Heroic Leadership by Chris Lowney

"Heroic Leadership: Best Practices From A 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World", by Chris Lowney

This book writes about the Jesuit Order, an religious order which follows a four-pillar success principle that the author explains in the book. This four-pillar success principle can be applied to corporations as well. It has contributed much to the longevity and the life of a very influential religious order since the 16th century A.D.

The Four Pillars of Success

One strong thread that binds the content of the book is the description of the leadership substance and principles which has made the Jesuit order a unique organization that has changed and influenced the world. These four pillars of leadership success are integrated in the very way of life and prayer of each Jesuit:

• self-awareness
• ingenuity
• love
• heroism

The formation of the Order's recruits centered around these four ideals.

• each Jesuit understood what each one's strengths, weaknesses, values and worldview are
• each one was formed to confidently innovate and adapt to a changing world
• each one engaged others with a positive, and loving attitude
• and each one energized himself and others through heroic and selfless ambitions for God's greater glory

The author also speaks also of the Order as one where all are leaders. His view of the organization as a community of leaders is not far from what M. Scott Peck speaks of in "The Different Drum: The Creation of True Community". M. Scott Peck speaks of a true community as one which is "leaderless", because all of the members of the community, are leaders themselves.

Author Chris Lowney makes a distinction with the leadership style of the Jesuits, as a leadership that begins with self-leadership. Whereas M. Scott Peck speaks more of community in the style of an experience, that binds the members, and helps them grow and mature as a community, in the context of freedom and individuality, Chris Lowney speaks more along the lines of a well-structured community - one that can be organized into a well-ordered corporation and built on strong-valued principles.

Chapters of the book

The book is an interesting read because it highlights stories of individual Jesuits in the history of the Order that, in one way or another, made the Jesuit stand out amongst other religious orders of their time. And these examples of heroic men have truly embodied the four pillars of success that Chris Lowney mentions at the very beginning of the book.

• Of Jesuits and J. P. Morgan
• What Leaders Do
• The Jesuits: An Accidental Company With a Purposeful Vision
• Leadership Role Models: Three Unlikely Case Studies
• "To Order One's Life" Self-Awareness As the Foundation of Leadership
• The Spiritual Exercises: A Lifelong Development Tool
• "The Whole World Becomes Our House" How Ingenuity Sparks Innovation, Creativity, and a Global Mindset
• "Refuse No Talent, Nor Any Man of Quality" How Love Uncovers Talent and Unites Teams
• "An Uninterrupted Life of Heroic Deeds" How Heroic Leaders Envision the Impossible - and Do It
• "Exceptional Daring Was Essential" How the End of Risk Taking Almost Ended the Jesuits
• "The Way We Do Things" Four Core Values, but One Integrated Life

Leadership insights and wisdom

For one who heads an organization or a business, the book is a good source of leadership insights and wisdom that organizational leader or business person can apply to their organization. The book is structured more along the lines of a free-flowing story - citing the formation and the growth of the Jesuit Order, in terms of selected invididuals, who dotted their history, and made a great impact on the world at the time. But any corporate leader can also find in this book a fresh look at an old organization, that has survived the test of an ever-changing world and environment. The book is not a strict guide, or a training manual on the formation of leaders, but it tells a story and brings the truth and message: for something to last 450 years, means that it has a unique formula that was, is, and will always be God-inspired, and truly built on a vision that is solid and based on ideals that are rooted in the very soul of the life, prayer and mission of Christ.

Learn more about the book at Librarything.com