Becoming an Authentic Leader: A Case Study in Knowing Your Values from Inside Nixon’s White House, with Bill George, Former Chairman and CEO, Medtronic, and Author, Discover Your True NorthAuthenticity is really very simple. It’s about being at home in your own skin. What complicates things is that at various stages of our careers, we can get sidetracked into thinking that in order to achieve our goals, we need to become anyone but ourselves. In pursuit of status, power, riches, or other markers of success, or out of loyalty to a friend or colleague, we can end up violating what feels fundamentally right. According to Bill George, these are essential learning experiences—the crucible in which authentic leaders are made.You don’t really know your values until they’re tested under pressure.Process times when you’ve violated your own values. Ask: Why did I do that? What pulled me off track? What did I learn from that experience?Think back to a crucible of choice—a moment when yo...