Introduction

      It is a great honor to be asked by Bill Hybels to speak to you today on the subject of “Finding Your True North: The Spirituality of Authentic Leaders.”  In addition to sharing my own faith journey and leadership calling, I would like to challenge each of you to think deeply about your leadership and your calling to use your leadership gifts to make the world a better place. 

      I have great admiration for Willow Creek and what Bill Hybels has done to build this great institution that is a beacon of light for so many people.  When Bill and I met in Chicago last spring, we learned that we share a common mission – to help develop leaders of the future in their chosen calling.  Whereas Bill’s work is in the ministry, mine is in the business and non-profit worlds. 

      Looking back at my own life, I can share with you that I have felt a sense of calling throughout my life to develop the gifts that our Creator endowed me with at birth to contribute to the world, as a human being and as a leader. But I struggled for many years to find the right place to devote my energies.  My earliest memories of religion go back to age five when I visited an Episcopal church with a friend’s family and convinced my parents to join it instead of the community church we were attending.   

      Although I have often struggled to discern the difference between His calling and my ego desires, I have never wavered in my faith or my belief in the loving God who calls us to do his work here on earth. As a teenager, I was inspired by the passage from the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus asked his disciples to: “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matt 5:16) 

      When I was seventeen and preparing for college, I decided I would be most effective as a leader in business.  Back then, I created two goals that have been an integral part of my life ever since.  The first was to be a values-centered leader of a major corporation that did important work in the world.  The second was to influence others in my generation to bring a more values-centered approach to business.   

      When I concluded my time at Medtronic in 2002, I recognized I had done well with the first goal, but had little influence on other leaders in my generation.  In this final third of my life I am devoting myself to helping develop future leaders who are highly ethical and values-centered and who build great institutions that make positive contributions to the world. 

      I come to you today with this latter goal, and would like to challenge you to think about your own leadership.  Are you doing everything you can to develop your God-given gifts as a leader, to be true to His calling – rather than your own desires – in order to make a positive impact on the world? 

      For the past decade, we’ve had a leadership crisis in business, government, non-profits and, yes, even religion. Many leaders failed in their responsibilities as leaders. As a consequence, they destroyed or severely damaged great institutions, and the general public has lost trust in our leaders. A recent Gallup Poll showed that confidence in big business leaders has sunk to 20%, which places them only ahead of Congress, which also is at an all-time low of 12% confidence.  Church leaders, on the other hand, score much higher at 48%, although this figure is also down from 60% six years ago. 

      This loss of confidence in leaders and institutions is causing many people to ask, “Where have all the leaders gone?”  Having researched this question at Harvard, I concluded that there is no shortage at all of leaders in our society.  In every organization there are many outstanding leaders just waiting to be asked to step up and lead. 

      Look at the people around you today and then look at yourself.  Each of you is a leader.  You have been given leadership gifts by your Creator. You are called to use your gifts to lead.  Are you following that call?  Are you leading by seeing what needs to be done to improve the world around you and using your gifts to make a difference in the world?  Are you letting your light shine? 

      Many of us hold back from leading, and we don’t use our gifts to the fullest.  Nelson Mandela, who is one of the most courageous and authentic leaders of our era, has spoken to our tendency to refrain from leading because of our insecurities.  He often quotes the words of writer Marianne Williamson’s “Our Greatest Fear”:

      “Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate.

        It is that we are powerful beyond measure.

        It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

        ‘We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’

        Actually, who are you not to be?

        You are a child of God.

        Your playing small does not serve the world.

        There is nothing enlightened about shrinking,

        So that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

        We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

        It is not just in some of us.  It is in everyone.” 

      The root cause of our leadership crisis is that we frequently choose the wrong leaders for the wrong reasons.  We choose them more for:

            Charisma instead of character,

            Style instead of substance, and

            Image instead of integrity.  

      When we choose leaders for charisma, style, and image, why are we surprised when they lack character, substance, and integrity?   

      In a climate of public impressions and short-term performance, many good leaders lost sight of their calling, or their “True North,” and have been pulled off course by the pressures and seductions of the real world.    These leaders are not well-grounded in their faith and beliefs.  They get caught up in their egos and the external gratifications of leadership. As management guru Peter Drucker once wrote, “Leadership is not about money, fame and power; leadership is responsibility.”

