SUNDAY, JULY 07, 2024
Steve Correa, Raghu Anantha- narayanan
When one transcends superficial differences, universal wisdom is always unveiled. At a recent Leadership Workshop, a priest introduced me to Chris Lowney’s ground-breaking book, which reveals the leadership principles that have guided the Jesuits for more than 450 years. Remarkably, Chris lived as a Jesuit seminarian for seven years before transitioning to an investment banker career at JP Morgan. From his Jesuit experience, he drew leadership lessons from his time as a Jesuit priest. He realised that this 450-year-old resilient company had grappled quite successfully with challenges confronted by companies today, which include instituting a 360-degree feedback loop, forging seamless multi-national teams, motivating inspired performance and remaining change-ready and strategically adaptable.
So, how did the Jesuits build the most successful religious company in history? And how do individuals become leaders today? He asserts that they know themselves, innovate to embrace a changing world, love themselves and others, and aim high. Similarly, Buddhist Sanghas, Sanatana sampradayas, and many other communities have also weathered many changes and kept their traditions.
The Jesuit leadership principles have remarkable parallels with the tenets of Indic wisdom. Both traditions emphasise self-awareness, adaptability, compassion, and striving for higher goals. Four principles stand out. Jesuits became leaders by:
Understanding their strengths, weaknesses, values, and worldview.
Confidently innovating and adapting to embrace a changing world.
Engaging others with a positive, loving attitude.
Energising themselves and others through heroic ambitions.
A comparative analysis will help us see the universality of these principles.
Self-awareness: “To order one’s life.”
Jesuit Principle: Leaders thrive by understanding who they are and what they value. Continuous self-reflection and learning are essential for personal growth and effective leadership. Research suggests IQ and technical skills are far less crucial to leadership success than mature self-awareness. In other words, the hard evidence points to the critical soft skills encompassed by knowing oneself.
Indic Wisdom: The concept that the inner processes of a person are reflected in their outer actions is deeply embedded in Indic traditions. They, therefore, give great importance to the practice of meditation, self-reflection (śavadahyā), and the pursuit of knowledge of Self (atma jñāna). This is essential for all people, especially leaders. It may not be common knowledge that Kautilya, who wrote the ancient treatise on leadership and governance, also wrote about yoga and introspection for people in power. The Bhagavad Gita was explained on a battlefield, emphasising understanding one’s dharma (responsibilities) and being authentic to one’s true nature.
Ingenuity: “The whole world will become our house.”
Jesuit Principle: Leaders must adapt to a changing world, embracing new ideas and approaches while anchored by core values. Loyola described the ideal Jesuit as “living with one foot raised” —ready to respond to emerging opportunities. Self-awareness is critical to successfully living with one foot raised. Leaders must rid themselves of ingrained habits, prejudices, cultural preferences, and the “we’ve always done it this way” attitude — the baggage that blocks rapid adaptive responses. Of course, not everything is discardable baggage. Core beliefs and values are non-negotiable, the centring anchor that allows for purposeful change instead of aimless drifting on shifting currents. The leader adapts confidently by knowing what is negotiable and what is not.
Indic Wisdom: Adaptability is critical in Indic philosophy. The concept of karma yoga (the yoga of action) encourages individuals to perform their roles and responsibilities without attachment to outcomes, allowing for flexibility and innovation. Yoga sādhana is based on the idea that one can only focus on one step in one’s journey, which must be uninterrupted. The principle of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (the world is one family) reflects an inclusive and adaptable worldview.
Love: “With greater love than fear”
Jesuit Principle: Leaders engage others with a positive, loving attitude, fostering environments of mutual support and respect. Everyone knows that organisations, armies, sports teams, and companies perform best when team members respect, value, and trust one another and sacrifice narrow self-interest to support team goals and their colleagues’ success. Individuals perform best when respected, valued, and trusted by someone who genuinely cares for their well-being. Loyola was unafraid to call this bundle of winning attitudes “love” and to tap its energising, unifying power for his Jesuit team. Influential leaders tap their power today as well.
Indic Wisdom: Compassion (karuṇa) and loving-kindness (maitrī) are fundamental virtues in the teachings of the Buddha and the Rishis. The practice of bhakti (devotion) in bhakti traditions is founded on the idea of prīti—intense love for the divine as the path to spiritual growth. Bhakti is seen as a basic virtue for effective leadership, so power does not get divorced from humility.
Heroism: “Eliciting great desires”
Jesuit Principle: Leaders inspire and strive to achieve ambitious goals, focusing on continuous improvement and higher aspirations. Jesuit culture spurred Jesuits to “elicit great desires” by envisioning heroic aims. Outstanding personal and team performance resulted, just as it does when athletes, musicians, or managers focus unrelentingly on ambitious goals. Jesuits are driven by a restless energy encapsulated in a simple company motto, Magis, always something more, something more significant.
Indic Wisdom: Individuals are guided by the pursuit of higher goals (puruṣārtha) such as dharma (enlivening order), artha (wealth), kāma (desire) and mokṣa (liberation from the cycle of birth and death). The idea of sādhana reflects the commitment to relentless striving for excellence within and a step-by-step movement towards becoming the best one can be and then transcending the self and becoming one with the Godhead. One’s feeling, thinking and doing become a vehicle for the Divine.
(Steve Correa is an executive coach and author of ‘The Indian Boss at Work, Thinking Global, Acting Indian’;Raghu Ananthanarayanan is a behavioural scientist, yoga teacher and author of several books)
