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Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World

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A thought-provoking yet straightforward book of value to anyone interested in how to make an organization more successful. Whether or not you care for the spiritual aspects of the Jesuits, their extraordinary success from the earliest days and the principles which drove them apply directly to the modern day enterprise and offer lessons that counter many current management techniques. After all, a group that taught its members to be flexible in the face of rapid change, to set ambitious goals, to think globally, and to take risks seems to have had in mind the challenges facing many managers today -- yet those modes of thinking were developed more than 450 years ago. Not author's thunder, but any 10-person start-up with no experience in education which had 30 colleges up and running in a decade -- without modern day communications or transportation -- and then surpassed its competitors to become the largest of its kind, 450 years later boasting 21,000 professionals -- bears taking a look at in an era of 3 year wonders. How did they do it? Read the book.

Leaders need followers, right? This engagingly written book warns us that it is precisely this kind of thinking that has produced the vacuum of leadership that has recently rocked corporate America. Lowney finds a profoundly different way to think about leadership in the early history of the Jesuits. Through fascinating stories about Jesuit astronomers, linguists, explorers, and high school teachers, he illuminates a kind of leadership in which "everyone leads, and everyone is leading all the time," and in which leadership consists of unlocking the leadership potential in others. Certainly this is a book for "professional" leaders, like corporate managers. However, it is equally, if not more, a book for those of us whose leadership will always occur in less conspicuous venues.

Jesuit high school and college. But then again I think just about every Jesuit school graduate would say the same thing.

Ten men, no money, no business plan and within ten years they had thirty schools established and running.

And not only has the Jesuit order survived for over four hundred years (after its abolition by the Pope everywhere but in Russia), but it has thrived. There is simply no comparable for-profit corporation with that same history of longevity and success.

Igantius Loyola set out some clear policies that survive and work to this day.

Almost thirty years out from high school graduation I value my Jesuit education more than ever. What I've found is that the ability to reason, calculate, write and think is much more rare than I previously thought. To this I have the Society of Jesus to thank. I really can't imagine my life without my Jesuit education.

The Jesuit high school course of study is essentially the same for my son's class of 2007 as it was for my class of 1975. But it should be noted that the Jesuits have adapted and requirements in Greek and Latin are no longer there. The key here is some foreign language is essential for a high school student.

Money can come and go but education lasts and that can't be taken away from you.

There were lots of things I didn't know about the Jesuits that I learned in this book. Looking back I can see where these principles were applied. Things such as "only the best teachers."

There is a definite Jesuit "way we do things" which is consistent at all Jesuit schools.

The references to "The Spiritual Exercises" were helpful and enlightening.

Some of the historical discussion about Paraguay, China and India was either unclear or slightly too long. Jim Rogers of "Adventure Capitalist" said it best about Paraguay. He described how the Jesuits had created a civilization there in the jungle and once the Jesuits were kicked out of the country,it relapsed and hasn't been the same since.

The readership for this book isn't limited to Jesuit school alumni or even those in business. If you want to lead a better and more productive life look at Lowney's distillation of Loyola's leadership principles, apply them and learn. ...

Chris Lowney has written a beauty of book bringing into focus leadership principles first implemented 450 years ago when Jesuit founder, St. Ignatius Loyola, established a leadership culture that led to one of the great organizational success stories in history. And along with the lessons on leadership, Lowney's readers also get a great story on several important chapters in world history.

Loyola builds on love driven leadership, an approach to leadership based on the notion that everyone has leadership potential, and true leaders unlock that potential in others. The how of unlocking potential is rooted in an orientation to "greater love than fear." This notion of leadership fits well with the growing trend of "people centered leadership" as evidenced by best selling books authored by Pat Lencioni, John Maxwell, and others. This is a welcomed change from former corporate speak where sports figures and a towel snapping, take-no-prisoners model took center stage

Lowney details Loyola's four pillars of success: self-awareness; ingenuity; love; and, heroism. The first step to leadership is self-leadership which springs from personal beliefs and attitudes. Throughout the book, Lowney highlights Loyola's belief that self-awareness is linked to leadership showing through example how leaders thrive by understanding who they are and what they value, by becoming aware of unhealthy blind spots or weaknesses that can derail them, and by cultivating the habit of continuous self-reflection and learning.