21st Century Leaders

      To pull the world out of this moral crisis, we need authentic leaders in all walks of life, from government to business to religion who are genuine, understand their calling to lead, and follow their True North without deviating from their beliefs and values. 

      In the 20th century people looked to all-powerful leaders with legions of followers, whom they trusted and gave their loyalty.  All too often, these leaders betrayed our trust. 

      21st century leaders must be very different, because people in their organizations have changed.  Today’s organizations are filled with knowledge workers who often know more than their bosses.  They want to step up and lead now rather than waiting in line for ten to twenty years.  Why shouldn’t they have that opportunity?  I was division president at 27 years old, creating the consumer microwave oven business.  If young people don’t get opportunities, they will likely move on. 

      In the 21st century, trust must be earned by the leader before loyalty is conveyed by the people. It is in crises that people look to their leaders to determine if they are authentic and follow their True North.   

      Most of all, these days people are looking for meaning and significance in their work.  It’s not just about compensation.  Don’t people have a right to find meaning in their work?  For those of you who are devoting your lives to religious work, the meaning is evident.  But what about business people? 

      At Medtronic, we talked all the time about our mission “to restore people to full life and health.”  The most important event of the year was the Medtronic holiday party.  In mid-December six patients come to Medtronic to share their stories about how a Medtronic product impacted their lives.  These days over 4,000 people gather in Medtronic’s atrium auditorium and another 20,000 watch on their personal computers.  

      I’ll never forget my first Medtronic holiday party.  The first five patients told moving stories about how Medtronic products had changed their lives, including one man who broke down and cried when he recalled how his Medtronic stimulator enabled him to be pain-free for the first time in ten years.   

      The sixth patient that day was 18-year-old T. J. Flack, who was born with cerebral palsy.  Every year for his first sixteen years, T. J. had surgery to relieve the growing spasticity in his body.  At sixteen, he decided this was no way to live, and denied further surgery.  Meanwhile, the disease progressed and T. J. was confined to a wheelchair, had to go to a special school, and had to have his mother dress him.   

      Then a pioneering surgeon implanted a new Medtronic drug pump in his abdomen that fed the drug baclofen directly into his spine.  At this point T. J. patted the pump in his abdomen and said, “This is my friendly ally. It changed my life.”  He returned to mainstream school, where walked up three flights of stairs a day with the help of arm braces, dressed himself, and entered college.  As I listened to his story that day, I had tears in my eyes.  I was a little embarrassed until I saw the guy next to me also had tears in his eyes.  

      Some of you may be thinking that finding meaning in work is easy in health care, but what about other types of business?  David Dillon, CEO of Kroger, who has to compete with Wal-Mart every day, says, “All human beings want to find meaning in their lives At Kroger we’re aligned in believing that serving the public is a dignified, proud profession.  We make customers’ lives better because someone is friendly and helpful to them.  Little touches of human kindness can literally change their day, and employees delivering human kindness feel better about their work.  As the end of their careers, they can say, ‘I was part of something special.’”  

      I would like to propose a new definition of leadership for the 21st century, defined in four words: “align, empower, serve, and collaborate.”  The first task of any leader is to align people around a common mission and values.  In religion we know what our mission and values are.   

      Some business academics refer to this as “the soft side” of leadership. I disagree.  Gaining alignment around mission and values is far more difficult than getting the numbers right.  No one does it better than Johnson & Johnson, whose employees have followed the J&J Credo for the past sixty years.  But many business leaders lost sight of their customers and their True North by following the dictates of Wall Street to “maximize shareholder value.”  

      The second element of 21st century leadership is to “empower” others to step up and lead.  The leader’s job is not to exercise power over others to get them to follow him.  By empowering people, leaders motivate them to contribute and increase the net store of power in their organizations.  In this century organizations of empowered leaders will be far more successful than those with “command-and-control” leaders focusing on power and authority.   

      The third element is service.  People aren’t there to serve their leaders, but rather leaders serve their employees as well as their customers.  Only by being “servant leaders” can one become an effective leader.  

      Finally, today’s problems – like poverty, health care, education, energy and the environment, and global peace – are too complex for any single organization to solve.  They must be addressed through a spirit of collaboration, by bringing organizations and people together who have the combined capabilities to address all aspects of these problems.  

      To summarize, the 21st century leader’s job is to align people around a common mission and values, to empower them to lead, to act as a servant leader, and to collaborate with others to solve difficult problems.

