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Book Review

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

This book speaks about the Jesuit Order, an organization which follows a four-pillar success principle which 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 this very influential religious order.

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 have made the Jesuit order a unique organization that have changed and influenced the world. These four pillars of leadership success are:

self-awareness
ingenuity
love
heroism

The formation of their 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 ambitions

The author speaks also of the organization as one wherein 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. 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 very interesting because it gives stories of individual Jesuits in the history of the Order that in one way or another, made the Jesuit stand out among many 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

Heroic Leadership by Chris Lowney

For one who heads an organization or a business and even at corporate levels, the book is a good source of leadership insights and wisdom that one can apply to one's organization. Though the book is structured more along the lines of a free-flowing story, of 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, corporate leaders will 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, that for something to last 450 years, means that it has a unique formula that was God-inspired, and truly built on a vision, that was solid and based on ideals that are rooted in the very fabric of our human spirit.