Loyola's spiritually based approach to leadership also identifies attachments in life as obstacles to leading. He also underscores how ingenuity disposes people not to just think out of the box but to live outside the box.

"Heroic Leadership" is organized around the following chapters:
Of Jesuit's and J.P. Morgan
What Leaders Do
The Jesuits
Leadership Role Models
"To Order One's Life"
The Spiritual Exercises
"The Whole World Becomes Our House"
"Refuse No Talent, Nor Any Man of Quality"
"An Uninterrupted Life of Heroic Deeds"
"Exceptional Daring Was Needed"
"The Way We Do Things"

A strong leader relishes the opportunity to continue learning about self and the world and looks to new discoveries and interests. And real leaders - real heros - find fulfillment, meaning, and, yes, even success by shifting their gaze beyond self-interest and serving others. And they become greater - enhanced as persons - by focusing on something greater than self-interest alone.

This is a book that most will use as a reference for years to come.

Truly refreshing. Mr. Lowney blows through cliches about leadership and infuses the subject with life. At the same time, he reclaims from the clutches of bookstore preachers serious discussion about spirituality in daily life.

Mr. Lowney begins from the undeniable premise that there is a lack of genuine leaders in our business world and our civic life. He finds in the history of the Jesuits numerous individuals -- who would never be labeled "leaders" by Forbes or Time -- who have exerted tremendous positive influence on the world. Starting with less-than-nothing, the Jesuit "company" quickly became the brand standard for higher education, science and language. It remains a powerful international force. Its impact is the envy of every other "multinational."

Mr. Lowney's argument is that the secret of their success is no secret at all: If you carefully recruit and train leaders at all levels, your organization will flourish. Those leaders must have self-awareness and discipline . . . and love. For it is the honest concern about your brothers and sisters that reflects leadership and elevates the shared enterprise.

But like the Jesuits, Mr. Lowney does not settle for platitutes and formulas. His book challenges you to examine your own life. For those of us mid-career, the book is nothing less than a call to renewal and a reminder that Loyola was older than we are now when he started this whole thing. The book extends a warm and positive encouragement to reinvest in yourself so that you can invest in others.

Heroic Leadership is the product of deep reading and deeper thinking into its subject. But it is written with a brisk and lively voice that is never preachy. Think instead of that teacher who first got you excited about learning and who gave you a glimpse of what you could become. If "empowering" weren't such an overused term, it would fully apply to this book. So consider the book "refreshing" -- it is bright, different, rejuvenating, bracing, and nourishing.

'Values' have a bad reputation in business given the Enrons, Adelphias and WorldComs of the world. There seems to be a lack of heros in the workplace, much less, leadership. Having had the privilege of not only reading, but listening to a presentation by, Chris Lowney, this book should be added to the booklist of any individual who aspires to supervise, manage or lead effectively and ethically. It should be required reading for MBAs as well as veteran CEOs to remind them about their responsibility to nurture excellent "follwership." Lowney provides readers with the four pillars of Jesuit values, plus the principles of personal accountability (see opening sentence) and that we all lead no matter where we are in the organization. Great history on the Jesuits, their history, zeal for excellence in education, political acumen, adaptability and ethos. We would all benefit from going forward in our personal and professional lives "with one foot raised." And, yes, I hold undergraduate and graduate degrees from a Jesuit university.

