Chris Lowney Lecutre and reflection

I had not thought about leadership or what it meant to be a leader for sometime until today I went to a talk by Chris Lowney who got me thinking about it for the first time since high school. Lowney has experience in the business world having worked at JP Morgan for many years and recently published a book called Heroic Leadership so needless to say, hearing him speak about this topic that he knows well just gave me that extra incentive to listen intently and try to leave with as much as I could from the lecture.

At the beginning of the lecture, Lowney asked us all who we thought was a leader and I thought of one of my favorite football players, the New England Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady. Brady for the past few years seemed to lead the Patriots offense to much success. He then asked why we thought this person was a leader; what qualities did this person have that makes him a leader. I thought and concluded it was because he is respected by his teammates, he is liked, and most of all, he is trusted by his teammates.

I thought that my reflection was a pretty good summation of a good leader but then Lowney put a twist in saying what people should of thought was themselves as a good leader. This caught me off guard as he seemed very humble and that is a sort of arrogant thing to say. He then explained how there is a lack of leaders in the world today and a part of this is due to that everyone expects someone else to do it but in reality, anyone can be an effective leader if they just know how to be and pursue it.

From this point I started to listen to the lecture to see how I could be more of a leader. Lowney had four things that it took to be a good leader. First, someone must know about themselves, second they must be willing to adapt to things that can arise, they must be heroic and they must love the people they lead. The first is one I find to be very difficult, at least right now. I am 18 and I still do not know a lot about myself. One day I want this and the next day I want something else. I think discovering myself is something I personally need to do before becoming more of a leader. The second trait of a leader, being able to adapt, is something I am good at as I always am able to change plans and very open and flexible if there are better or new ways to do something. The third, heroism, sounds daunting until put into perspective. Lowney described as just doing the right thing even if it is not necessarily the easiest thing. That is something I feel is obtainable for me. The last was to love the people that someone wishes to lead. I feel like I would not want to lead people if I genuinely did not really like them or care about them a lot so this I think if I were to ever be put into a leadership position or to take charge I would not accept unless I did love the people I was leading.

Lowney also speaks of how in some situations people may not be a leader, especially if a person is young and in a corporation and there already is a leader in place. In these situations its important to try to buy into what the leader says and try to accomplish it as best as possible so that the group as a whole can function best. This is important because if I were to lead people I would want this of them, but in order to do it I know I would need to gain their respect. The best way to do that would be to follow the four qualities that define a leader.

Most lectures I go to I tend to fund myself not really relating to what the speaker is saying but this lecture was very interesting and really got me thinking about what it takes to be a leader, and how I can help myself while at Loyola to become a leader. The best things I think I can do is get out there and do things and try to put myself out there to be exposed so I can find out more about myself, as that is one of the leadership qualities I least show If I can develop that quality while here at school, going on to the next step in life, I will already have a head start.