Bob Sutton: True North: Economics and Humanity are Compatible. Today's New York Times has a glowing review of True North, by Bill George (Former CEO of Medtronic, a Jim Collins "Good to Great" leader, and now a Professor at Harvard Business School teaching leadership), with help from Peter Sims.
The book is based on interviews with 125 other leaders and executives like Starbuck's Howard Schultz and Xerox's Ann Mulcahy. These cases -- in combination with George's accomplishments -- show that leaders who create humane organizations that really care about their people and their customers -- and don't just view them as units that exist for the purposes of extracting "as much economic value as possible" every minute of every day -- not only can thrive financially, they do it in such a way that people can travel through their days with dignity.
And as George shows with his cases of successful leaders, they can also have a life outside of work. Is leadership only about leaders? Had an interesting conversation with my friend @MaverickWoman about leadership over the weekend.
Conversations with @MaverickWoman are always thought-starters and this was no different to usual – she got me thinking. The big question I started thinking about was: Is leadership only about leaders? A Networked World: Where Have All the Leaders Gone?