August 6, 2025
Harry Kraemer, ex-CEO – Baxter
What Really Matters In Our Short Time On Earth, Harry Kraemer – ex-CEO of Baxter & Kellogg Professor
Listen on:
Leadership isn’t just about C-suite executives running big businesses. It’s about leading with values at every stage of your life, using tools to improve yourself, your work, your relationships—and rebooting yourself with balance to lead a better life.
On this dynamic episode of The Reboot Chronicles Show, the world’s leading expert joins us to unpack all of this and much more. Harry Kraemer is the ex-CEO of Baxter, a best-selling author, and a Clinical Professor of Leadership at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. A friend and colleague, Harry has been a remarkable professor at Kellogg for over 20 years, has authored four impactful leadership-based bestsellers—and Chairman and CEO of Baxter—which he rebooted into a $12B company.
Listen in for amazing insights and lessons that Harry has built over his decades as a top global CEO, professor, and author—with straight talk about what leadership is all about, why we should seek to understand before you are understood—and how to first relate and influence before you lead.
Having A Legacy Beyond A Title
Harry’s latest book, Your 168: Finding Purpose and Satisfaction in a Values-Based Life, along with his earlier work From Values to Action, is Harry looking back on his life spent asking one core question: what really matters? A question that seems very daunting, but is required to ask when you are looking for value in this life. Harry has a concept of “values-based leadership” that challenges people at every stage of life to do some self-reflecting and soul searching to figure out what really matters, and what doesn’t. As Harry puts it, “You’ve got 168 hours in a week. What are you doing with them? What are you not doing? And why?”
Another way Harry has thought about it is through three questions that all lead into the next. The first being “If I’m not self-reflective, is it possible for me to know myself?” The second being “If I don’t know myself, can I lead myself?” and finally “If I can’t lead myself, how could I possibly lead other people”?
The Danger Of Ego In Leadership
In Kraemer’s four pillars of leadership—self-reflection, balance, true self-confidence, and genuine humility—it’s the interplay between confidence and humility that sets the best leaders apart. “People don’t relate well to egomaniacs,” he says. “If you start to believe all the people telling you how amazing you are, it’s over.”
What separates great CEOs from bad ones, in Kraemer’s view, is not intelligence or background. It’s character. He recalls advice from a mentor early in his career: “There are only two things you have to know in any job—what are your gifts, and who knows what you don’t?” The humility to recognize what you don’t know, and the confidence to surround yourself with people who do, is the ultimate leadership skillset.
Rebooting Your Life
Kraemer’s personal reboot, from a high-powered CEO to a quiet professor, was not without its challenges. But it was driven by the same principle he teaches: know what matters. And make sure your time on this earth reflects it. If Harry could speak to his 22-year-old self today? His advice would be short and sweet: “Get to know everyone. Find the best people. Create an environment they want to be part of. And never forget—it’s not about you.”
