Blog 2: Chris Lowney lecture

The idea of leadership in today’s economy and society is a very important one. Although most people never really spend time thinking about what a leader is, and how to become one yourself. This past Monday I attended a lecture by Chris Lowney on the topic of leadership. The lecture began with what I thought was going to be a simple introduction for the speaker. Instead, one of his assistants stood in front of the audience for what seemed like two minutes listing all of Mr. Lowney’s achievements and accomplishments in his lifetime. The list included everything from being a successful business man, to helping those with AIDS in Africa and Asia, to being a Jesuit. This made me realize that he knew what he was talking about and really got my attention.

Mr. Lowney began his lecture by asking everyone in the audience to think about two people who we considered to be leaders. He then went on to give a few of his own examples but then read the definition of being a leader. After reading the definition he asked how many of us thought of ourselves as a leader. He explained that the way we act everyday made us leaders. This surprised me because I never really thought about leadership in that way.

After this, Lowney went on to describe the four things that he as a Jesuit, felt lead to being a leader. The first of these was to know yourself. As he explained, I listened and thought to myself why this was important to being a leader. He explained that if you know yourself and understand all the actions you take, it’s easier to see when you are wrong and are making mistakes. The second part was the willingness to adapt. This made sense to me and I felt as though this really connected with his first point. If one has the willingness to adapt, it will be easy to make corrections in yourself when you see a problem. The third one was obvious but still necessary for the list and that was heroism. If one is heroic, they are able to put themselves aside in order to help others. Lastly on his list was love. This, after thinking about it, also made sense. If everyone was more loving, the small problems that we have in today’s world would vanish. As Mr. Lowney summed up the four points I thought to myself how much sense they all made. If everyone followed these four steps in their everyday life, the world would be full of leaders and the majority of today’s problems would be solved.

The next part of the lecture was spent on discussing his time with JP Morgan. Lowney explained what was important for him while he worked for, and what was necessary to get the job done everyday. The most important thing was that in order for a business or any organization to be successful, the people working need to understand that it’s not about them; it’s about their end goal. If employees always feel like its all about them, people’s egos would constantly get in the way, and the quality and quantity of work would go way down. This concept applies from professional athletes, to big time business men, to teachers. This idea brought him to his last point which was education and the Jesuit life.

Chris Lowney discussed why the whole concept of a Jesuit school has become so successful. Since the Jesuits base their life off of what he spent most of his lecture talking about, the teachers are willing to put themselves aside for the good of the students. One point that he made that really had an impact on me was the point about how teachers should interact with their students. If a teacher spends the time to care and talk to their students about what is going on in their life, the students will be more interested in the teacher and what he or she is teaching. As soon as he said this I agreed with him one-hundred percent. This last part of his lecture really made me think about the section we read about The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice in American Jesuit Higher Education. The ideas involved in both the lectures had the same angle and overall idea about what Jesuit Education is about.