过去的十年里，许多公司已经从能力型领导人模式转型到真实型领导人发展模式，连《哈佛商业评论》（Harvard Business Review）也声称“真实性已经成为领导力的黄金法则。”各种真实型领导力的培训项目，可以帮助领导人发展个性、提升价值观以及开发领导力的内在面，这些对于领导他人来说是至关重要的。

与以前的由学者推动的领导力理论不同，真实型领导力开发源自企业管理的实践者。许多公司意识到，在各个层级拥有真实型的领导者，会产生优越的长期绩效，并减少那些麻烦制造者即所谓混蛋的负面影响。

但要成为一个真实型的领导者，说说容易，做起来难。

2018年3月的剑桥分析公司丑闻后，Facebook的创始人兼首席执行官马克·扎克伯格面临着一场侵犯隐私权的危机，他当时的做法是隐身5天。他让公司的法律顾问助理代表他参加公司集会，并在有线电视新闻网（CNN）的采访中指责剑桥分析公司，而不是承担起自己应该承担的责任。

现实中，我们大多数人会在危急时刻偏离真实型领导人的标准。许多领导人在顺风顺水时表现得很好，一遇到危机就表现地不真实，因而也就不能作出身为领导人应该作出的大胆决策。有些领导人创建出一个假人格，似乎一切都在自己的完美掌控之下，而实际上他们顾虑重重，惴惴不安。但在今日这个更加透明的世界里，领导人做不到“假模假样，万事大吉”，他们的下属或将不可避免地知道领导人表现得是否真实。

过去10年里，在教室或是在各公司，通过与数万名真实型领导人的接触，哈佛商学院领导力培训团队听闻了数不胜数的故事，这其中领导人疑虑、迷惘、面临严峻挑战等等。当然，许多领导人都极其真诚地朝真实型领导人的方向靠，但也有脱离轨道的时候。

许多领导人都要与他们内心对金钱、名声和权力的渴望作斗争。获取财务上的成功和安全感，是天经地义的事。进一步说，获取晋升和对工作成果的认可，也没有任何不妥。问题在于，如果对外在功名的渴求成为了最终目的，这种渴求会成瘾并且控制了人生。对大批的手下发号施令、获取晋升、累积财富或者成为名人，这些会诱惑领导人们相信，他们要比其他人优越。这时候他们满脑子都是狂妄自满，就在此时钟摆从内在的推动力一端——完成一项使命、活出你的价值、为世界作出贡献——摆动到了另一端外在驱动力即金钱、权力和名声。

诺华公司的前首席执行官丹尼尔·瓦赛拉在接受《财富》杂志专访时谈到：“成为一名成功的经理人的想法……是一杯烈酒。这是一种庆祝方式，它通往信仰，也通往扭曲。当你获得了好的业绩……你会备受赞誉，然后你开始相信那场香槟盛宴就是为你而设。”

对外在功名的渴求，毁掉了许多知名的领导人，比如通用电气的杰夫·伊梅尔特、富国银行的约翰·斯图姆夫、麦肯锡的顾磊杰和日产的卡洛斯·戈恩。伊梅尔特从杰克·韦尔奇手中接下的是世界上最有价值的公司，但通用电气在他执掌下开始走下坡路，直到2017年董事会逼迫他辞职。自伊梅尔特在2001年成为首席执行官后，通用电气的股价下跌了78%。然而在他辞职5个月后，他却为《哈佛商业评论》撰写了一篇文章，标题是《我如何重建了通用电气》。 斯图姆夫是在金融危机后接管了富国银行，他如此渴望银行业绩的成功，以至于在他主管期间，公司员工创建了350万个虚假的客户账户。

在辞去麦肯锡执行董事一职后，顾磊杰显然不满足于其1.3亿美元的净值。结果，他向一位同僚提供了高度机密的内部信息，为此他被起诉并入狱2年。日产的首席执行官戈恩被证券与交易委员会调查是否存在大额收入隐匿问题。最近他被日本的检察院逮捕，并被迫辞去日产和雷诺的首席执行官职务。

只是聊举数例，有多少故事都是能力极强的领导人，沉醉于外在功名利禄，却失去价值判断和伦理视野。

领导人应该怎样避开这些陷阱，表现出真实呢？首先，他们得意识到自己对外在功名的欲望，并将之与内在的指针相平衡，使得自己可以保持在正确的方向上。

以我自己为例，我享受财务上的安全感，我喜欢度假，能为家庭成员提供教育也让我满足，但同时我也知道，我也可能会囿于功名，比如追求哈佛教室内的好评，或者电视观众的赞赏。如何抵御这些诱惑呢，我尝试正心正念，我有两个支持团队可以获取诚实的反馈。这些方法使得我可以专注于我的工作目标，那就是通过我的教学、辅导和写作帮助领导人发挥出他们全部的潜能。

成为成功的领导人，并没有一本精确的说明书，许多领导人通过外在的指标比如股价、业绩数据、薪水的提高和职位晋升等来评价自己。在现实中，这些其实是很肤浅的指标。更好的指标应该包括激励他人达到能力巅峰的能力、能够设定优秀的标准、维持强有力的价值观、表现出很高的伦理水平、在危机时处事果决，以及在关键时候能打动人心。

领导人要达到后面的这些标准，他们必须了解自己，了解自己的信仰、价值观和领导原则。通过实践他们的人生故事、体会他们的迷惘时刻、反思他们的危机处置，领导人可以发现自己真正的方向。这要求自省，以分辨经验习得，什么是生命中最重要的，以及最为坚持的信仰、价值和原则。他们需要从自我的行为中测试自我认知，通过获取诚实反馈的方法，更好地了解自己。

如果能经常这样做，比如正心正念、获取诚实的反馈，真实型的领导人将强大自己的道德指针，可以在脱轨时将他们拉回正途。这种努力的结果将是真实型领导人获得了一种强大的我是谁的感知力，这样就减少了外在功名的欲望掩盖住内心真正方向的风险。

这就是通往一个真正的真实型领导人的路径。（财富中文网）

比尔·乔治是哈佛商学院的高级研究员，美敦力的前任主席和首席执行官，《寻找人生真正的方向》（Discover Your True North）一书的作者。

译者：宣峰

In the past decade, companies have shifted away from competency leadership models to the authentic leadership development model, prompting the Harvard Business Review to declare that “authenticity has become the gold standard for leadership.” Authentic leadership programs help leaders develop their character, their values, and the inner side of their leadership, which are essential to leading other people.

