Time Tested and Proven Leadership

This past week, I attended a luncheon meeting of the Loyola Club in Washington, DC, and took away several insights I’d like to share.

For context, the Loyola Club’s members are those who have been educated by the Jesuits. There are 28 Jesuit universities and  57 high schools in the U.S.  The luncheon speaker was Chris Lowney, who authored Heroic Leadership, a wonderful book about which I wrote a blog two years ago. Chris, a former Jesuit, became a managing director of J. P. Morgan, and now he is an author and speaker—a very good one.

So that you understand how wise and important Jesuit messages can be, the Jesuit Order was founded in 1534, and, as Chris Lowney put it, the order is like a 470-year-old company that is a leader all around the world, in 112 countries on six continents.

A 470 year old company!  Do you realize how many companies in the U.S. are even 100 years old? Surprisingly few. So many companies fail to manage (lead) themselves well and fail or must sell.

So how have the Jesuits thrived for 470 years throughout the world? The answer is so simple! In 1534, St. Ignatius based the foundation of the Jesuits on self-awareness, caring for others, curiosity, and making things happen.

This is the blocking and tackling of leadership:

“How am I received by others?”
“How can I help you?”

As Lowney quoted another leader at the luncheon,  “You must love the people you’ll lead before you can lead them.”

And he points out that we are all leaders. Leadership is influence. We can influence our co-worker, encourage, help and or guide her, and that is leadership, just as is a CEO of a large company. Leadership is what we do with our influence, with whatever our status.

Leadership comes from our heart and our head. It’s our attitude, and attitude is everything.  It’s having a purpose bigger than ourselves. It’s caring about others, and wanting to help them.

Lowney gave this wonderful example of attitude and purpose.

JFK visited the NASA Space Center in 1961. We were in the space race with Russia, and at the time this was very important. The Russians were ahead of us, and we felt threatened. Kennedy wanted us to be the first to put a man on the moon. He offered a challenge to our dedicated people in the field. During his tour on the NASA space center Kennedy stopped to speak with a janitor. He asked, “What do you do?” The janitor responded, “I am helping to put a man on the moon.”

Now that is purpose and attitude!

As leaders, it’s not about us. It’s helping others. In fact, we cannot be self-absorbed, we must get over ourselves. It’s the givers who are most effective (and the happiest).

How are you influencing others? And where does your leadership come from? In reflecting on Lowrey’s ideas, let’s remember that we can always have influence—everyone has influence—and if that influence is coming from our heart and our head, it will have a positive affect on others. That is true leadership!

Since I drafted this paper, I read Chris Lowney’s short and wonderful article in the 3/19/13 Harvard Business Review entitled: A Simple Ritual for Harried Managers (and Popes)