Rob Roque
September 9, 2015
The world is growing ever more complex and our lives within our organizations and associations are beset with increasingly difficult problems. We often turn to our leaders for direction on how to move forward and yet we are often disappointed. Scandal after scandal has revealed just how frail and broken leadership has become or just how hard it is to remain truthful, trustworthy and courageous. This is the context in which Chris Lowney, author of other leadership books including Heroic Leadership, proposes a new way to lead from one of the most popular leaders today in his book entitled Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads. Lessons from the First Jesuit Pope.
At first glance, it seems like another biography about a popular icon but Lowney is quick to clarify that it is not. Rather than a narration of his personal history, the whole book presents an insight on the leadership ethos of the first Jesuit pope, which Lowney asserts, is intimately linked to a much older tradition of leadership and spirituality. A recipient of Jesuit formation himself, Lowney very prominently links the experiences of Pope Francis, parsed from his public speeches or homilies and interviews with those whom he had formed, to the core principles of Ignatian spirituality. He then very carefully translates these into different, often secular, contexts where Francis’ brand of leadership could be applied. And like any leadership book, he ends key chapters with “do-it-yourself” suggestions that invite the reader to live out the ideas just presented.
The foundational insight of the book is composed of three pairs of commitments, seemingly paradoxical but, when viewed from how it is applied in the life and teachings of Pope Francis, complementary and reinforcing: Knowing yourself deeply but living to serve others; Immersing yourself in the world but withdrawing from the world daily; Living in the present and revering tradition but creating the future. Throughout all these commitments, Lowney highlights some tools and techniques that are part of the rich tradition of Ignatian spirituality such as the Spiritual Exercises, the examen, the call to be Contemplatives in Action and Ignatian indifference.
In knowing yourself deeply, the leader is invited to embrace all aspects of the self—the “hard skills” of technical competencies, the “soft skills” that build the character of the person and even one’s weaknesses and short comings. Once the leader is able to lead himself, then the call to leadership is service to those whom he leads. From the experiences of formands under then Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SJ, to his own motto as Pope–Miserando atque eligendo (Having mercy, he called him) referring to the call of Matthew the tax collector to be Jesus’ apostle–this new leadership ethos builds on self-knowledge and directs it outward in service.
Linking back to the first commitment, immersing in the world is a practical and logical extension. Practical because as Lowney asserts “you can’t lead us if you don’t know our reality”; and “you will know our reality only by walking among us”. He draws this from Bergoglio’s long history of being immersed in his own work as formator and spiritual guide, exhorting his own formands to move ever more deeply into the communities they serve and even as Pope, calls out an increasingly self-referential Church to go out of itself and “smell like the sheep”. Lowney coins the term “incarnational” leadership–that is, to imitate Jesus “who willingly plunged into a messy world and nonetheless remained undeterred from his vision of how human beings ought to treat one another.” However, to not get lost in the current realities and stresses, the Pope’s leadership ethos also invites the leader to “withdraw from the world” – that is, to regularly reflect on where you stand and contemplate and find meaning in the realities one is immersed in.
In the final commitment, Lowney tackles how a leader should approach the past, present, and future as seen through Bergoglio’s perspective. As his formands remember, for Pope Francis, to live in the present means to dedicate yourself fully to the opportunity before you. Warning against “going from one experience to another without thinking and following the fashions of the time… We are seduced by temporariness”, Pope Francis’ leadership style includes a reverence to tradition–that is, to embrace of the set of values and priorities within the organization to fully seize the opportunity and not merely be lost in it. To create the future, one must be free from unhealthy attachments to the familiar in order to be free for reaching the fullness of the purpose of the organization. Lowney adds a few more insights on change management–consulting others, consulting your heart and having a bias for action.
Readers may get a sense that perhaps Lowney is over reading the statements of the Pope and merely force fitting it to a workable framework. He is yet to interview the Pope himself and I suspect the Pope will not write a self-referential leadership book himself. But the witnessing of those whom he has touched before and the actions and statements he has been making thus far as the leader of the 1.2 Billion Catholics across the world lend credibility to this leadership ethos Lowney is presenting.
For me, the unspoken challenge of the book and real test of its credibility can be found in the specific style Lowney has chosen to present the leadership ethos and how he ultimately ends the book. Throughout the commitments Lowney elaborates, he spends a significant amount of time explaining that leadership is not just for a certain class or for a certain constituency. The readers are invited to see themselves as leaders and not merely recipients of leadership. So the challenge of the book, its final credibility test, and the response to the context in which it is written, is for all of us to take on the reins of leadership. Because if the realities of this complex and dangerous world are to be confronted, it will take not just one leader or a few, but all of us, to lead in our own contexts and situations.Incidentally (or perhaps purposely), this is the same mission we are called to do as Christians–that like Pope Francis, we are called to emulate Christ who led in His own time in history and continues to do so through us and with us.
Rob Roque graduated BS Chemistry from Ateneo de Manila University in 2011 and now works as a corporate affairs executive. This article originally appeared in The Windhover (Year XVII, Vol 1, 2015).
“Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads. Lessons from the First Jesuit Pope” by Chris Lowney is available through Jesuit Communications in the Tanging Yaman outlets. For inquiries, call (632) 426-5971 to 72 locals 112-113 or email tanging.yaman@jescom.ph. For more information, visit JesCom’s website here.