Chris Lowney

From choosing to live in a simple apartment instead of the papal palace to washing the feet of men and women in a youth detention center, Pope Francis’s actions contradict behaviors expected of a modern leader. Chris Lowney, a former Jesuit seminarian turned Managing Director for JP Morgan & Co., shows how the pope’s words and deeds reveal spiritual principles that have prepared him to lead the Church and influence our world—a rapidly-changing world that requires leaders who value the human need for love, inspiration, and meaning.

Drawing on interviews with people who knew him as Father Jorge Bergoglio, SJ, Lowney challenges assumptions about what it takes to be a great leader. In so doing, he reveals the “other-centered” leadership style of a man whose passion is to be with people rather than set apart. Lowney offers a stirring vision of leadership to which we can all aspire in our communities, churches, companies, and families.… (mais)

Chris Lowney has a unique background among business authors. A former Jesuit seminarian, Lowney went on to become a managing director of J.P. Morgan & Co in New York, Tokyo, Singapore and London.

He brings these two worlds together in "Heroic Leadership" in which he looks to the early history of the Jesuits for leadership lessons.

Lowney focuses on the Jesuits’ sense of nuestro modo de proceder — loosely translated as “our way of doing things” — arguing that the early Jesuits were successful not because they executed a preexisting plan, but because they shared a common set of values and beliefs that helped them adapt in new cultures and situations.

Lowney mines these values — self-awareness, ingenuity, love, and heroism — to illumine that work of leading organizations.

I love Lowney’s use of stories to illustrate the principles of leadership and his love of the Jesuits is palpable throughout the book. "Heroic Leadership" is an easy read that will be immediately applicable to leaders of any stripe.… (mais)