I read a fascinating book a few years ago called: “Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-year-old company that changed the world.” It told the story of the Jesuits; Catholic priests whose profound leadership principles over the past 450 years that have made them one of history’s most successful “companies”. The author, Chris Lowney, is a former Jesuit who worked for J.P. Morgan Chase and so has unique insight into both worlds. The premise of the book, in Lowney’s words, is that “what often passes for leadership today is a shallow substitution of technique for substance. Jesuits eschewed a flashy leadership style to focus instead on engendering for unique values that created leadership substance.”
Those four values are:
Self-Awareness
Ingenuity
Love
Heroism
Today, I want to talk about his perspective on self-awareness, as it relates to self-leadership.
One of Lowney’s initial points is that growing in self-awareness virtually guarantees that one will also automatically grow in leadership skills in general. I absolutely agree with him. I also agree that self-awareness is highly under-rated: he says: “No one lacking the requisite technical skills would naively walk into a company and expect to succeed; who imagines that he or she will be a successful accountant without ever learning accounting, or a successful lawyer without learning the law? Yet we remain naïve enough to believe that those who don’t know themselves-their strengths, weaknesses, values and worldview- can achieve long-term success.”
He goes on to quote Joseph Badaracco, professor at Harvard Business School, who studied how corporate leaders were able to successfully navigate crises or decision points in their ascendancy. Badaracco states:
They are able to take time out from the chain of managerial tasks that consumes their time and undertake a process of probing self-inquiry- a process that is more often carried out on the run than in quiet seclusion. They are able to dig below the busy surface of their daily lives and refocus on their core values and principles. Once uncovered, those values and principles renew their sense of purpose at work and act as a springboard for shrewd, pragmatic, politically astute action. By repeating this process again and again throughout their work lives, these executives are able to craft an authentic and strong identity based on their own, rather than someone else’s, understanding of what is right. And in this way, they begin to make the transition from becoming a manager to becoming a leader.
This hits home with me as I think about people I know who lead themselves and others well. These people may not have the specific skill set that would be most immediately desirable; they don’t know cool excel formulas or how to create killer powerpoint presentations. They may not be good with details, or writing, or people. They lack training or experience in the field.
But they know what they bring to the table that is valuable.
And they can show it to you.
The chapter on self awareness gives numerous examples of Jesuits who walked into situations over the last hundreds of years without formal preparation or instruction in what was immediately required. Everything from building a cannon to creating a map. And yet, Lowney says: “The travelers didn’t bring with them tactical handbooks addressing every foreseeable contingency. Instead, they brought the most important skill they needed to thrive in unfamiliar and challenging environments: self-awareness.”
Peter Drucker once said: “Successful careers are not planned. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values.”
This, my friends, is the link between self-awareness and success.
Want a happy ending to your vocational discernment process?
Get to know yourself better.
Not in the “I like to work with people and I’m a team player” kind of knowing yourself.
But in the “I know I have a lot to learn. I’m a quick study and I listen well. Let me demonstrate by shutting up and getting to work right now” kind of knowing yourself
I’m not saying that basic competency is irrelevant to professional success at any level. We all want surgeons who know how to cut and sew and landscapers who don’t roofscape with poison oak.
I am simply positing that self-awareness is becoming an increasingly non-negotiable requirement for leadership; definitely for the kind of self-leadership that I advocate for (here and here and here). Call it Emotional Intelligence, call it professional development, call it introspection. Just call it, please. Call it out in others and watch it light up their leadership. Prioritize it in your own life and observe how your power and influence grows exponentially.
Pursue self-awareness.
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