Leadership as a phenomenon has roots in the beginning of civilization. When a web of relationships emerged and there was a common goal, leadership emerged. The stories of kings and philosophers of the past, of heroes in the Indian, Egyptian, Chinese and Greek civilizations tell a story of leadership. As communities and societies organized themselves, aspects of leadership became more complex and evolved. Today we are aware of many of these evolved theories and various definitions, but they all have the basic similarities of being with the people and guiding or directing them by influencing or inducing compliance towards a thought or action.

Leadership in the Society of Jesus too has undergone tremendous change. Jesuit obedience to the leader has always been the hallmark of a good Jesuit. When the Suppression came in 1773 the Jesuits obeyed even as they protested against the injustice. A Jesuit leader whether he was capable or incapable knew that he would be obeyed.

Today, Jesuit leadership has undergone a sea change and is best exemplified by none other than Pope Francis, a Jesuit leader.

The Pope’s call to leaders to smell like the sheep has fired and challenged the imagination of persons wanting to be leaders.

A Jesuit leader is a vulnerable person, always in the process of learning, using his heart and the mind, giving his best at any given time, towards the task at hand, along with others, towards a larger human vision in an ever-changing world. More than reiterating the definition it will help us if we ponder on some major characteristics of the Jesuit leader. These are the ten commandments for the Jesuit leader in the present context of the world which is facing many challenges and rapid changes and on which GC-35 and GC-36 have shed much new light. They are as presented below:

1. Jesuit leadership is always a triptych. It is always about God, the other and the leader. A Jesuit has always to keep God before his eyes (GC36.D1.18), he will always have to see things from the kaleidoscope of God’s prism. It is a factor he just cannot leave out, it is the trajectory he always has to follow. At the same time, leadership is about people both as a group and as an individual, the least and the last have to receive attention. One cannot love God without loving the human and this dialectic happens in the heart of the Jesuit leader. The Jesuit leader lives a God-centred life in a secular world (SE23).

2. Jesuit leadership realises that this chemistry between God and the human takes place in the heart of the leader and therefore utmost attention is to be paid to this movement in the heart of the leader. Self-awareness is the key to decipher what is consoling and agonizing while reading the signs of the times, to see what God wants in a given context and to listen deeply to what the people want. Self-awareness helps one to arrive at what is called Ignatian Equilibrium. The Jesuit leader does that by his daily Examen and reflections. He is humble enough to articulate his life-goals and personal weaknesses.

3. Jesuit leadership is transformative. Self-awareness unleashes freedom in an individual to deal with any negativity. There is neither benefactor nor beneficiary as all work together in giving one’s best to the Mission at hand. This leadership evokes the best in the others towards an action, goal and vision. It is basically ‘Magis’, the Jesuit mantra for more excellence. It will always bring a joyful ending because all are respected and valued. The caterpillar dreams of the butterfly it could become and when it does become one, it fulfils its destiny.

4. Jesuit leadership is transparent. The Vision and Mission is clear not only horizontally but also vertically. There is no hidden agenda either in the use of resources or in dealing with personnel. The means and the end are clear to all. The Jesuit leader must not only be transparent about his work and Mission but also personally transparent so that he is an inspiration and a good role model. He works hard to go against, self-will, self-love and self-interest (SE189). He will always love persons and use things and not vice versa.

5. Jesuit leadership is all about being a contemplative in action – only a contemplative person can really hear the sound of silence and hear the bells beneath the roaring of the sea. Having heard and seen, he can discern the real from the unreal amidst the cacophony and razzmatazz of the market place. He is in the world but not of the world. In short, the Jesuit leader cannot but be a prayerful person when his attitude runs counter to the usual way of the world (GC36.D1.15). The action of leadership is all inspired action emerging out of deep contemplation. It is, thus, that work and activities become a mission.