True North

      In my research at Harvard Business School, I studied 125 leaders who were both authentic and successful to determine how they had developed as leaders.  Colleagues suggested that I look for the traits, styles and competencies that made them successful. None of the interviewees attributed any characteristics to their success. What defined their leadership were their life stories. This is where they found their calling and passion to lead.   

      Think about your own life story.  Where do you find your calling to lead?   

      Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks, found his calling growing up in the Bayview Housing Projects in Brooklyn, which were filled with crime and poverty.  He thought his father was a failure as he watched him lose thirty jobs.  In the wake of his father’s death, Schultz recognized his father never had a chance.  From that day, his dream has been to create a company his father would be proud to work at, where all employees have health care and they express their pride by reaching out to Starbucks customers to ensure they have good experiences. 

      Most interviewees reported that they had had life-transforming events along the way, which we call their “crucible.”  The crucible brought them closer to the meaning of their lives, challenged their beliefs, and enabled them to find their calling and their passion.  For many, the crucible occurred early in their lives, but it was not until many years later that they understood its meaning and how it shaped the purpose of their lives.   

      Oprah Winfrey is a good example. She grew up in the South, where poverty and discrimination were ongoing struggles in her life.  She found refuge in her church.  As she said, “Church was my life.”  At nine, she was sexually abused by a relative – abuse that was perpetrated on her by other family members until she was fourteen, when she gave premature birth to a child that lived only two weeks.  It wasn’t until she was thirty-six years old that she realized that she wasn’t responsible for this abuse. She decided then to build her career around helping people recognize that they did not have to be victims, but instead they have to take full responsibility for their lives. 

      In True North I described my life as a series of crucibles.  In examining my story over the past two years, I realize there is a common thread running through my life experiences: the on-going struggle between my calling from God and my ego needs.  

      I am the only child of older parents.  My father was an excellent consultant but thought he failed because he never became a leader.  His goal was for me to become that leader.  He suggested when I was a boy that I could become CEO of a great corporation, even naming companies like Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and IBM – that’s a heavy trip for an 8-year-old!  But I was never selected to lead anything in junior high or high school – not the student council, club president, or even captain of my tennis team.  My senior year I ran for senior class president, but lost by a 2-1 margin!  If I was a leader, one else saw me that way.   

      Hoping for a fresh start, I went 800 miles from my hometown to Georgia Tech, where no one knew me.  There I ran for office six more times and lost every time!  After going zero for seven, it was pretty clear that others didn’t see me as their leader.  In one of the best things that ever happened to me, a group of seniors took me aside and told me that I was too ambitious, too self-centered, and moving so fast that I didn’t have time for other people.  That evening I took a long walk in the woods, and wound up sitting on a large tree stump for an hour, praying to God for help to become a better person.  I resolved then to work on correcting my faults and developing as a leader.  This was a painful process that lasted several years, but as a result, I was selected for many leadership positions in college and graduate school. 

      In my mid-twenties I experienced two personal tragedies that forced me to think deeply about the meaning on my life.  I was working in Washington when I got a call from my father telling me that my mother had died that morning of a heart attack.  I was extremely close to my mother, as she transmitted her values to me.  What I didn’t realize until her death was that she was the leader I should have been emulating all along.  Due to my gender bias, and the fact that all her leadership roles were in non-profit organizations, I never recognized what a great leader she was. 

      I recovered from mother’s death after an extended period of prayer and mourning, fell in love and got engaged to be married.  I recall talking to my fiancée three weeks to the day before our wedding date.  The next morning her parents called to say that she died that morning of a malignant brain tumor.  I was deeply shocked to lose the two people in the world I was closest to. It was especially difficult to comprehend the death of my fiancée, who at 25 had so much potential to give to the world. Had it not been for my faith in God and the support of my friends, I don’t know how I would have gotten through that period.  I kept recalling St. Paul’s words, “Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face.” (I Corinthians 13:12)  I learned to appreciate just how fragile life is, and that none of us knows how long we have to live. I resolved to try to contribute every day to making the world a better place, and to make each environment I am in a better place due to my involvement. 

       Less than a month later, I met Penny, who was later to become my wife, and we have been together for the past thirty-nine years.  Although I can’t explain these events, I know deep within my soul that Penny is a gift from God. 

