{"id":15081,"date":"2017-11-08T22:50:20","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T06:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=15081"},"modified":"2017-11-09T19:43:26","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T03:43:26","slug":"the-emotional-intelligent-jesuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-emotional-intelligent-jesuits\/","title":{"rendered":"The Emotionally Intelligent Jesuits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Chris Lowney\u2019s book, Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World<\/em>, was a fascinating read. I would have never thought I would be reading a leadership book based on the Jesuits, let alone referring to them as a thriving company to take notice of. After reading it, I am now convinced we have much to learn from the Society of Jesus, and others who have reviewed this unorthodox approach to leadership agree as well. If you can read through some of the lengthy Jesuit history you can find some revolutionary leadership principles. One of the foundational principles is the idea that everyone is a leader. Lowney writes, \u201cFour differences stand out: \u2022 We’re all leaders, and we’re leading all the time, well or poorly. \u2022 Leadership springs from within. It’s about who I am as much as what I do. \u2022 Leadership is not an act. It is my life, a way of living. \u2022 I never complete the task of becoming a leader. It’s an ongoing process.\u201d[1]<\/a> This concept of everyone leads is hard for people to grasp when every other leadership book focuses on the concept of leaders and followers. The concepts in the book that were most attractive to me were the leadership pillars of self-awareness and love.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

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Self-awareness is something I help my clients increase in on a daily basis. As the author points out, helping people \u201cunderstand their strengths, weaknesses, values, and worldview\u201d[3]<\/a> is one of the keys to helping them master their life. The Jesuits seemed to figure this out, unlike many people in leadership positions today. Many people do not seem to be self-aware, and when I ask them who they are and what they want in life they often look back at me with a blank stare. I notice people tend to be uncomfortable being introspective, and they have never been challenged to do what the ancient Greeks encouraged, \u201cto know thyself\u201d. This appeared to be a key element for the Jesuits as they referred to this idea of self-leadership. \u201cIf all leadership is first self-leadership that springs from personal beliefs and attitudes, then each person must first decide what personal leadership legacy he or she wants to leave behind.\u201d[4]<\/a> This seems to be lost on most people I see in my practice. They often don\u2019t know what they believe, and they definitely have not thought about what kind of legacy they want to leave. Our culture seems to breed much of the opposite, an attitude of what can I attain and how can I better my life. Like Lowney, I believe if more people were self-aware, we would naturally have more quality leaders in our midst.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>The next Jesuit leadership pillar our world needs is love. Now this sounds a little trite, but it is a leadership quality that is left out of almost all leadership books. This book highlights a beautiful principle found in scripture, \u201cThere is no\u00a0fear\u00a0in\u00a0love. But\u00a0perfect\u00a0love\u00a0drives out\u00a0fear.\u201d[5]<\/a> In fact, Lowney writes that Ignatius Loyola counseled his Jesuit managers to govern using “all the love and modesty and charity possible” so that teams could thrive in environments of “greater love than fear.”[6]<\/a> This is revolutionary because many leaders and manager today are convinced their subordinates need to fear them in order to respect them. The Jesuits believed everyone to be of value, and everyone to be a leader and the bottom line was that this approach of leading with love worked tremendously. \u201cThat’s love-driven leadership: the vision to see each person’s talent, potential, and dignity; the courage, passion, and commitment to unlock that potential; and the resulting loyalty and support that energize and unite teams.\u201d[7]<\/a> Companies that care more about their employees than the bottom line stand the best chance to stand the test of time.<\/p>\n

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The next thing that caught my attention was the Jesuit\u2019s commitment to an egalitarian approach to leadership. \u201cTheir egalitarian, world-embracing embracing vision enabled Jesuits to create teams that seamlessly blended recruits from European nobility, the world’s poorest families, and most everything thing in between.\u201d[8]<\/a> Since the topic of my research is egalitarian leadership, namely men and women in equal partnership, I was pleasantly surprised\u00a0to see the Jesuits live by this value. Although their version of egalitarian did not include females, in my research I discovered that in April of 2014 they began allowing women into the Society of Jesus. James Martin, the Jesuit author of the best-selling book,\u00a0Jesus: A Pilgrima<\/em><\/a>ge<\/em><\/a>, is quoted in the article as saying \u201cOur Ignatian-minded sisters will be fully-recognized Jesuits. Martin added that the female members will be called\u00a0Hermanas Sociedad<\/em>, but we\u2019ve already nicknamed them \u2018the Kateris\u2019, after Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, who was converted by Jesuits. We believe the Kateris will bring what Blessed John Paul II called \u201cthe feminine genius\u201d into the mainstream.\u201d[9]<\/a> This is a powerful affirmation of women and I pray they continue to be celebrated and put forward as equal leaders in the church. In fact, on March 8th<\/sup> of\u00a0this year at a conference in Rome, they were discussing this very thing.[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

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The last gem I want to include (so I have it referenced for future) is Goleman\u2019s powerful list of five core competencies: \u201cSelf-Awareness<\/strong>: the ability to recognize and understand your moods, emotions, and drives. Self-Regulation<\/strong>: the ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods; the propensity to suspend judgment-to think before acting. Motivation<\/strong>: a passion to work for reasons that go beyond money or status. Empathy<\/strong>: the ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people. Social Skill<\/strong>: proficiency in managing relationships and building networks; an ability to find common ground and build rapport.\u201d[11]<\/a> Of all the leadership books I have read, I have never seen a list of leadership qualities that even come close to matching these, mostly because these are all about emotional intelligence, which is extremely lacking in leaders today. I believe the key to the Jesuits\u2019 success was their amazing ability to develop emotional intelligence in their members, thus living out the five core competencies.<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Chris Lowney. Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World (Kindle Locations 124-126).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ibid., 82-84.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ibid., 82-84.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ibid., 189-190.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I John 4:18 (NIV)<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Chris Lowney. Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World (Kindle Locations 290-291).<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ibid., 1702-1703.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ibid., 299-300.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Elizabeth Scalia. BREAKING: Jesuits to Admit Women to the Society. http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2014\/04\/01\/breaking-jesuits-to-admit-women-to-the-society\/#gcqp0t8UBbPjvaLd.99<\/a><\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bradley Eli. Head Jesuit Calling for Women\u2019s Ordination. https:\/\/www.churchmilitant.com\/news\/article\/head-jesuit-calling-for-womens-ordination<\/a><\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Chris Lowney. Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World (Kindle Locations 1029-1032).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Lowney\u2019s book, Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World, was a fascinating read. I would have never thought I would be reading a leadership book based on the Jesuits, let alone referring to them as a thriving company to take notice of. After reading it, I am now convinced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,933],"class_list":["post-15081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-lowney","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15081"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15161,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15081\/revisions\/15161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}