Bill George knows about failure.

He lost seven elections in a row — it was high school and college, but still. How did he become chief executive officer of the world’s leading medical technology company?

You’ll have the chance to find out Thursday as the Vail Symposium hosts the former CEO of Medtronic as part of its Hot Topic lecture series. George will be speaking about his call for a new kind of leader — one who can empower and inspire others to lead.

“I think we’ve got a misguided notion of thinking about the all-powerful leader on top,” he said. “Frankly, the most valuable people at Medtronic were not the executives like myself but the people in the labs coming up with innovations to save lives in hospital operating rooms.”

It applies to people in all organizations, not just the ones who are saving lives, said George, who serves on the board of directors of ExxonMobil, Goldman Sachs and Novartis. The key is having a passion for the product and the company’s mission.

“Employees aren’t motivated by getting stock prices up,” he said. “They’re motivated by helping customers.”

Once on track to becoming CEO of Honeywell, George found that he was miserable being so focused on making more money and not on the product.

“The company was changing me instead of me changing the company,” he said.
The idea of George’s book “True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership” involves helping people find and stick to their moral compass, which, in turn, will help them make beneficial choices for themselves and their company, he said.

“I think we went backwards in the ’90s,” George said. “We gave too much power to the person on top and paid CEOs way to much money. It seduces people into making bad decisions.”

George is a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School and said people would be surprised to hear him tell his students that leadership does not come from your traits or skills but from your life story — that’s where you find your true passion.

“You’re never too old or too young to step up and lead,” George said.

After interviewing 125 of society’s top leaders for “True North,” the common link he found among them is that very few of them feel that a person is born a leader.
“We all have gifts,” he said. “It’s a matter of how we use them.”

To learn more about Bill George, visit www.truenorthleaders.com.

For tickets to the Vail Symposium event, call (970) 476-0954 or visit www.vailsyposium.org. Cost of admission is $20 for Vail Symposium contributors and $25 for all others.

What: A Talk about Alzheimer's, with Dr. Howard Fillit and Leonard Lauder
When: 12:30-2:30 p.m. July 10
Where: Sonnenalp Resort of Vail
Cost: $25 VS Contributors/$30 All others

What: Radical Islam's Rise, with Sadanand Dhume
When: 5:30-7:15 p.m. July 16
Where: Beaver Creek Club
Cost: $20 VS Contributors/$25 All others

What: Media's Wild West, with Deanna Lee & Judy Muller
When: 5:30-7:15 p.m. August 20
Where: Red Sky Ranch, Wolcott
Cost: $20 VS Contributors/$25 All others

For more information, visit www.vailsymposium.org or call (970) 476-0954.