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The research crew of RECOWACERAAO NEWS AGENCY, RECONA found this message very interesting for our bishops and priests. In Newly Launched Africa Edition Book, U.S. Author Shares “four foundational pillars that characterize great leaders”. The Director of Communications of RECOWA-CERAO recommends this book for every bishop and priest in our subregion.

Readers of a newly launched Africa edition book on leadership, which the Paulines Publications Africa (PPA) co-published, are to gain insights into some four “foundational pillars” that are behind successful leaders.

According to Chris Lowney, the author of “Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World” which Loyola Press first published in 2003, the publication “reveals the leadership principles that have guided the Jesuits for more than 450 years.”

“The book highlights four foundational pillars that characterize great leaders: Self-awareness, ingenuity, heroism, and love,” Mr. Lowney said during the launch that was held at the Paulines Communication Centre Hall in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, on Tuesday, July 23.

The health consultant, who chairs the board of   Health, America’s largest nonprofit health system, said that the four leadership qualities discussed in the 312-page book “are already vibrant in your colleagues and communities, and in your own life as well.”

“For example, great leaders love those they lead; that is, they recognize each person’s dignity and strive to develop the potential of others,” he said.

“This kind of loving leadership is flourishing all over the continent, role modeled by countless teachers, parents, and conscientious business people, whether serving customers in small businesses or serving as morally committed chief executives of large ones,” the former member of the Society of Jesus (SJ/Jesuits) further said.

On heroism, he said, is the quality of “great leaders … living for purposes greater than themselves and their selfish interests.”

Speaking about self-awareness, Mr. Lowney said, “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.”

“To be a good leader, we also need to have some habits, some practices to make us self-aware, to step back from this crazy world and take stock of how things are going around us, how things are going on inside us,” the author of the 12-chapter book said.

He said that the prayer life of women and men is not only a “religious exercise” but also “a self-awareness exercise because when you do this, you’re stepping away from the crazy world and trying to perceive what’s going on inside you at that moment.”

Reflecting on ingenuity, the U.S. author said, “Leaders eagerly explore new ideas, approaches, and cultures rather than shrink defensively from what lurks around life’s next corner.”

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He added referring to leaders characterized by the quality of ingenuity, “Anchored by non-negotiable principles and values, they cultivate the indifference that allows them to adapt confidently.”

While the image of leaders and leadership usually evokes thoughts of “super famous people and wealthy people”, Mr. Lowney said, the qualities of great leaders are also manifest in ordinary people.

Qualities such as courage, honesty, personal integrity, the ability to “listen to other people, to have empathy for other people, to care for the common good, and so on”, he said, “are not just for super famous people, but also show leadership in our lives.”

In the book, Mr. Lowney challenges people “to change the focus and understand how each of us is showing leadership in our own lives.”

“This must change for each individual, organization, and the African continent at large to achieve its full potential and deliver on the continent’s bright promise,” Mr. Lowney who worked for J. P. Morgan for seventeen years, serving as a managing director in New York, Tokyo, Singapore, and London said during the July 23 event.

He continued, “Everyone leads when they live the four pillars of leadership outlined in this book, whether they do so as corporate chief executives or as chief executives of their own lives and families.”

“Everyone leads, whether as a business person, parent, Priest, nurse, social worker or student,” Mr. Lowney emphasized.

“People will take the book as somehow a challenge and an invitation for them to think about the idea and role of leadership in their own life,” he added.

In the Preface of the 12-chapter book, the author highlights Jesuits’ leadership in Eastern African nations.

“In the past thirty years alone, the Jesuits have founded a most impressive range of good works across this region, whether reviving Loyola High School and Mazzolari Teachers College in South Sudan, or launching ministries like Ocer Campion College in Uganda, the Mwangaza Jesuit Spirituality Centre in Nairobi, or Abay Mado Catholic Academy in Amhara State, Ethiopia,” he says.

Mr. Lowney in the preface of the Africa edition of his book, “The Jesuit Refugee Service has accompanied displaced persons in several regional settings.”

Also speaking during the July 23 book launch, the Provincial Superior of the recently established East Africa, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe (EAMZZ) Province of the Pious Society of the Daughters of St. Paul (FSP) said the book “highlights the vital role of leadership in promoting good governance.”

“Let the gospel always find space in the heart of intellectuals. The gospel is something divine after all. It speaks to the minds of everyone. It can satisfy our demands, answering the questions of people of every age. If you win over intellectuals, you are fishing not with the fishhook, but with the net,” Sr. Rosemary Mwaiwa said.

The Kenyan-born FSP Provincial Superior added, “Today’s leaders, tomorrow’s leaders, I hope you find this book rewarding to read.”

On her part, Sr. Olga Massango, who heads the marketing department of PPA said leadership today “is corporate and requires a new paradigm shift.”

“Everyone has an opportunity and responsibility to express his/her leadership skills. We are deeply accountable for the mission and the results with a daily habit of reflection to take stock, but this indeed requires courage,” the Mozambican-born FSP member said during the July 23 event in Nairobi.

The book which goes for US$15.00 is available at Pauline bookshops in Nairobi and Kisumu and in soft copy at www.paulinesafrica.org.

Rev. Fr. George Nwachukwu
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