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You can also find one of the Jesuits' 4 pillars addressed
in the article 'The Harder They Fall" by Roderick Kramer in the
October 2003 issue of Harvard Business Review. Kramer looks at why some leaders exhibit all the requisite skills as they rocket their way to the top yet lose it all once they get there. Many of the attitudes and behaviours that help leaders reach the top become liabilities when taken to an extreme once they arrive. And people often neglect other skills they've used on the way up in the mistaken idea that they no longer need them. At the end of the day, the precise recipe for a fall from grace is dependent upon the individual. But Kramer found that the leaders who got to the top and managed to stay there all displayed similar behaviours and values - one of the most important being a high degree of self awareness. I'm sure the Jesuits wouldn't be surprised. ———————— |
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If you have difficulty relating to Lowney's use of
the term "love" (see review of 'Heroic Leadership' in next column)
to describe an aspect of leadership then you might find Kouzes and
Posner's approach in their book "Encouraging the Heart" They say that employees perform best when they are genuinely appreciated. That doesn't mean employee of the month gold stars. It means actual emotional feelings, given and generated - which can only come from genuine emotional sources. Kouzes and Posner contend that most executives have not mastered the decidedly soft-management skill of "encouragement" or compassionate supervision that fosters these feelings and results in the desired performance. Expressing genuine appreciation for the efforts and successes of others means we have to show our emotions. We have to talk about our feelings in public. We have to make ourselves vulnerable to others. For many of us-perhaps most of us-this can be tough, even terrifying. The authors set out seven essential actions leaders can take that both make people special and reinforce the standards of the enterprise. 1. Set clear standards By clearly defining the values and principles for which we're held accountable and by linking performance to those standards, leaders establish a benchmark for achievement. They can't be just any standards but must instead be standards of excellence. They must be aspirational, and bring out the best in us and make us feel like winners when we attain them.
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The best leaders believe that no matter what their role, people can achieve the high standards that have been set. It's called the Pygmalion effect, a belief so strong that even if others don't believe in themselves initially, the leader's belief gives rise to self-confidence, to a belief that "Yes, I can do it." It becomes a "self-fulfilling prophecy." But this expectation must be genuine. It cannot be forced because we give away our true feelings in a myriad of ways that we are not aware of. 3. Pay attention People have become cynical about perfunctory thank-yous and gold watches. There's ample research that shows even when people receive something of great monetary value, but because the leader hadn't put any thought into it, hadn't considered the individual who was being recognized, the effect was the opposite of what was intended. It didn't inspire the person to do his best; rather it convinced him that the leader really didn't know him and didn't really care about him. The leader was doing it because she learned somewhere that what leaders were supposed to do was encourage others. 4. Personalize recognition Before recognizing someone, then, the best leaders get to know people personally. They learn about their likes and dislikes, their needs and interests. They observe them in their own settings. Then, when it comes time to recognize a particular person, they know a way to make it special, meaningful, and memorable. 5. Tell the story Storytelling is one of the oldest ways in the world to convey the values and ideals shared by a community. Research tells us that stories have more of an impact on whether businesspeople believe information than do straight data. Good stories move us. They touch us, they teach us, and they cause us to remember. They enable the listener to put the behavior in a real context and understand what has to be done in that context to live up to the expectations. The story captures our attention and excites and entertains us. Even while capturing our attention, the narration of what happened provides a behavioral map that people can easily store in their minds. We get the message, and we remember it far longer than if we were at a lecture. 6. Celebrate together Most of us want others to know about our achievements, and the public ceremony does that, sparing us the need to go around bragging about ourselves. The experience of leaders who recognize others publicly is that it rarely causes hard feelings, and in most cases it helps bring people closer. 7. Set the example The foundation of leadership is credibility. What is credibility behaviorally? Research has shown that credibility is "doing what you say you will do." Leaders set the example for others. They practice what they preach. If you want others to encourage the heart, you start by modeling it yourself.
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more to your liking. 
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Forward thinking leaders will find Chris Lowney's
new book, Heroic Leadership, an engaging and thought provoking
read - best Time For a Different Perspective If you reflect on leadership books published over the last decade you'll find plenty that deal with lessons that can be learned from leaders like Attila the Hun, Machievelli, Sun Tzu and any number of other military generals. And, for some probably primal reason, it is easy to relate to the command-and-control, manipulate-and-seize nature of these works. And Lowney, who lived for 7 years as a Jesuit and then spent 17 years at J.P. Morgan, part of it as a Managing Director, readily admits, that at first blush, looking to the Jesuits for leadership best practices could be perceived by some to be a little … well, let's say … fringe. But Heroic Leadership readily demonstrates that Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, was well ahead of his time in terms of leadership principles. And, in fact, recent research and leadership trends are only now catching up with the intuitions of the antithesis of Attila the Hun. The Jesuits struggled with the same challenges that Lowney saw in J.P. Morgan and that large companies deal with today: forging seamless multinational teams, motivating inspired performance, remaining "change ready" and being strategically adaptable. They prized the same mindsets modern companies value today: the abilities to innovate, to remain flexible and adapt constantly, to set ambitious goals, to think globally, to move quickly and to take risks. The 4 Pillars of Leadership Lowney attributes the Jesuits' success to two primary factors:
These four values were pillars upon which the Jesuits built leaders who:
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It's Not About What Leaders Do ... Lowney starts off with the position that we know what leadership looks like and the outputs we want leaders to deliver. There are countless works revealing the "7 miracles", "12 simple secrets", "13 fatal errors", "21 irrefutable laws" and so on. And yet Harvard Business School professor John Kotter still offers the sorry indictment: "I am completely convinced that most organizations today lack the leadership they need. I'm not talking about a deficit of 10% but of 200%, 400% or more in positions up and down the hierarchy." It's About Who They Are The Jesuit team doesn't tell us much we don't know about what leaders do but they have a lot to say about who leaders are, how leaders live and how they become leaders in the first place. They don't offer quick fix approaches that equate leadership with mere tactics and technique. And they scrap the conventional command and control approach. 4 Differences to Traditional Models Instead you find four significant differences to traditional corporate models:
Heroic Leadership tells the story of the Jesuits and in so doing examines the application of the four pillars to contemporary leadership. In Lowney's words:
Leadership Stereotypes Lowney points out that the stereotypes of leaders and leadership is:
Real Life Leadership Models However, the stories of the individual Jesuits present a different statement about who leaders are and how lives of leadership unfold. After reading Heroic Leadership you can't argue the fact that these men were leaders engaged in some very exotic challenges. But they also represent a leadership model more relevant to the real life that most people live:
Lowney does an outstanding job of using the stories of Jesuits over the years to demonstrate leadership best practices in action. He examines not only their successes but also the failures they suffered as a result of not following their own principles. A lively, engaging and informative perspective on some of the most current leadership trends that are actually several centuries old. |
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practices
from a company 450 years old, that's gone through start-up and
explosive growth, thrived in an environment full of competitive
pressures, risen from the ashes after 40 years of suspended animation,
and changed the world. That company is none other than the Jesuits.