Leadership is about fidelity to your life story.

Question: Beyond a simple title, how would you describe what you do for a living?

Bill George: Well I’m a business person that’s now gone into academia.  I was in business for 32 years with three major companies, the last of which was Medtronic where I was the Chairman and CEO, and there for a total of 13 years.  And I intentionally capped my time as CEO to 10 years, because I wanted to do some other things in life.  And I got to . . .  I took a working sabbatical, went to Switzerland, taught at two institutions there – a business school IMD and a federal polytechnic – and I got fascinated with teaching and writing, and then came back to my alma mater at Harvard after a short stop at Yale.  And since that time, I’ve developed a deep passion in the last five years in trying to have an impact on the future generation of business and non-profit leaders.  And the two books I’ve written have been on that subject, most recently the “True North” is aimed at trying to show people of all ages how they can develop into authentic leaders.  And that’s what my real passion is these days.

Recorded on: Jul 7 2007