Editorial Review:
True North shows how anyone who follows their internal compass can become an authentic leader. This leadership tour de force is based on research and first-person interviews with 125 of today’s top leaders—with some surprising results. In this important book, acclaimed former Medtronic CEO Bill George and coauthor Peter Sims share the wisdom of these outstanding leaders and describe how you can develop as an authentic leader. True North presents a concrete and comprehensive program for leadership success and shows how to create your own Personal Leadership Development Plan centered on five key areas: - Knowing your authentic self
- Defining your values and leadership principles
- Understanding your motivations
- Building your support team
- Staying grounded by integrating all aspects of your life
True North offers an opportunity for anyone to transform their leadership path and become the authentic leader they were born to be. Personal, original, and illuminating stories from Warren Bennis, Sir Adrian Cadbury, George Shultz (former U.S. secretary of state), Charles Schwab, John Whitehead (Cochairman, Goldman Sachs), Anne Mulcahy (CEO, Xerox), Howard Schultz (CEO, Starbucks), Dan Vasella (CEO, Novartis), John Brennan (Chairman, Vanguard), Carol Tome (CFO, Home Depot), Donna Dubinsky (CEO/cofounder, Palm), Alan Horn (President, Warner Brothers), Ann Moore (CEO, Time, Inc.) and many others illustrate the transitions that shape the type of leaders who will thrive in the 21st century. Bill George (Cambridge, MA) has spent over 30 years in executive leadership positions at Litton, Honeywell, and Medtronic. As CEO of Medtronic, he built the company into the world’s leading medical technology company as its market capitalization increased from $1.1 billion to $60 billion. Since 2004, he has been a professor at the Harvard Business School. His 2004 book Authentic Leadership (0-7879-7528-1) was a BusinessWeek bestseller. Peter Sims (San Francisco, CA) established “Leadership Perspectives,” a course on leadership development at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and cofounded the London office of Summit Partners, a leading investment firm. Their Web site is www.truenorthleaders.com.
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
the need for authenticity  2008-08-16
"True North"- Discover your authentic leadership"- the mere title grabbed me .
Perhaps there is an inherent desire for people to be truthful and to seek true direction.
The book has an appeal for everyone. Everyone is in some way a leader. This book is most assuredly one for anyone.
During a recent hospitalization my surgeon told me the title of the book he was reading .He said it was "fascinating" . He said he gets up at 5:45a.m. to read a portion each morning.
When I was home and able to get to the computer I ordered it.
It is broken down into segments. It can be used as a periodic but ongoing exercise to improve one's lifestyle. It can confirm, correct and/or inspire.
My overall impression was - being a good example is "powerful", contrary to- being "powerful" is a good example.
As soon as my son returns the book- I will read it again. My hairdresser
wanted to borrow it as well.
My doctor was right- it is a fascinating book.
No One Can Be An Authentic and Effective Leader By Trying To Be Someone Other Than Themselves  2008-07-13
One of America's most successful executives Bill George (Medtronic) and Peter Sims provide, in "True North," us with a manual on "how-to" discovering and build on our unique and authentic leadership story. Their approach is based on what is most important to you, your most cherished values, your passions and motivations, the sources of satisfactions in your life. Your "True North," according to the authors, is the internal compass that guides you successfully through life and helps you stay on track. When aligned with one's True North, one finds coherence between their life story and their capacity to lead.
George and Sims interviewed 125 leaders, ages 23 to 93, from many walks of life as foundation for "True North." All interviewed described a turning point in their lives - a crucible - that transformed them into the leaders they are today. There are over 100 such stories in this book including those of Howard Schultz, George Shultz, David Gergen, Charles Schwab, Andrea Jung, and Wendy Kopp. Their leadership success emerges from their life story.
These stories point out the reality "that no one can be authentic by trying to be like someone else." Leaders are defined by their unique life stories and the way they frame their stories to discover their passions and the purpose of their leadership.
The book is segmented into three major sections: I., Leadership is a Journey; II., Discover Your Authentic Leadership; and III., Empowering People to Lead. A practical five-part program is outlined in Section II for developing one's best self and shows how authenticity and integrity shape great leadership. This five part development program includes:
* Knowing yourself
* Practicing your values and principles
* Learning what motivates you
* Building a support team
* Staying grounded and integrating your life
"True North" not only provides a path for authentic leadership but highlights why this type of leadership is both necessary and wanted...it is about a very different kind of leader, one who is ethically grounded, one that we can be proud to follow. Ethically grounded leadership is possible and it is, most often, the most effective (authentic) leadership of all.
True North 2008-06-30
One of the greatest books ever written on Leadership. Not just in leading others but a true book on how to lead yourself. If you cannot lead you, no one will follow you. True leadership is defined by your ability to turn those under you into leaders themselves. True North also helps define where you are in your every day process, how to recognize those distractions that sometime seem like opportunities, that really only take you off of your True Course and destiny.
Trite Rehash of Common Sense Ideas  2008-05-12
This book can be boiled down to one piece of advice: be nice. That's it.
That was the good part of the book. Everyone benefits when everyone is nice. To get that far, however, the reader must find his way through hackneyed sayings, inept metaphors, and blatant self contradictions.
Here are two examples of the above, to be found in the first 5 pages of the book. 1) The central metaphor of the book is that the aspiring leader must follow his internal compass to find his "true north". Well, had Mr. George done any research other than citing himself, he would have found that a compass does not point to true north. Granted, this slip has nothing to do with his central thesis, but it is representative of the general intellectual laziness with which Mr. George has infused his book. 2) In the very beginning of the book, Mr. George claims that there is no way to categorize different types of leaders. The last chapter is a description of different categories of leadership!!!
But the most insidious part of this exercise is that fact that Mr. George presents himself as an academic in the center of management research. If one looks at the references in the back of the book, fully 75% of them are citations of Mr. George's earlier works!
So in sum, what one gets in this book:
1) Common Sense advice for $20
2) Lazy metaphors
3) Self Contradiction
4) No intellectual rigor. How do we know that his study was broad enough to support his claims?
5) A self aggrandizing work typical of the current generation of academic management snake oil salesman.
Very Good 2008-05-05
I particularly enjoyed reading about the different leaders highlighted in this book. I liked that the authors included leaders from so many different walks of life and illustrated both their triumphs and defeats. This book is a really good resource for leaders in any industry, leadership scholars, and students of leadership.
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