In contrast to prior leadership theories driven by academic scholars, the shift to authentic leadership development has primarily come from leadership practitioners. Companies are recognizing that having authentic leaders at all levels results in superior long-term performance and reduces the impact of the so-called jerks who have caused so many problems.

Yet being an authentic leader is much easier said than done.

When Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg confronted the privacy crisis in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal in March 2018, he disappeared for five days. He sent his associate general counsel to represent him at Facebook’s town hall, and blamed Cambridge Analytica in his CNN interview instead of taking personal responsibility.

In reality, most of us deviate from the standards of authentic leadership at crucial times. Many leaders who perform well when things are going their way behave inauthentically in a crisis and are thus unable to make the bold decisions called for in their leadership. Other leaders create a false persona that projects having everything perfectly under control, when in reality, they have many doubts and uncertainties. But in today’s more transparent world, leaders cannot “fake it to make it.” Inevitably, their colleagues know who is authentic and who isn’t.

Through working with tens of thousands of authentic leaders in the past decade in classrooms and companies, our Harvard Business School leadership teaching team has heard myriad stories about leaders’ doubts, times they lost their way, and the crucibles they faced. Many of these leaders had worked in earnest to develop themselves as authentic leaders, yet still they went off track.

Most leaders struggle with their desire for money, fame, and power. There is nothing inherently wrong with achieving financial success and security. Furthermore, there is nothing inappropriate with seeking promotions and recognition for your work. However, if the desire for external validation becomes an end in itself, then it can turn into a craving that controls one’s life. Commanding large numbers of people, attaining promotions, accumulating wealth, or achieving celebrity too often seduces leaders into believing they are superior to others. That’s when hubris takes over. At this point the pendulum has swung from intrinsic motivators—fulfilling a mission, living your values, contributing to the world—to the extrinsic motivators of money, power, and fame.

As former Novartis CEO Daniel Vasella explained in a Fortune magazine interview: “[T]he idea of being a successful manager…is an intoxicating one. It is a pattern of celebration leading to belief, leading to distortion. When you achieve good results…you are typically celebrated, and you begin to believe that the figure at the center of all that champagne-toasting is yourself.”

The desire for external validation has brought down such celebrated leaders as General Electric’s Jeff Immelt, Wells Fargo’s John Stumpf, McKinsey’s Rajat Gupta, and Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn. Immelt inherited the world’s most valuable company from Jack Welch and proceeded to lead it downhill, before the GE board forced him to resign in 2017. GE stock has declined 78% since Immelt became CEO in 2001. Yet five months after his resignation he penned an article for Harvard Business Review titled, “How I remade GE.” Stumpf took over Wells Fargo after the financial crisis, but got so caught up in his bank’s success that he presided over the firm while employees created 3.5 million fictitious customer accounts.

After retiring as McKinsey’s managing director, Gupta apparently craved wealth beyond his $130 million net worth. Subsequently, he provided highly confidential inside information to an associate, for which he was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison. As CEO of Nissan, Ghosn is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission to determine if he hid large amounts of his income. Recently, he was arrested by Japanese authorities, and forced to resign as CEO of both Nissan and Renault.

These are but a few of the myriad stories of high-caliber leaders who let their need for external validation cause them to lose sight of their values and their ethics.

How can leaders avoid these pitfalls and behave authentically? First, they need to acknowledge their desires for external validation and then balance them with their internal compass that enables them to stay on course for their True North.

Speaking for myself, I enjoy financial security, taking nice vacations, and providing education for family members, but I also know that I am susceptible to getting caught up in seeking good ratings in the Harvard classroom and praise for television appearances. I try to offset these temptations by practicing mindfulness, having two support groups, and getting honest feedback. These techniques enable me to focus on my purpose of helping leaders achieve their full potential through my teaching, coaching, and writing.

Because there are no precise measures of successful leadership, many leaders judge themselves by external metrics like stock prices, numerical results, salary increases, and promotions. In reality, these are very superficial standards. Better measures would include the capacity to inspire people to perform at their peak, set standards of excellence, maintain strong values, demonstrate the highest ethics, act decisively in a crisis, and touch people’s hearts at crucial times.

For leaders to meet these latter standards, they must know themselves, their beliefs, values, and leadership principles. By processing their life stories, understanding times they have lost their way, and reflecting on their crucibles, leaders can discover their True North. This requires self-examination to discern what they have learned from their experiences, what is most important in their lives, and the beliefs, values, and principles they hold most dear. Then they need to test their self-perception against their behaviors by getting honest feedback from people who know them well.

Through regular practices like mindfulness and honest feedback, authentic leaders develop the moral compass that will pull them back to True North when they get off track. As the result of their efforts, authentic leaders develop such a strong sense of who they are that they reduce the risk of letting the desire for external validation overwhelm their True North.

That is the path to becoming a true authentic leader.

Bill George is a senior fellow at Harvard Business School, former chairman and CEO of Medtronic, and the author of Discover Your True North.