This is an interesting, informative, insightful and inspiring book. Lowney teased out four strands or principles of leadership (self-awareness, ingenuity, love and heroism) from the heritage of St. Ignatius Loyola and has woven a very impressive tapestry based on the history and lives of outstanding Jesuits. The book is not just for organizational leaders and managers, but suitable for anyone who wants to lead a better and more fruitful life. I wish to thank all the previous reviewers for their excellent comments and summaries.
Having been a Jesuit for well over 40 years, I've found the book a timely wake-up call.
I have known personally and indirectly so many outstanding Jesuits who have continued the tradition. Yet there is also room for reflection. In contrast to the early boom and the revival after the Suppression of Jesuits (1750-1773), the Society of Jesus has been declining in numbers very steadily from the peak in the early 60s of 36000+ to just below 20,000 last year. Although the decrease in vocations to the religious life is a fairly universal phenomenon, except in some developing countries, it is still worthwhile for the Church, Christian organisations and Jesuits in particular, to look in the mirror of this book.
Are we are too set in our patterns or have we got off track at times, lacking in 1) self-awareness, 2) innovation, 3) love, and 4) the passionate and heroic desire for the greater glory of God (In Latin, Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, Ignatius' motto). (Excuse a digression. St. Iranaeus, whose feast is today, said that the glory of God is the human person fully alive and being alive is the vision of God. One may think of "To love one another is to see the face of God." from the musical, Les Miserables,seemingly based on St. John.)
The value of The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius has been much stressed. But sometimes the transforming effect seems to be still limited and not lasting. Are people just going through the formality and the stipulated hours of prayer without ongoing personal appropriations of the "death and resurrection", or "call, exile and return" that are manifested in so many of the life-stories in the book, or in "The Hero with a Thousand Faces", "The Lord of the Rings" or "Star Wars"?
"Finding God in all things", and being "contemplatives in action" are the hallmarks of Jesuit spirituality. But do we not often just get too involved in action without deep contemplation? How self-aware are we? Are we just being driven along, even in lofty aspirations and zealous busyness, by our own compulsions to save ourselves, as depicted by the Enneagram types? How receptive to grace are we?
From Dec. 3rd this year, there will be the Jubilee Year for the 450th anniversary of the death of St. Ignatius and 500th anniversary of the birth of St. Francis Xavier and St. Peter Faber. May this book continue to inspire and to awaken Jesuits in their life-long renewal and also share the perennial spirit and wisdom of these three giants and the Jesuit legacy with the whole of humankind.

Chris Lowney's "Heroic Leadership" is as rare as it is brilliant. The fluency of Lowney's prose and the compelling appeal of his thesis are such that "Heroic Leadership" offers invaluable lessons to anyone seeking to raise one's career or company to its highest level. Certainly, those who attended a Jesuit high school or college will have a particular affinity for Lowney's anecdotes about intrepid Jesuits, and will readily see the application of the Jesuit method and Jesuit achievement to their own working lives. Unlike most of what is offered on the "leadership" front, "Heroic Leadership" is written in a witty, engaging style that is as amusing as it is instructive. There is undoubted pleasure and pride in seeing how this ingenious band of far-flung priests managed to create their extraordinary enterprise. Actually, the real treat is not in learning about the most famous Jesuits, such as Ignatius himself or Francis Xavier, but in following the adventures and achievements of more obscure if no less accomplished men such as Matteo Ricci and Christopher Clavius. Whether as a history of a remarkable organization of men as an inspiration for career or company development, "Heroic Leadership" delivers winningly and admirably.

The leadership lessons that are stressed in this book are simple and can be applied to each of us as individuals not only in our business lives, but also our relationships with our families and friends. Any organization, regardless of religious orientation, would benefit from weaving these principals into the fabric of their modo de proceder.

I also found this book to be very informative about the history of the Jesuit organization and the enormous impact they have had on shaping the world we live in today.

I have been a student of leadership for years and this book does an outstanding job describing some of the key aspects of leadership demonstrated and taught by the Jesuits.

As a product of a Jesuit education, I found this book very interesting in reflecting on my career and the education I received in a college prep environment. These lessons are more important to me today than they have ever been.

Great Job Mr. Lowney.