      I was still on track to become CEO of a major corporation.  After a successful twenty-year career, I ‘hit the wall’ in my mid-forties.  I was at Honeywell and in line to become CEO. I was given an ever-increasing set of businesses to turn around.  On my third set of turn-arounds, I was driving home on a beautiful fall day when I looked at myself in the mirror and realized I was miserable.  How could I be miserable with a wonderful wife, two fine sons, and great friends in a great community?  I realized in that instant that I had lost sight of being the values-centered, purpose-driven leader I was called to be; instead, I was pulled by my ego to become CEO of a company whose business I wasn’t passionate about.  In pursuing that goal, I was becoming less authentic.  When I told Penny what I was feeling, she said, “I’ve been trying to tell you this for the past year, but you weren’t willing to listen.”  You see, it is always the person closest to us who sees us as we really are and identify our blind spots. 

      At that point I had turned Medtronic down three times over ten years for the position of president.  Why?  Perhaps because Medtronic as a mid-sized company back then didn’t fit my desire to run a large company. I called Medtronic back and asked to be considered.  In learning about the Medtronic mission from founder Earl Bakken, I realized that Medtronic was the company I was called to work for all along.   

      I’ll never forget walking into Medtronic headquarters in March of 1989 and the feeling that I was “coming home.”  Have you ever had that feeling: when you feel like this is the place where you should be, where you can make a difference through your work with a group of people of like minds and similar values?   

      In retrospect, my 13-years at Medtronic were the greatest blessing of my professional life.  If I hadn’t gone through the difficult times, I may not have appreciated just what a blessing Medtronic was.  Through this series of crucibles and struggles with my ego, I finally made the transformation from “I” to “We” that is essential for any one who wants to become an authentic leader. 

      I believe crucibles are an integral part of our journey through life.  Through them, God prepares us to take on greater challenges to fulfill our mission on earth. 

      Now, consider your own life situation.  Have you made that transformation?  Can you honestly say that you have dealt with your own crucible and always behave in an authentic manner?  If the answer is “no,” or a qualified “yes,” then you need to go through a process of finding your True North.  

Finding Your True North

      The authentic leaders we interviewed for True North identified six major areas for developing ourselves as authentic leaders. 

Pursuing Your Purpose

      First. we must discern the purpose of our leadership.  For some, like Wendy Kopp who speaks next, that purpose is understood early in life.  Wendy had a dream of ensuring all children get a good education, and is transforming education through Teach For America.  

      For others, like myself, finding your purpose takes many years of trial and error in the real world.  Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon Products, is such a leader.  In her early years she starred at everything she did. En route to becoming CEO of Neiman-Marcus, she quit suddenly at thirty-five without another job.  When I asked her why, she said, “I didn’t want to spend the rest of my career selling luxury goods to upper class women.”  Nine months later she joined Avon, where she found her passion, not in cosmetics, but in enabling women to achieve economic self-sufficiency.  At thirty-nine she was passed over for CEO and was prepared to quit when one of the board members gave her some sound advice:  “Andrea, follow your compass and not your clock.” We can all appreciate the wisdom of this advice in our own lives.  It is more important to stay on the course of our True North, or God’s calling for our lives, than it is to arrive at a certain time or age.   

      Andrea stayed at Avon and became CEO two years later.  Her first act was to change the vision of Avon from cosmetics to “the empowerment of women.”   As she said, “Nothing gives me greater satisfaction than seeing poor women build their own business and achieve economic self-sufficiency.”  Today Andrea Jung heads the largest organization in the world: six million people achieving economic self-sufficiency through their work.

Self-Awareness

      The Oracle of Delphi told us four thousand years ago, “Know thyself,” but this is easier said than done.  We all have blind spots and areas of vulnerability that we try to hide. But people know who is authentic and who’s not. 

      To be self-aware, we must do three things: first, have leadership experiences in the real world.  Second, get honest feedback about our leadership and the areas we need to improve from people we work with, especially subordinates.  Third, reflect upon that feedback, perhaps with a trusted colleague or mentor, about how to improve our leadership.   

      The most valuable is 360 degree feedback.  How many of you, especially those in the ministry, seek out formal, written feedback from your parishioners?  This is the single most important thing you can do to gain self-awareness and to see yourself as others see you.  It takes a willingness to be vulnerable, but in that vulnerability we make authentic connections with others.

