Effective leadership aligns people around missions and values

Ethical Leadership: Q&A with best-selling author and Harvard Professor of Leadership Bill George

The Institute for Ethical Leadership (IEL) at Rutgers Business School seeks to create awareness and education about the importance of ethical leadership. Under the direction of co-founders Alex J. Plinio and James Abruzzo, the IEL aspires to establish itself as the place that leaders, across all sectors, look to for guidance, partnership, and support to develop and improve the ethical culture among their executive and board leadership and within their organizations.

In April, IEL hosted “Authentic Leadership in the Age of Social Media” with the pharmaceutical company Merck, where Bill George, former Chairman and CEO of Medtronic and Harvard Business School Professor of Leadership, inspired and entertained his audience with both personal and professional stories about leadership and development. He later sat down for a Q&A session to talk with us about the role of business schools and organizations play on promoting authentic leadership for 2011 and beyond.

What role do business schools play in shaping ethical leaders?
George: Business schools have failed at not taking the lead at not taking the lead in setting the right ethical and values-based standards, and teaching leaders how to be values and ethics based. I’d like to see ethics taught in finance courses, in marketing course. It should be part of the entire curriculum.

What do you think MBA students need to know about leadership as they are starting their careers?
George: Leadership is changing in dramatic ways: we are eliminating the notion of hierarchies’ large organizations, leadership as power and moving to an alignment of people around mission and values which is something they do very well here at Merck.  And I think it is really important for MBAs to understand how important that is. It’s not about the mantra of maximizing shareholder value and certainly not short-term shareholder value. Shareholder value follows the work you do in an organization. And I think it’s really important that MBAs understand it’s about empowering other people to lead. It’s not being “the leader.” It’s about empowering other people at all levels even those with no direct reports. Essential people at all levels need to be motivated and empowered to step up and lead. Basically leadership is service. People aren’t there to serve you; you’re there to serve the customer, and your employer. That’s what leadership is all about.

bill george addressing the audience at merck.

With the trend of entrepreneurship, are people holding leadership roles more than ever?
George: Exactly. And I think that’s why people are going into entrepreneurial roles. They don’t want to get into a hierarchy. I think organizations that don’t understand that aren’t going to attract the best MBAs. Today, we are much more collaborative. We recognize that complex problems are not going to be solved by only one person; they will be solved with a team. And in a global world that means collaborating with people from all over the world in an organization.

How does the internet and social media play into leadership?
George: I think social media is a great thing and it is widely misunderstood by people over the age of 40, even though we use it as a vehicle to communicate, like, where we had drinks last night. I think moving beyond that, it is a vehicle to communicate and dialogue about important messages. I think social media, including email and other vehicles, is going to knock down hierarchy in organizations.

How do you think conferences like this one, by Rutgers Institute for Ethical Leadership aid leaders in tackling challenges?
George: I think we need examples of real leaders facing difficult times, and how they do it. Honest conversation. Honest dialogue of what’s going on. And I also see a conference like this as a vehicle to see how a real ethical company, like Merck, does business. Every company has problems; you can’t get through business these days - you can’t get through five years - without having significant problems, but it’s not the question of having the problem, it’s how you deal with the problem. How do you prepare for it, and is there that glue around a set of values you will follow.

About Bill George
Bill George is a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School, where he has taught leadership since 2004.  He is the author of four best-selling books: "7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis",  True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership, Finding Your True North: A Personal Guide, and Authentic Leadership.  Mr. George is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Medtronic.  He joined Medtronic in 1989 as President and Chief Operating Officer, was Chief Executive Officer from 1991-2001, and Chairman of the Board from 1996 to 2002.  Earlier in his career, he was an executive with Honeywell and Litton Industries and served in the U.S. Department of Defense. Mr. George currently serves as a director of ExxonMobil and Goldman Sachs, and also recently served on the board of Novartis and Target Corporation.  He is also currently a trustee of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, World Economic Forum USA and the Guthrie Theater.  He has served as chair of the board of Allina Health System, Abbott-Northwestern Hospital, United Way of the Greater Twin Cities, and Advamed. He has been named one of the "Top 25 Business Leaders of the Past 25 Years" by PBS; "Executive of the Year-2001" by the Academy of Management; and "Director of the Year-2001-02" by the National Association of Corporate Directors.  Mr. George makes frequent appearances on television and radio, and his columns are published in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Fortune.

You can follow Bill George on twitter: @Bill_George

To learn more about The Institute for Ethical Leadership, visit www.business.rutgers.edu/iel

By Hannah B. Redmond, hredmond@business.rutgers.edu