{"id":997,"date":"2009-10-13T05:36:49","date_gmt":"2009-10-13T11:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/workingknowledge.com\/blog\/?p=997"},"modified":"2023-03-02T21:28:31","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T03:28:31","slug":"bill-clinton-bill-george-on-leadership-world-business-forum-wbf09","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/bill-clinton-bill-george-on-leadership-world-business-forum-wbf09\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Clinton &#038; Bill George on Leadership (World Business Forum #wbf09)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Point<\/strong>: Leaders must communicate and connect, which means\u00a0providing vision and revealing\u00a0vulnerability<\/p>\n<p><strong>Story<\/strong>: At the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wbfny.com \">World Business Forum<\/a> last week, former President Bill Clinton was asked about his lessons on leadership.\u00a0 His answer was threefold: <a href=\"http:\/\/workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/ClintonPhoto.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"right size-thumbnail wp-image-884\" title=\"ClintonPhoto\" src=\"http:\/\/workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/ClintonPhoto-92x150.gif\" alt=\"ClintonPhoto\" width=\"92\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It begins with a vision of where you want to go: you have to articulate where you are, where you want to go, and how to get there<\/li>\n<li>A leader has to continually communicate and sell the vision<\/li>\n<li>Leaders need to understand people, not just policies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That last point about leaders needing to understand people was the comment that was most retweeted during the live-tweeting of Clinton&#8217;s talk. It was the point that resonated the most deeply with the audience.<\/p>\n<p>Fittingly, Clinton&#8217;s closing comments provided the perfect circle back to Bill George&#8217;s\u00a0opening keynote the day before.\u00a0 Bill George, former Medtronic CEO under whose leadership the company&#8217;s market cap grew from $1.1 billion to $60 billion, spoke about authentic leadership during a time of crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Being authentic builds trust and helps people understand who you are as a leader.\u00a0 &#8220;In a time of crisis, you <a href=\"http:\/\/workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/bill-georgeBlogPhoto.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"right size-thumbnail wp-image-858\" title=\"bill-georgeBlogPhoto\" src=\"http:\/\/workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/bill-georgeBlogPhoto-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"bill-georgeBlogPhoto\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/bill-georgeBlogPhoto-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/bill-georgeBlogPhoto.jpg 168w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>need people who tell you the truth,&#8221; George said.\u00a0 Authenticity requires strength because it means, at times, revealing vulnerabilities. Although revealing vulnerabilities seems\u00a0counterintuitive and\u00a0very hard for leaders who want to seem all-knowing, George has said:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When you open yourself up to others and share your fears and shortcomings, you connect with people at a deeper level.\u00a0 Exposing your vulnerabilities is an open invitation for others to share openly with you. In the process, you gain a higher level of support and commitment from people, as well as their respect.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>How much do you share? Bill George offered an example from his own life:\u00a0 As Medtronics&#8217; CEO, he regularly sent out emails to all the employees about the state and health of the company. In 1996, seven years into his tenure as CEO, George&#8217;s wife was diagnosed with cancer.\u00a0 George found himself writing an email to employees revealing his wife&#8217;s personal health rather than presenting\u00a0the company&#8217;s financial health.\u00a0 To\u00a0George&#8217;s\u00a0surprise, 18,000 employees (more than half the company) replied to his email, offering their support and sharing their own stories of loved ones who had battled cancer.\u00a0 &#8220;It was a personal connection,&#8221; George reflected. &#8220;We&#8217;re hungry for those connections.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Action<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Build personal connections with those you lead<\/li>\n<li>Create, communicate, and cultivate a vision<\/li>\n<li>Be authentic, revealing both\u00a0weaknesses and\u00a0strengths<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>For More Information<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bill George is the author of the new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0470531878?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=workiknowl-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0470531878\">Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis<\/a> and bestsellers <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0787975281?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=workiknowl-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0787975281\">Authentic Leadership<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: medium none  ! important; margin: 0px ! important;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=workiknowl-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0787975281\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><br \/>\nand  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0787987514?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=workiknowl-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0787987514\">True North<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: medium none  ! important; margin: 0px ! important;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=workiknowl-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0787987514\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Bill George&#8217;s blog is at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.billgeorge.org\/blog\/\">http:\/\/www.billgeorge.org\/blog\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[Bill George shared the email story during a pre-forum reception he held for <a href=\"http:\/\/us.hsmglobal.com\/contenidos\/wbf09-bloggers-hub.html\">World Business Forum Bloggers<\/a> on Oct. 5, 2009]<\/p>\n<p>75jtpgi24x<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leaders must communicate and connect, and that means providing vision and revealing vulnerability<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[71,19,5],"tags":[226,227,225,228,202],"class_list":["post-997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-case-study","category-ceo","category-how-to","tag-bill-clinton","tag-bill-george","tag-leadership","tag-trust","tag-world-business-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=997"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2265,"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997\/revisions\/2265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}