Practicing our Values

      It is easy to preach to others the values they should live by.  It is also quite easy to practice good values when things are going well.  The real test of your values comes when things aren’t going well.  That’s when everyone is watching to see if you practice your values, or deviate. Only when you’ve tested your values under pressure – when everything you have built for a decade hangs in the balance – will you know how solid your values are.

Motivations and Motivated Capabilities

      We all like to hear we’re doing a good job, and receive positive feedback, public recognition, or a compensation increase.  These are all extrinsic motivations.  There is nothing wrong with them, unless we get so caught up in them that we think they are all that matters. Instead, we need to balance them with our intrinsic motivations, things like making a difference in the lives of others, mentoring and helping others, developing ourselves, building a healthy family, or fulfilling our inner purpose.   

      When we’re clear about what motivates us, we can combine them with our strengths to pursue our motivated capabilities.  When we use our motivated capabilities, then we are operating in our “sweet spot,” where these things come together. In your “sweet spot,” you will be most effective and successful, and so will the people who work with you.

Building a Support Team

      Leadership is inherently lonely.  Who do you talk to when you’re down or discouraged, or have insurmountable problems?  In these instances you need a support team.  Your support team starts with one person with whom you can be completely honest and open.  For me that person is my wife Penny, who is always there for me, no matter how down I get.  It could be your spouse, best friend, mentor, or your therapist.  The important thing is to have someone in your life who fulfills this role.  It is also important to have wise mentors to guide you through difficult times and share their wisdom.  Currently, I have one mentor who is twenty years older, and one is who is twenty years younger.   

      I also have two support groups – one is a group of seven men I’ve been meeting with weekly for the past thirty years. The other is a couples group of eight who have met monthly for the past twenty-five years.  We began as prayer groups, but have developed as life support groups.  Ten years ago when Penny was diagnosed with cancer, I was able to talk openly with them about my fears that she might not live. 

      In developing your leadership, there is nothing more important than building a trusted support team.  The time to do it is now. Don’t wait for the crisis to come, as it will be too late, and you will find yourself alone and turning inward.

Leading an Integrated Life

      With all the pressures in our lives today, it is virtually impossible to find a perfect balance between your work life, personal life, family life and community life.  What is more important is to live your life with the integrity of being the same person in all of these settings, not one person at work, a different person at home, and a third person in your personal life. 

      The word integrity in this case does not mean telling the truth, but rather “being integral, or whole,” in the sense that you are centered within yourself, and not trying to do it all just to satisfy others.  When you are the same authentic person in all aspects of your life, then you know you’re leading an integrated life. 

Empowering Others to Lead

      These six things – pursuing your purpose, knowing yourself, practicing your values, following your motivated capabilities, building your support team, and leading an integrated life – are the keys to developing as an authentic leader. When you have done them, you’re prepared to empower others to step up and lead authentically.  The capacity to empower others to lead is the key to building successful organizations. 

      Marilyn Nelson, chairman and former CEO of Carlson Companies, discovered her calling in the wake of the death of her daughter at age nineteen.  She was so distraught that she asked God for answers to “why” her daughter had died, but none were forthcoming, and she lost her faith.  She regained her faith when she recognized her calling to use the time her daughter didn’t have to make the world better for everyone she encountered.  She took over a demoralized organization from her founder-father, and used her gifts to empower people throughout her far-flung global organization of 190,000 people.  

      Ask yourself, are you an empowering leader who finds the best in other people and enables them to step and lead?

Conclusion: What is Your Legacy to the World?

      In conclusion, let’s think about the end of your life.  You have a few hours left to live, as your family gathers around your bedside.  Your favorite granddaughter asks you, “Grandma, or grandpa, what did you do to make a difference in the world?”  What are you going to tell her?  Will you tell her what has been truly important in your life, and what you did to make a difference in the lives of others? 

      The time to think about that question is now, not at the end of your life.  You’ll find the answer in God’s calling for your life, and how you use your unique gifts to help other people.  

      Robert F. Kennedy once said:  “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. In the total of all these acts will be written the history of this generation.” Single-handedly, we cannot bend history.  But if each of us follows God’s calling to lead authentically, together we can change the world. 

            “We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us,

              It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.” 

      Will you follow your True North to be the authentic leader God created, and to lead a life of service to others through your leadership?  If you do, you will know the fulfillment of leadership, and you will make the world a better place.  

      “Let your light so shine before people that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”