Dare Great Things

It goes without saying that those in leadership want to lead well, but what are the elements that make a leadership effective, good, and even pleasing to God.  Without a doubt St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica gives us some valuable insights when he talks about how God leads the world.  If our leadership could be patterned on God’s we’d be sure to be doing something right.  In this second of my six part series, I focus on how good leadership makes the people who follow us more fulfilled in who they are.

People of faith in leadership positions find themselves in a quandary: “How do I live my faith when my job is vowed to be in a secular situation?”  After living that way for many years sometimes we can feel that faith does not actually have a place in the workplace after all.  The roots of Catholic leadership go very deep.  St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica lays a surprisingly relevant foundation for Catholic principles.  I can’t wait to unpack them with you in this series of six talks delivered for the St. John Leadership Network. 

The power of a leader is as much about your connection with your people as it is about your vision and your drive.  People follow those who trust them and they trust those who show the character and the drive necessary not only to succeed but to succeed at doing what’s right.  This is the difference that Christ makes.  In this sixth and final episode of our six part series on The Difference Christ Makes we look at the unique impact Jesus gives to his followers in their connectivity with others and how that applies to our businesses.

Leaders are people of action.  They are those who have the vision to know what they want to do, the intelligence to choose how to do it, and the dedication to carry the job through.  It’s this last part that is a challenge for many.  As soon as we begin the process of change, challenges will arise from every side.  How do we form the heart and the drive sufficient to carry our actions through to success.  In these circumstances the Christian faith shines beautifully and gives Christian leaders and advantage. 

There are many aspects about the Christian faith which we could find surprising.  Not everything that God does is immediately self evident to us.  But something that never ceases to amaze me is that God insists that we take action.  Not only does he say, “Do not be afraid,” but He doesn’t let us off the hook.  Leaders have to make decisions constantly and engage themselves in operations that can sometimes be risky.  Why does God do this?  And where can we find the courage to embrace the risk and still dare the deed?

Making decisions is one of the most important aspects of leadership.  Our people count on us to make decisions and to make them well.  And the decisions of a leader can jeopardize or bless the entire organization.  But making choices is not something that comes easy.  How do we know which of the many possible good things to choose from is the right one?  For a Christian, Christ comes to bring us clarity.  But what does this clarity look like?  How are we supposed to know what God’s will is and what we are supposed to do.   

We all know that Christ makes a difference.  But what difference does he make in leadership?  Is there anything distinctively difference about the way Christians approach leadership with the way seculars approach leadership?  What difference does Christ make?  In this second of a six part series we examine the impact of Christ upon our creative energies.  Our ability to think outside the box and to create a whole new context for our ideas.  Surprisingly this is something we have done throughout the history of the Church and something we will keep doing today.

While the demands of leadership are the same in every context, the way we approach leadership can be different.  A Christian leader leads differently than his secular counterpart.  From visioning an idea to implementing a strategy, through carrying out and executing a plan, a Christian leader simply leads, frankly, differently.  In this first of a six part series I examine the difference that the Christian spirit demonstrates in leadership.  I attempt to answer the question, “What difference does it make if I believe?”

Daring great things is where leadership begins but leadership ends in the hearts of those that follow us.  Its not enough just to be doing things or doing them well, we have to do them in a way that other people can associate with and make it their own.  How do I make my great accomplishments a legacy that other people can benefit from?  We have to learn how to make our spirit come alive in the hearts of others.  Ironically, has to be concerned about his followers.

Before we do anything it is important to stop and plan how we are going to do it.  Afterall, failing to plan is planning to fail.  Part of this planning includes looking at where we could actually falter along the way.  And understanding the reasons we fail can become a big reason why we succeed.  In this fourth talk of the series we look at one of the biggest reasons we fail: fatigue, burnout, and being frustrated along the way.   

