Episode #760 - The Power of Authentic Leadership with Bill George

Welcome to this edition of the Million Dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on winning. I'm your host, Larry Wydell.

I've never done the research on it, but I've always heard since I was a Tech that it was the C students that became the biggest alumni donors at colleges all around the country.

They only became Larry because they did very well in their career.

More emphasis on the relationships and getting along with people and making things happen than just academic success, you know.

And it's interesting, the new president, Georgia Tech put together a beautiful mission. Our job is develop leaders who have a positive impact on the world using technology and good for him. Whereas, you know, he's a great school, number one rated and everything. They're turning out people for the labs. You know, Georgia Tech's turned out. The people are going to found the companies and hire the people working in the light ups.

I'm going to look for, I'm going to shift gears and look for, take this opportunity to, to share some previous pain that we had at Georgia Tech. Wasn't it interesting how they would take, you know, you talk about seven different courses. Like you take 20 hours. You, you know, I couldn't believe the kind of course load I'd hear people had at other colleges where we're going, we would have like, we'd like always have seven courses and the seven courses would be a lot of three hour courses that was two hours classroom and a three hour lab that counted as what eventually. But in actuality it's like 30 hours of classroom for 21 hours of credit. I don't know if they still have that system, but they really knew how.

It's tough.

They knew how to milk, milk the students. But it's good if you're getting the education. So all I can say, but most people at most schools, they don't even have, they don't have any clue what you go through when you go to one of these rigorous institutions. But talk about the group that you. I guess I'll ask one thing before we get away from the books. Seven Lessons for leading in crisis. And what would be one or two of those that would come to your mind quickest because you know, we can't go through all of them but you know, to give people a taste of what to look for there, number one.

Face reality, starting with yourself. Okay, if that, you know, I can cite a lot of examples. Wells Fargo created a system where a Lot of people cheated. And the CEO blamed the people cheating. He didn't realize the system he had created, incentives was driving them to do that with goals they couldn't achieve. Jeff Amell at GE never faced reality. He never looked himself in the mirror and said, I'm creating this mess. The Boeing example, the former CEOs never realized they've created this mess by not designing new aircraft. And it comes out to play. They're probably long retired, but here they are 15 years later, and the company gets in trouble. So you got to look at yourself in the mirror. And so I make a lot of mistakes, Larry. And you know what you do when you make a mistake? Number rule number one is stop digging. So if you make a mistake, don't compound your, your mistakes by making more mistakes, trying to cover up the mistake you made in the first place. Just say, larry, I made a mistake. I'm sorry I let you down. How can I make it up to you? Okay, that's what you got to do. At least Dave Calhoun yesterday at Boeing came out and said, we made a mistake. And he had tears. And I wiping around tears, well, okay, he owned it, you know, now we'll try to fix it. You cannot fix any mistake you won't acknowledge. You can't fix any problem you won't acknowledge. So, and I think the other lesson that I have is, you know, you gotta get, when you face reality, then you gotta realize a lot of these things. You gotta go with the long haul. You can't turn these things around overnight, but you go to work on them, you acknowledge them, and then you go to work, you get everyone focusing on how are we gonna make sure this never happens again and how are we gonna do it better? And, you know, Medtronic was always at risk with quality issues. So that's something we had to ensure we had perfect quality. Because at the end of that chain, somebody may die.

Yeah. And so all of these seem to proceed from the. The idea that you don't focus on what you can't control in a crisis, you focus on what you can control. And that starts with you, you know, and then it goes to your, your actions. And then, you know, you know, stop making it worse, apologize, and then start the process of moving in a different, more positive direction. And, you know, with the concept that it's not going to happen necessarily overnight, but step by step, as you're doing what you can do. And you got your. Yeah.