6. Jesuit leadership is holistic and integrative. The Jesuit leader integrates all the faculties that God has gifted him and sees the same in others. The 4 Hs, as I often repeat are the Head (IQ), a man of learning, using his imaginative and creative intelligence; the Heart (EQ), must be emotionally mature and affectively ordered so that one is free; the Hand (KQ), the body, the vehicle whereby expressions of the heart and the mind are concretized; and finally the Holy(SQ), the spiritual quotient as different from religion. The Jesuit leader finds God in all things and all things in God as he learns to appreciate and integrate the gifts of God. All these four strands are integrated by a good leader.

7. Jesuit leadership is not only about being a Manager who gets things done or a leader who shows the way, but about being a man of discernment. This perhaps is the only and main distinguishing factor between him and other successful leaders. All Pelagianism is removed to know that all is grace and fluid. This fluidity needs attention so that it does not occupy spaces of mediocrity and complacency but is eager to do the better always, choosing life over death, light over darkness, faithfulness over despair, so that the Joy of the Gospel is ever fresh and alive. It is this quality by which a Jesuit becomes a man of depth and ready to take risk at the frontiers (Fr. Nicolas).

8. Jesuit leadership is about relationships and reconciliation: In this global world marked by profound changes, we now want to deepen our understanding of the call to serve faith, promote justice, and dialogue with culture and other religions in the light of the apostolic mandate to establish right relationships with God, with one another, and with creation. (GC35.D3.12) The relationship acquired a new urgency in GC36.D1.21 by saying that reconciliation is always a work of justice, a justice discerned and enacted in local communities and contexts. This leadership is always about putting up bridges and pulling down walls between anything that divides the Kingdom of God.

9. Jesuit leadership is all about collaboration with others. It is not possible for Jesuits to fulfil their universal mission on the basis of their past, with diminishing numbers and the complexities of a much-changed world. From GC34 onwards there is call to collaboration (GC34.D13.13, GC35. D6.30), and GC36. D2 emphatically states that collaboration is the need of the hour. One of the main points of Fr. Arturo Sosa to foster our mission is collaboration ad intra and ad extra. Collaboration naturally leads to use of all the technologies possible to build network of shared vision creating a culture of generosity, openness to work with others and to celebrate successes (GC36.D2.8). In this collaborative approach, the Jesuit leader preserves the spirit of the unity in the midst of diverse missions/ministries.

10. Finally, Jesuit leadership is all about the great Dream with Faith, Hope and Love. A dream that has eternity as a quest but at the same time is rooted in the here and now with 4 Ds – Deliberates (spiritual conversation), Decides (choosing – the two standards), Delegates (subsidiarity and trust) and Disappear (credit goes to the Society not any one individual). In my Province, the Province Mission has displayed Transparency (achieved both in the personal and financial matters), Shared Responsibilities (all are stake holders and responsible) and Mutual Collaboration (both in the communities and with others). For the Jesuit leader, the earth is too small as he contemplates eternity.

With the characteristics given above it is obvious that each Jesuit is called to be a leader. He is not a man called into the cloister but is basically a man on a mission, to be engaged in the world as a leader in whatever capacity or circumstance, as Fr. Jerome Nadal has pointed out, “The world is our house.” The chosen vocation of the Jesuit places great responsibility on his shoulders, he is responsible for and is a co-creator for what happens to the world and in it. As St. Paul says, “The world groans in travail and is still in the process of reaching its destiny.” Each Jesuit must pick up the gauntlet and face the world beginning with himself as Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see.” A good Jesuit cannot shirk from being a leader. The Society of Jesus has been marching ahead with the successes and failures of the last 477 years since it was established in 1540. Chris Lowney in his book Heroic Leadership about Jesuit leadership finds this in itself a great achievement, to have survived and thrived all these years. Every Jesuit is called to be a leader nurtured by the Spiritual Exercises, a man of faithfulness, humility and magnanimity. He is called to faithfulness and the results are secondary. Each Jesuit is mentored and he mentors others in time to march together as one Universal Body for a Universal Mission. Jesuits have succeeded in all the four corners of the world and impacted the world at their best. They have also failed when they have not kept the Jesuit ideals as their guiding star. In the best traditions of our Society we need to not only think out of the box but be challenged to live our life at the periphery too, as men of depth and at the frontiers as our last Fr. General, Adolfo Nicolas had urged us.