think if we can
use this organization
to create more innovation
leaders that can really
do breakthrough innovations
in a wide range of fields,
it'll be a great gift that
Google gives to the world.
So thank you very
much for having me.
DOLORES: Great.
Thank you so much,
Bill, for coming.
BILL GEORGE: Thank you.
DOLORES: Great talk.
And for those of you that are
interested in book signing
and whatnot, we're
going to be moving it
outside because this room's
for another customer.
So thank you so much for coming.
And thank you so much, Bill.
OK.
BILL GEORGE: Thank
you very much.