My resolution for 2024 is, hey, we got a lot of turmoil out there, and no One can tell you how to how the presidential election's going to turn out, how the wars are going to turn out, how the economy is going to turn out. So you got to do what you can do in your company to do the right thing and stay true to your purpose and your values. And that's what you have to focus on. You can't change the whole world. Focus on what you can do and do it really well and get everyone dedicated to that. And don't spend a lot of time sitting in the corridors of Washington trying to decide who's going to be the next president or any of this stuff because you have no influence on that. Honestly, we have to be modest and say you have no influence on what MZ2 wars. It's horrible. But you got to do the right thing that your company can do, your organization, what are your values, what's your purpose, what's your mission and then carry it out and make it better, you know, and that's I dedicated. That's what I'm trying to do with all leaders right now.

Now, you talked about you met with your men's group. Talk about that a little bit.

Well, we've had a men's group that's been meeting for, believe it or not, 48 years. We met this morning from 7:15 to 8:30. We meet every Wednesday morning and we talked about some of these same issues and very much about what are you going to do this year to have a positive impact in the world. Now we're aging a little bit, but that's okay. We're what can you do right now? And these guys and I've had a little attention because I've been the one saying you can't solve who the next president of the United States is going to be. So don't spend your time and you're just wasting your time. Focus on in fact, I said I go back to Reinhold Niebuhr serenity prayer that's used by Alcoholics Anonymous. Serenity to accept the things I cannot change and the courage to change the things I can. That's that word courage again you mentioned earlier. And the wisdom to know the difference. Do I have the courage to jump in and change the things I can and not blame the whole world out there. I can't change those things. I can change things right within my own community, my family, the leaders I work with, where I can have and an impact and try to help someone who's struggling right now. There I can see an impact. And that's what's important to me.

How did that group start 48 years ago?

Well, we'd gone to an Episcopal retreat and part of it was saying, well, why don't you. We met in small groups and we said, well, let's keep our group together. So we put together a group of four of us and expanded eight and now a couple of the guys died. But we've met all this time. We talk about really important issues like what is your soul and what's that say? Today we're telling one of our members is quite ill and we're talking about end of life and how would you deal with the end of your life. But we're talking about all much more upbeat subjects than that too. You know, about where we can have an impact and go around the group and what people are saying, what are they doing right now to have an impact, you know, and what's the most record.

What would you say is the most rewarding thing for you personally, Bill? You know, in the life that you have lived, that you're happy, you know, you're most satisfied and gratified about the course your life has taken and the things you've been able to beyond business and beyond, you know, business relationships and the mentoring and everything and the satisfaction from that that you personally have been able to participate in, spend time on you and your family. That's been a long term recharging type.

Have type benefit right now recharging because I'm going off to the island, one of the islands next week. But you always have to do some recharging. But I would say let's not rule out. You mentioned mentoring. I would say my greatest gift has been help other people reach their full potential. Whether it's my grandson who's now 15, or my grand three granddaughters or people in business I've worked with or people I worked with 30, 40 years ago and staying true to my beliefs, my ethics, my values, and not violating those. And that's what I am proudest of throughout all the situations I've worked with. But I'm proudest of seeing enabling, kind of being the wind under the wings of some great leaders who have grown up a lot and helping them through their most difficult times, being there from and when they have their crucibles, their crises, their difficult times and being there. And you know, CEOs that lose their jobs, I always call them up and say, can we talk? Because you have a life and some things don't work out your way. Maybe it was your fault, maybe it wasn't. But I Think I'm proudest of helping leaders grow at all ages and stages of life and keep going.

What do you find is the go to conversation you have with the people that go through those trying times? Maybe it's their fault, maybe it's not their fault, but you know, they're going through, I mean their whole world is shaken, you know.

Yeah. Well, frankly, just being there for him and caring about. I'm working with a young man who's 32 years old now. It's gone through some incredible crucibles. I can't imagine what he went through and just being there for him. Tell him I care about him and see his potential and then saying, you know, you can learn from this now. How are you going to grow? How are you going to pick yourself? It's resilience. How are you going to pick yourself back up and fulfill the things you want to do? Okay, you got knocked off course. Maybe that was a good thing. Like when I lost those seven elections. That was a good thing because I had to look myself in the mirror. And so I think each of us has to do that. So I'm proud of what I can do with helping people like this. This person has enormous potential, have a very positive impact in the world. Went through some very rough times. Okay. But everyone goes to a rough time. Everyone is carrying some great challenge they faced in their lives and if we can help them through that time, then they can realize their potential and do what they want to do and not try to be something else. And that's what I'm proud of stuff.

