Daily SL
Spiritually Speaking: Are you a leader worth following?
By Bernard E. Johnson
I have been thinking about what makes a leader worth following. Chris Lowney, special assistant to the president of the Catholic Medical Mission Board in New York, posed that question in a published column. He spoke of how we are quick to identify lapses and failures in leadership. At the same there is little agreement on a vision of the competent and virtuous leader.
The late Robert W. Terry, former director of The Reflective Leadership Center at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, reaches a similar conclusion in his book, Authentic Leadership. We seem to know when leadership has failed but we are hard pressed for agreement on what leadership really is. Terry goes on to unpack six critical concerns for leaders who desire to be “authentic” leaders. In the end, leadership is a spiritual reality, a matter of “being” more than doing.
Lowney appeals to a spiritual tradition for his thoughts on leadership. St. Ignatius of Loyola had a profound respect for the leadership potential in every person. It was born out of an understanding of spiritual giftedness that is everyone’s legacy from our creator. Ignatius would have us focus on the rich giftedness of every person rather than the failures of those in charge. In his thinking we all lead in some way.
Ignatius of Loyola was the Basque priest who founded the Jesuits in 1540. Consider his company’s credentials. As educators and confidants to Europe’s monarchs, China’s Ming emperor and the Japanese shogun, early Jesuits’ influence was unmatched. Today the Jesuits have marched past their 500th anniversary. In contrast, a mere 16 of the 100 largest companies of the year 1900 survived to celebrate a centennial.
More important than what Jesuits accomplished is how they did it. Every recruit was developed as a leader. Each catalogued his strengths and weaknesses and then articulated values he would be able with integrity to role-model. Each understood that every day brings opportunities to influence others and that is the essence of leadership. The world’s most extensive higher education network was forged one student, one year, and one Jesuit and lay teacher at a time.
All of this requires a spiritual understanding of life and relationships. Life is not about bosses and the bossed, leaders and the led, lords and servants. Life is about understanding your God given gifts and letting them be used to positively influence others. Jesus taught that a person’s greatness is measured by his willingness to serve others. Servant leadership is authentic leadership because it places the emphasis on those being served rather than the leader.
While there may be positional leaders in necessary hierarchies, the best of the best are those persons whose description by others includes a servant character. The “everyone leads” model emphasizes that all of us have opportunities to influence others by example in relationships. Think of the countless daily interactions between parents and children, children and siblings, teachers and students, workers and co-workers, friends and neighbors. In the economy of leadership, these are opportunities for an exchange of spiritual gifts in which one person blesses another.
When I think of the most influential leaders in my life, I go quickly to those persons I would like to be like. Some such people in my experience have been positional leaders. My father was a wonderful example of integrity and hard work. There is a pastor who influenced me greatly, as did a college professor. More numerous, however, are friends and colleagues along the way with whom I rubbed shoulders and from whom I received special graces of leadership. One friend of mine is the epitome of what it means to be kind. Another is my model of integrity in the workplace. Yet another is my model of how to handle adversity. These people did not set out to be my leaders. They succeeded in being my leaders by the example of their lives. They are in touch with their spiritual gifts. That in turn allows them to influence my behavior without even thinking about it.
I have observed this kind leadership played out in the most desperate of circumstances. I have had the honor of several visits to nations in East Africa. There, among poor people in rural villages, I have seen one person influence others through simple acts of kindness that transcend their circumstances. A young man carrying rocks to help build a home for the elderly and infirm was the example other young people needed to join him in the task. He did not set out to be their leader. He became their leader by being authentic in his own spirit and doing the right thing.
So who are the leaders worth following? You are, whether corporate executive, schoolteacher, neighbor or unemployed, if your example inspires me to live the great virtues of faith, hope and charity. I’m thinking a good question to ask oneself is, “To what does my life and example inspire others to be?”
Dr. Bernard E. Johnson shares this space with the Revs. Timothy A. Johnson, Michael Miller and Rod Anderson as well as spiritual writer Lauren Carlson-Vohs. “Spiritually Speaking” appears weekly.
Links:
[1] http://www.rwpads.net/www/delivery/ck.php?n=eden12214ad
posted by The I Ching Capers at 8:41 AM
<< Home