One of the most common struggles that people have is passing from planning into action.  We all know what we should be doing, but actually doing it can seem an insurmountable hurdle.  How do we pass from having good intentions to actually having good actions?  Every leader has to do this.  St. Thomas Aquinas gives us the key.  He says the fear of risk can be overcome by love and by the knowledge of what is right.  Putting this into practice can be the difference between failure and success.

Without a doubt leadership is hard and challenging and sometimes we get so used to its challenge that we forget that we can make it successful.  We learn to get used to the very things that can cause our downfall.  But it doesn’t have to be this way.  One of the big elements we struggle with as leaders is our ability to plan effectively - our ability to see our way through changing circumstances.  This ability is impeded by what we call “fog”.  And understanding “fog” is the key to overcoming it. 

Leaders want success.  In fact, our people count on us to provide success.  That’s why it’s important to know where we can fail.  Being able to identify the pitfalls along our road is sometimes as important as knowing where we are going.  In this series of five talks, we examine the five pitfalls that plague leaders and hinder our ability to succeed.  The first among these five is fatalism and I am so looking forward to breaking it down and opening it to Christ’s hope in your lives.

Most people acknowledge that humility is a good thing – something that we should desire.  But most leaders struggle to find how humility can be incorporated into their leadership.  Afterall, don’t we need to be assertive?  Controlling?  In Charge?  It would seem that if I am a leader and I am humble that I am weak and incapable of providing the vision and the drive necessary for my people.  But this is not the case.  In the third chapter of St. Paul’s letter to Titus we see that God’s vision for humility is a powerful one.  In all the books of the bible we find God’s wisdom

We all know that leaders are responsible for getting things done, leading their organizations to be productive, but sometimes we forget that leadership also sometimes has a softer side and that a leader is just as responsible for the moral climate of his organization as he is for its efficiency.  In St. Paul’s letter to Titus, Chapter 2, St. Paul outlines his vision for the leader as the guardian of excellence.  And what he wrote Titus then still holds true for us today.

One of the most intriguing figures in the New Testament is St. Paul.  Most commentators spend their lives speaking of Paul’s theology and his relationship with Christ.  But Paul was also a leader who left a legacy of leadership to his followers and one of his closest disciples was Titus.  In Paul’s letter to Titus we find the heart of a leader speaking to his leader about the task he has appointed him,  In Paul’s own words a leader is God’s steward.

There are a lot of things in common between business leaders and mountain climbers.  In the same way that mountain climbers dare heights by precipitous paths, so the business leader needs to walk a fine line.  So many things need to be balanced at the moral level and inside of themselves in order to do what they do and do it at the service of Christ.  But there are principles to guide them.  One of these principles is that everything we do we do for others.  Our success means the success of everyone involved in the process. 

In our work with the Catholic leader, one of the most sensitive subjects is whether or not they should make money.  For some reason making a profit in our business has been associated with guilt and corruption.  But is this association always accurate?  Is it okay for a Catholic business leader to actually make a profit?  And if they do make a profit what are they supposed to do with it?  How does Christ qualify our success and how does a profitable Christian business look different from those of the world?

All of us engaged in business know the scenario:  the people at the top have the answers, the people at the bottom have the wherewithal, the people at the top become frustrated that the people at the bottom don’t execute, and the people at the bottom become frustrated because the people at the top don’t listen.  How do we reverse this paradigm?  In 2011 the Catholic Church issued a document called, “The Vocation Of The Catholic Business Leader.”  It issued six principles to govern leadership in this environment.  The fourth principle, that of subsidiarity, tackles just this question.

The non-Christian world can paint a vision of capitalism wherein the owner or the boss rules over the workers – exacting from them the maximum of energies in the most efficient way possible for the maximum profit.  Is this the vision that God has for our work?  In its landmark document from 2011, the Catholic Church lays out six principles to guide business leaders.  Its third principle holds that business ought to be for the benefit of the employees as well as the customer.  Here’s how this can be done.