Rating: 
Summary: Leading by examples.
Review: Truly refreshing. Mr. Lowney blows through cliches about leadership and infuses the subject with life. At the same time, he reclaims from the clutches of bookstore preachers serious discussion about spirituality in daily life. Mr. Lowney begins from the undeniable premise that there is a lack of genuine leaders in our business world and our civic life. He finds in the history of the Jesuits numerous individuals -- who would never be labeled "leaders" by Forbes or Time -- who have exerted tremendous positive influence on the world. Starting with less-than-nothing, the Jesuit "company" quickly became the brand standard for higher education, science and language. It remains a powerful international force. Its impact is the envy of every other "multinational." Mr. Lowney's argument is that the secret of their success is no secret at all: If you carefully recruit and train leaders at all levels, your organization will flourish. Those leaders must have self-awareness and discipline . . . and love. For it is the honest concern about your brothers and sisters that reflects leadership and elevates the shared enterprise. But like the Jesuits, Mr. Lowney does not settle for platitutes and formulas. His book challenges you to examine your own life. For those of us mid-career, the book is nothing less than a call to renewal and a reminder that Loyola was older than we are now when he started this whole thing. The book extends a warm and positive encouragement to reinvest in yourself so that you can invest in others. Heroic Leadership is the product of deep reading and deeper thinking into its subject. But it is written with a brisk and lively voice that is never preachy. Think instead of that teacher who first got you excited about learning and who gave you a glimpse of what you could become. If "empowering" weren't such an overused term, it would fully apply to this book. So consider the book "refreshing" -- it is bright, different, rejuvenating, bracing, and nourishing.
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