There’s a hero
Heroic leadership by Chris Lowney
As the great philosopher Mariah Carey once said:
“There’s a hero/If you look inside your heart/You don’t have to be afraid/Of what you are…”
Chris Lowney agrees with Mariah, it seems. Using the Jesuits as the inspiration for his heroic leadership, he riffs on four key leadership traits that marked out this particular company (of Jesus). The first of these is self-awareness – the ability to look inside your heart and to be who you are as a person and a leader:
“a leader’s most compelling leadership tool is who he or she is…” (Lowney:19)
The Jesuits go through a 30-day period of self-reflection using the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola, carrying out a self-inventory and dealing with misplaced affections of the heart. They continue on this journey of reflection using the daily prayer of examen.
The other three areas that Lowney highlights are:
- Ingenuity – confident optimistic innovation
- Love – engaging others positively and supportively
- Heroism – the spirit of magis (more)
These four pillars are not explicitly stated in Jesuit writings, but are drawn out by the author. While all the points are interesting and well made, and there are some very interesting leadership insights, they seem a little arbitrary to me. Because this is not an explicitly Christian book, Lowney seems at times to downplay the God factor in the spread of this movement and in its outstanding achievements and adventures.
For example:
“Loyola’s personal commitment was to Christian service, and the Exercises’ thrust and subject matter are emphatically Christian. But they work as a leadership tool not because they are grounded in a religious worldview but because they build the personal resources required for freely chosen, powerful, and successful human commitments…” (Lowney:116)
Self-awareness, courage, ingenuity, heroism are all expressed in a fairly humanistic way and seem to move away from the centrality of God, of the cross, of the ultimate motivation for Christian service and sacrifice.
The self-awareness piece of the Jesuits is surely much more than the emotional intelligence or personal reflection that you can pick up in a Goleman book or in the latest thinking on EQ. Ingenuity and adaptability was sourced from a radical obedience to the gospel and a willingness to abandon all for the sake of the call. The love of which Lowney writes was divine in its origin and sounds like the compelling love of the Apostle Paul. The examen is not some mindfulness mumbo-jumbo, but is a prayerful walk and consciousness of God and his presence throughout the day.
It’s not that I didn’t like and agree with many of the leadership insights in the book. Plenty of underlining took place. The highlighter pen was out in abundance.
It’s just that I think the central thread that holds it all together is vastly underplayed to a secular audience, and once that thread is pulled, the whole thing unravels.
About the Author
Geoff Lee
8 responses to “There’s a hero”
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Ah yes, the great Mariah Carey. She mirrors this read beautifully. Good point about the abundance of self-awareness vs. maybe Christ awareness? It reminds me of a book I read called, “Christ Esteem” where we draw our value from Christ instead of ourselves. Might be a good “cross-over” book for people who aren’t overtly Christian but unknowingly hold some Chrisitan values in their leadership styles.
“But they work as a leadership tool not because they are grounded in a religious worldview but because they build the personal resources required for freely chosen, powerful, and successful human commitments…” Geoff, I caught that too. In the margin on that page I wrote, “This seems humanistic – what about Biblical worldview?”
I found myself wondering if he or his editors told him to “downplay that religious stuff'” so the book would have a broader audience.
I’m not meaning to pick on him – I agree with you that his points were very good and I have lots of notes in the book. But as I said in my post, it did “rather take the edge off a bit.”
Okay Geoff, you brought to our memory a great encouraging song by Mariah.
The words of that song recognize the person you admire, respect, appreciate, and aspire to be like. I would say that heroic leadership is reflected in what those who interact with you think of you.
“We could be heroes, if just for one day.”
– David Bowie
Geoff,
First of all, I forgive you for picking the Mariah Carey quote over the obvious Bowie quote.
Secondly, I appreciate your summary below:
“Ingenuity and adaptability was sourced from a radical obedience to the gospel and a willingness to abandon all for the sake of the call. The love of which Lowney writes was divine in its origin.”
Having studied church history and the history of missions, I strongly connected with this book. I also am curious how a non-believer might view this work.
While the bravery of these men (the Jesuits) are inspirational. There is not view of what is behind their passion.
I a sure the Catholic readers would enjoy it. As an evangelical, I quickly made the jump to see these man as boldly serving Christ with radical faith.
It would be interesting to see whether this book might be used by God to spark an interest in those who are not followers of Christ.
Geoff I agree there was definitely an intent to underplay the “God factor” to try to connect Jesuit leadership practices to the masses. As a leader in a “secular” context I believe that my christ-centric faith base is what enables me to be loving, optimistic, and innovative each and every day. To deny it’s importance is a disservice. It is a disservice to the Jesuits also because their guiding “leadership” principles are rooted in their Faith. However, I hope that others who do not come from a faith based context can extract the value that these principles contribute to living life as a great leader.
Interesting Geoff. I had a conversation with my husband about how much I appreciated Lowney’s four pillars, but felt like perhaps the book was created backwards. I imagined that he first came up with the four pillars, then figured out how to place the practices of the Jesuits into them. As he mentions in the final chapter, the Jesuit leadership tools overlap and cross-pollinate the four pillars. But it seems as if Lowney attempts to make too much separation between the pillars.
And absolutely, (as I mention in my own post) something intrinsic must motivate the Jesuits to do the crazy radical things they do. If that purpose is anything less than a response to Jesus, the Jesus Co. loses more than just its namesake.
But don’t the other religious orders also live faithfully to the gospel? we might ask. What makes the Jesuits stand out from the Benedictines or Franciscans, then? I would answer that by suggesting that they each exhibit faithfulness from different perspectives; we need them all.
Geoff, I completely agree that, without Jesus, the foundation for the four pillars doesn’t feel as strong. The daily examen isn’t just about “how am I doing as a leader” but how closely am I aligned to the heart of Christ. Like you I highlighted and wrote notes in abundance because this is a great book filled with great thoughts and tools, but questions such as “what is my passion” and thoughts about how I have to acknowledge my own value all center back to who I am in Christ. I would be fascinated to hear a take on this book from someone who has no religious affiliation or relationship with God.
Geoff, really good insight into the “God” factor. I agree with you. Mary’s makes a good point, that it very well might have been the publisher/editor that moved him away. In any case, you made an excellent and meaningful observation.