True North and the New Old Leadership Paradigm

The other day I read a New York Times review of a management book - usually not the sort of thing I spend much time with, but the article's author, Bill Holstein, is a former editor of mine whose work I respect. And I'm glad to have taken to detour. The book, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership, sounds like someone has finally begun again to look at the fundamentals of what it takes to get business done. The certral theme (though I haven't read the book yet) seems to be that real leadership means being interested in something other than yourself. Profits are welcome, but the people profiled in the book had drives beyond making money. In fact, I'd argue the obvious point that money only comes as a byproduct of doing something else that people want. There has to be something greater than the company and, certainly, than the CEO. As Bill puts it:

The best leaders are also capable of developing a virtuous, or reinforcing, cycle of leadership, Mr. George explains. They are driven people with moving personal stories and they empower the people around them. That leads to business success, and attracts even more ideas and people.

I found this theme reflected in a way in another book (one that I'm actually reading) called Chasing Cool: Standing Out in Today's Cluttered Marketplace. The publisher had sent an advanced copy for me to see in the context of another article I'm writing for Advertising Age. Although not yet through the whole volume, there's quite a bit I like about it. One of the main themes is that companies looking to harness the branding power of being cool never get it by faking or trying to advertise it in. Ultimately, brand is what the company is, not what it wants customers to think it is nor what consultants say it should be. For example, it mentions skateborder entrepreneur Tony Hawks (ask your teenager): "If I had to go to someone else to be cool, I'd just pack up my bags and find a new profession." Real cool is doing what you believe in and not worrying what people think - and the result is that people follow. Funny, that's another definition of leadership.