Meeting in the heart of Rome to discuss about leadership in the Society of Jesus.

Is there an Ignatian approach to leadership? This question has been flying around in Jesuit circles for some time now. A group of 6 people involved in this topic at European Level spent 4 days in Rome asking themselves this same question. This group, gathered by Fr. John Dardis SJ (Counsellor for Discernment and Planning), revised the existing theories around leadership and, at the same time, connected to their experience and knowledge of ignatian spirituality.

The group is doing a big effort to go deeper on the topic. More discussions and research will be done involving the other Conferences.  In the meantime, we continue to expand our knowledge in this area by having fruitful discussions and by launching programmes and courses that provide valuable insights.

Actually, at the moment, there are many good initiatives taking place throughout the structures of the Society of Jesus in relation to leadership. We see them taking place at different levels: at local level (in institutions and provinces), at conference level (inter-provincial initiatives) and at a worldwide level (networks and Roman Curia). 

Most of these initiatives, if not all, include many elements that might remind us of the teachings of Saint Ignatius. For example, they leave space and times for prayer and to do the daily examen. They put emphasis on all the dimensions of the human being and its relation to God. They also put stress on the relation of the leader with his team and the quality of that relationship. They highlight the importance of doing a good use of the available resources and of managing the institutions well so they can serve the mission better…

Furthermore, these initiatives draw knowledge from many relevant ignatian sources such as the Spiritual Exercises, the Constitutions, Ignatius’ Autobiography, Ignatius’ letters, Ignatius’ personal diary, the General Congregations, the teachings from Fr. Claudio Acquaviva SJ, the inspirations from Fr. Pedro Arrupe SJ and many more. These courses also make use of some useful tools and resources from non-religious origins like profiling tools for self-awareness, theory on adaptive leadership, or instruments for dealing with others.

However, a better question than “what” is being done might be “why” is it being done. Why are we investing time and resources in preparing leaders for the mission? There seems to be common agreement in the world that we need good leaders to manage our institutions. This is surely not something new today so why has it suddenly become a topic of interest in the Society of Jesus? We could mention many reasons but three that seem to stand out are:

• Before there were many Jesuits that were able to transmit their experience, knowledge and skills by osmosis to others. The large amount of Jesuits made it easier for natural leaders to appear amongst them. The diminishing of numbers in the Society of Jesus is continuously making it more difficult to transmit this knowledge and experiences from generation to generation but there is desire to keep the flame alive, a fire that kindles other fires.
• Secondly, with the risk of sounding too conventional, we are currently living in a very complex world where we need to address new and diverse challenges. The traditional ways of doing things are not enough anymore. We need to capacitate those leading our institutions, we need to give them the skills and tools to do their job better, but most importantly, we need to continue to provide them with the passion and love for the others, just like Jesus taught us.
• Thirdly, nowadays Jesuits are working closer to lay partners in mission. This is not something new, but now, maybe more than ever, we are seeing how lay collaborators are being put in positions of leadership across the Society. We see directors of retreat houses, rectors of universities, high school directors, etc. If we want the Jesuit institutions to remain ignatian we need to provide these partners in mission with experiences that allow them to live the Gospel and the teaching of Saint Ignatius so they are able to carry on with the charisma of the founder of the Society of Jesus.

We encourage those reading this article to continue with their personal development and with their efforts to sense and realise the mission of the Society of Jesus. We wish to finish this short article with a quote from the founder of the Society of Jesus: “The person who sets about making others better is wasting his time, unless he begins with himself.”