True North

Leading Authentically in Today's Workplace, Emerging Leaders Edition, 3rd Edition

By: Bill George, Zach Clayton

Narrated by: Walter Dixon

In True North: Emerging Leaders Edition, renowned leadership expert Bill George and Millennial tech entrepreneur Zach Clayton issue the challenge to emerging leaders—from Gen X to Millennials and Gen Z—to lead their organizations authentically through never-ending crises to make this world a better place for everyone.

The Emerging Leaders Edition is filled with stories from successful leaders such as Microsoft's Satya Nadella and Merck's Ken Frazier to PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi and General Motors' Mary Barra, and emerging leaders like OneTrust's Kabir Barday and Kanbrick's Tracy Britt Cool on how they overcame great challenges to build highly successful organizations.

The book offers concrete suggestions for: becoming an authentic leader, equipped to lead inclusively with moral clarity through challenges and crises; cultivating regular introspection to ground yourself with self-awareness, live your values, and use your unique strengths; integrating all aspects of your life—including who you are at home, at work, and in the community; understanding how Millennials are leading more effectively in today's world; being an inclusive leader prepared to take on fraught issues like stakeholder challenges, racial and sexual equality, and sexual misconduct; and knowing when—and how—leaders should speak out on today's complex public issues.

©2022 William George (P)2022 Ascent Audio

Inspiring and tangible content

Appreciate the pandemic updates to the emerging leader edition. Good balance of self reflection and action.

I wish I had this book when I started my career

Bring an authentic leader is something we all want to be. But how can you tell that you truly are? Mr. George gives real world examples of authentic leadership and how to identify if you are working for an authentic leader. I highly recommend!

Stake Holders Capitalism

Excellent book that emphasizes John Mackey’s Conscious Capitalism concept.
Every Healthcare Corporation in America should read

Tap into your emotional intelligence

The anecdotal delivery resonated with me. There is something about linking dates and times with events that made the situations very relatable. I enjoyed this listen thoroughly and will listen again.

Great book!

Enjoyed this book and can apply it to many types of leadership including parenting! Thank you!

Leadership for the woke

This book was written to put the authors opinions on social issues into general leadership and business in a way that made his political and social opinions seem factual. I don’t think everything in this book is bad, but I do think that everything good in this book was copy and pasted from other books and slightly edited into the authors words. I also don’t think the author understands the difference between being focused on a process versus an outcome.

How to be a virtue signaling lemming

There is some good information for emerging leaders in parts of the book, but I felt I was being led to fall in line with whatever narrative makes me and my company look like caring human beings. The book is about finding your true north, but there is example after example of jumping on the bandwagon of every popular cause. Issues of the day are complex and convoluted by a manipulative media and government. I believe one must see an issue from all angles and apply judgment to avoid being yet another corporate lemming following another politically correct narrative. True north requires true courage.

Naive and idealistic

I can not say that this is a bad book. It has some great chapters on being transparent and candid with the team, promoting diversity and inclusion and navigating through crises.
However the authors take moral, ethics and making the world a better place to an extreme by basically recommending to sacrifice business outcomes, growth and ambition for the sake of making the world a better place. In 2023 when the growth at all costs strategy is replaced with moving to profitability and sustainability the recommendations provided in the book could easily cost leaders their jobs. Also, many leaders mentioned in this book and whose business practices were praised made quite questionable decisions in 2022-2023 which led to thousands of people being laid off.
That said, to me, especially in the current economy a noticeable portion of the book was the “what not to do” guide