I hope you’ve had a good day today. It’s Christmas evening on the west coast of Canada. Fraser Valley, British Columbia has about 60 centimeters (two feet or more) of freshly fallen snow. My quiet hope for a white Christmas a few weeks ago has been fulfilled way beyond my most active imagination.
Once again, for approximately 2 billion people world wide, Christmas marks a significant opportunity to express one’s faith, reaffirm hope, and exercise one’s love for others. One of the great beauties of the season is to see love in action. So many people give time and resources to others who are in need of a hand up; volunteerism spikes; worthy causes are supported in ways that benefit others who are less fortunate, down trodden, or weighed down by difficult circumstances. In spite of the tsunami of materialism and the frenzy to buy, buy, buy that Christmas brings, it also carries us to new heights of consciousness about the plight of others. It provides vehicles for responding to others’ needs. It brings friends and families together to sing, dance, eat and enjoy a sense of being and belonging.
Most importantly, Christmas brings into focus the remarkable story of God’s initiative of self-giving love, self-revelation, self-disclosure, and self-sacrifice through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is this story that unites the hearts and minds of 2 billion people in every nation of the world around a common faith and shared hope. Christmas is a time for exposures to the joy, faith, and hope inherent in the story. It is a time for reflection on the courage and obedience of Mary and Joseph and the humility of the advent. It is a time for the celebration of Jesus as God’s remarkable gift of salvation, reconciliation, and restoration for which the world so deeply longs.
I hope you’ve had a good day today because you see beyond the materialism. You see beyond the frenzy and the hectic rush that Christmas these days seems to occasion. I hope that after opening the gifts, having the Christmas meal, and accommodating the day’s social calendar, you had some quiet time to reflect on the grace of the day. God’s grace is too often unrecognized, unappreciated, unacknowledged, and undervalued. What a remarkable blessing is Christmas when fully embraced for all its simple yet profound meaning and for the precious gift the story conveys. Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, goodwill to all! Emanuel, God is with us! Merry Christmas!
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
LOOKING FOR HEROIC LEADERSHIP?
Ask anyone to name great leaders and you will get ready answers. The answers cover a broad spectrum of society, geography, time, and opinion: Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Winston Churchill, Catherine Booth, Tommy Douglas, Pope Benedict, Nelson Mandela, and the list goes on, as varied as the responders. Most of us will agree that leadership is key to the success of any enterprise. The enduring worldwide hope for competent, ethical leadership characterized the recent twenty-one month long marathon of the American presidential primaries and election. The international disgust with the corrupt, dictatorial, nightmarish leadership of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe stands in stark contrast to the hope of Zimbabweans and their dream of a leader of competence and character who will usher in a brighter day and better life.
Leadership is a reality filled with paradox and irony. On the one hand, I often encounter comments from people engaged in the work of the church, NGOs, education, government, and business lamenting the absence of leadership in the various sectors of society. People are longing for inspirational leadership, which is visionary and competent with character and integrity. On the other hand, while the world longs for great leaders and complains of the paucity of exemplary leadership, the publications of books on leadership and the university programs and offerings on leadership have never been more abundant. The world’s bookstores and universities' course schedules are bursting with information and knowledge designed to promote excellence in leader development. The wealth of resources promoting leadership development are unprecedented in human history. Successful pastors and religious leaders churn out massive amounts of literature from their personal experience and exegesis of scriptures. Successful captains of industry and business do the same. Academics represent a third source of leadership literature based on scientific study and inquiry. In a time when the public feels a great shortage of effective leaders, leadership nevertheless has never been more studied, taught, and reflected upon. In spite of all the attention to leader development, leaders are believed to be in short supply.
An unusual, fresh take on leadership comes to us from a source other than the academic researcher, pastor/religious leader, or business executive. It is written by a monk turned investment banker, and now author and consultant, Chris Lowney, and is entitled Heroic Leadership. Its content shares the unusual yet compelling insights and principles gleaned from the author’s study and reflection of a four hundred and fifty year history of the Jesuit order of the Catholic Church. Lowney’s writing is clear and engaging and the book is well worth the price. I've been so intrigued with Lowney's perspective and insight that I want to share the basic attributes and characteristic of leaders that he unpacks for the reader. In doing so, I will sometime paraphrase and sometime take directly from his text, verbatim. As Lowney recounts the history of the Jesuits and lessons learned from their remarkable history, Heroic Leaders . . .
• Aim high and keep relentlessly pointed toward something more, something greater. They conceive great resolves and elicit great desires. They are not satisfied with doing things half way. Their heroic leadership is not measured by the scale of their opportunities, but by the quality of their responses to the opportunities at hand. They don’t bide their time until the big moment comes along; they grasp the opportunities within reach and extract as much richness form them as possible. They commit to a way of life that focuses on goals that are greater than oneself.
