Author and Lecturer Chris Lowney discussed “Dusty Feet, Laundry and a Llama Print Jacket: Lessons About Leadership” as part of The John Tagliabue ’67 H ’05 Lecture Series at Saint Peter’s University on October 30 in The Duncan Family Sky Room at the Mac Mahon Student Center.
During the lecture, Lowney explored the leadership of Pope Francis – the 266th and first Jesuit pope of the Catholic Church – and how his guidance can be a model for all within one’s personal and professional lives.
“What does great leadership look like?” Lowney asked the audience, noting some of the challenges that nation has recently faced. “When life is simple, leadership is not as important. But when life is complex, it is necessary.”
In discussing the assets of great leadership, Lowney used stories and examples from Pope Francis’ life, starting with his time as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Cardinal Bergoglio became known for personal humility, doctrinal conservatism and a commitment to social justice. In telling his students that they had to do house work at the seminary he oversaw, Cardinal Bergoglio also chose to take on a chore – laundry. He woke up at 5:30 a.m. every morning and washed clothes for the community.
According to Lowney, this act is an example of great leadership because it solidifies that one should “make sacrifices before asking others to make sacrifices.”
“By doing the laundry, Cardinal Bergoglio showed his team in a concrete way that he was one of them,” Lowney said.
In another example, Lowney discussed how Cardinal Bergoglio would ask his Jesuit seminarians to walk the neighborhood after taking on a new parish. He wanted them to visit everyone in the community, especially the poor. Cardinal Bergoglio concluded that the seminarians who had dusty shoes really did what he had asked in traveling throughout the streets. The ones who did not had clean shoes.
Visiting the community was a model for great leadership as it is an example that staying in touch with the world’s joys, sorrows and challenges keeps one in touch with the world around them.
Other standards for great leadership presented by Lowney included coming to grips with one’s own weaknesses, accepting one’s fundamental goodness, and embracing one’s own unique role in the world.
Lowney is a former Jesuit seminarian turned managing director for JPMorgan & Co., as well as a renowned author. His most recent book, Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads, shows how the words and deeds of Pope Francis reveal spiritual principles that have prepared him to lead the Church and influence the world. In his first book, Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company that Changed the World (2005), Lowney reveals the leadership principles that have guided the Jesuits for more than 450 years: self-awareness, ingenuity, love and heroism. In further developing some of the themes from Heroic Leadership, his third book, Heroic Living (2009), combines the proven practices of Ignatian spirituality with Lowney’s business expertise to help each of us discover a purpose in life and develop a personal life strategy to achieve it.
This event was presented by The John Tagliabue ’67 H ’05 Lecture Series and the Saint Peter’s University chapter of Alpha Sigma Nu, The Jesuit Honor Society. The Lecture Series was established through a generous gift from Paul Tagliabue H ’05, former National Football League commissioner, in honor of his brother, John Tagliabue, a 1967 graduate of Saint Peter’s and reporter with The New York Times, with the purpose of featuring authors, journalists and writers of interest who are concerned with preserving and renewing the University’s Catholic and Jesuit mission and identity.