Where do you like to go to recharge? You know, you're saying you're headed to the islands. Is there any one or two or three places you like to go to regularly or you just. Is it.

Well, we, we are blessed to have a second home in the Vail Valley we've had for 26, 27 years. I was out there skiing over the holidays. I, you know, I've got a 15 year old grandson. I like ski with him, but he's going off in the trees and I'm going down on the group runs. Yeah, but I did that for 10 days and I love doing that. And the Penny and I to get away at Cloudy and Gray here in Minnesota. We need to get away sometime in the winter. So we're going down to St. Lucia. We got to move around with this Costa Rica, right. Virgin Islands. We, we just like to get to some warm weather. You get warm weather every day. I was visiting some friends and Palm beach this over or Thanksgiving. And it's very nice. Get it every day. Not all of us have that blessing. So we got to get out of here and do that. And. But it does give you. I think we get back to that. I've been a meditator for 45 years. We need time to reflect and decide what do I want to do with my life? You know, start of the year is a good time to do that. So hope, do some reading and some reflection on those things. I think that people are kind of too much 24, 7. Let me keep up my social media. Let me read 10 newspapers, let me watch TV. Let's do this. And you need to pull back and say, hey, what's important in my life? What do I want to do? And that's really important.

Yeah. I've got to tell you this one. Remember Congressman Jack Kemp, former Buffalo Bill. Yeah. And so he was in Vail scheme. They had the same tradition. And you may know this story, but he went. And then he had the thing where he went with his son and he said, remember, you know, when he went, you know, and we'll go skiing, you know, when you're old enough. And so he and his son got to where they had that. Then he had his grandson and the same thing. Remember I had your dad out here when he was young. And now we've got three generations. Isn't it great? And everything? And so life goes on. And the. The great grandson shows up and he's like 10. He's like 10 years old. And he goes, you know, son, you know, I was out here with your father. I was out here with your, you know, I mean, your grandfather. And, you know, we, you know, we. This is, this is a family tradition. And, you know, maybe, maybe one day when you have a son, we'll, you know, we'll be able to all ski together, you know, five generations. And the great grandson said, oh, Granddaddy said, you'll be dead by then.

Yeah. I thought I was going to say I started too late to have great grandsons. I love my grandson and my granddaughter.

Yeah. And so life is. We're not going to be here forever. And so while we're here, it's great to be able to make an impact and make a mark and to speak back to your authentic leadership thing. You're not. You have no prayer of doing that unless you are authentic about going through life as you. And there's some great wisdom I know in that book, and I encourage everybody to check it out. True North. And Bill always like to let our guests have the final word. And you know, it seems like as much as we, we cover on here that we didn't leave anything left unsaid. But I always find that there's something, usually there's some one more thing that people have to pass on. So for people listening who are in their life's journey and looking to do great things and greater things, what would you final word would you pass on to them?

I would say the world needs you to lead. Step up and lead now. You don't have to be a CEO. You don't have to be at the top of your organization. You don't have to be wealthy. You can lead right where you are and you can have an impact that people around you don't even need direct reports, but you can have an impact. We need more leaders. So please, please devote yourself to helping lead other people to do the right thing and lead with a purpose and values. And if you can do that, you'll have a great life.

Yeah. And there's a, you know, at all times, there's a worldwide shortage of leaders. Every area of life, we need leadership to step in and make things better for all of us. So thanks so much, Bill. This has been great. You guys have a great time in the islands and have a great rest of the winter up there in Minneapolis.

Thank you for having me on your show. Larry. It's been a privilege.

Thank you very much.

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