• They don’t just think outside the box. They live outside the box. They cultivate a liberating attitude of indifference – a lack of inordinate attachment – not to others, but to material belongings, positions, and titles. They possess an inspiring spirit thinking of the whole world as their house. This promotes a spirit of ingenuity and innovation, a personal point of view in life that looks at the future with optimism, living with "one foot raised" ready to step out into the adventure that awaits.
• To their heroism and ingenuity, their love of God and others lends purpose and passion to life. They love to see others, all others, excel, benefit, and flourish. They work and serve to make stronger all souls in their sphere of influence. They see the world as full of uniquely dignified others and live by the premise that people perform their best when working with and for people who offer genuine support and affection to others.
• They are self-aware and understand how their self-awareness roots and nourishes other leadership virtues. They appreciate who they are, what they stand for and what they want. Their self-assessment is the foundation of their quest for continuous self-improvement. They regularly assess their strengths, weaknesses, values, and worldview cultivating the daily habit of self-reflection. They learn from their mistake and actively seek a limitless capacity for growth and development.
• They lead leaders, leading themselves and others by example. They do not behave as if they are leading followers. They act as if they are leading others by doing those things that help others to lead. They look for the very best to develop committing time, insight, and energy to unlocking the total potential of those most important assets which comprise leader excellence. Their investment in others is enlightened by love. They understand that the return on their investment on a well-developed leader far outstrips that of countless other investment opportunities.
• Instead of resting on their laurels, they keep reinventing themselves. They accept themselves, but they understand their missteps, learn from them, pick themselves up, and move forward again a wiser and better leader.
In the millions of pages published each year on leadership, Heroic Leadership, by Chris Lowney (Loyola Press, 2003) stands out for me as among the best in my memory. It rings with truth gleaned from the long run of an institution that has stood the test of time. I am now looking not merely for good leadership, but rather heroic leadership after the likeness of Jesus Christ.
An unusual, fresh take on leadership comes to us from a source other than the academic researcher, pastor/religious leader, or business executive. It is written by a monk turned investment banker, and now author and consultant, Chris Lowney, and is entitled Heroic Leadership. Its content shares the unusual yet compelling insights and principles gleaned from the author’s study and reflection of a four hundred and fifty year history of the Jesuit order of the Catholic Church. Lowney’s writing is clear and engaging and the book is well worth the price. I've been so intrigued with Lowney's perspective and insight that I want to share the basic attributes and characteristic of leaders that he unpacks for the reader. In doing so, I will sometime paraphrase and sometime take directly from his text, verbatim. As Lowney recounts the history of the Jesuits and lessons learned from their remarkable history, Heroic Leaders . . .
• Aim high and keep relentlessly pointed toward something more, something greater. They conceive great resolves and elicit great desires. They are not satisfied with doing things half way. Their heroic leadership is not measured by the scale of their opportunities, but by the quality of their responses to the opportunities at hand. They don’t bide their time until the big moment comes along; they grasp the opportunities within reach and extract as much richness form them as possible. They commit to a way of life that focuses on goals that are greater than oneself.
• They don’t just think outside the box. They live outside the box. They cultivate a liberating attitude of indifference – a lack of inordinate attachment – not to others, but to material belongings, positions, and titles. They possess an inspiring spirit thinking of the whole world as their house. This promotes a spirit of ingenuity and innovation, a personal point of view in life that looks at the future with optimism, living with "one foot raised" ready to step out into the adventure that awaits.
• To their heroism and ingenuity, their love of God and others lends purpose and passion to life. They love to see others, all others, excel, benefit, and flourish. They work and serve to make stronger all souls in their sphere of influence. They see the world as full of uniquely dignified others and live by the premise that people perform their best when working with and for people who offer genuine support and affection to others.
• They are self-aware and understand how their self-awareness roots and nourishes other leadership virtues. They appreciate who they are, what they stand for and what they want. Their self-assessment is the foundation of their quest for continuous self-improvement. They regularly assess their strengths, weaknesses, values, and worldview cultivating the daily habit of self-reflection. They learn from their mistake and actively seek a limitless capacity for growth and development.
• They lead leaders, leading themselves and others by example. They do not behave as if they are leading followers. They act as if they are leading others by doing those things that help others to lead. They look for the very best to develop committing time, insight, and energy to unlocking the total potential of those most important assets which comprise leader excellence. Their investment in others is enlightened by love. They understand that the return on their investment on a well-developed leader far outstrips that of countless other investment opportunities.
• Instead of resting on their laurels, they keep reinventing themselves. They accept themselves, but they understand their missteps, learn from them, pick themselves up, and move forward again a wiser and better leader.
In the millions of pages published each year on leadership, Heroic Leadership, by Chris Lowney (Loyola Press, 2003) stands out for me as among the best in my memory. It rings with truth gleaned from the long run of an institution that has stood the test of time. I am now looking not merely for good leadership, but rather heroic leadership after the likeness of Jesus Christ.
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