Chris Lowney - Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads

After all, like the pope, we sometimes find ourselves thrust onto that metaphorical balcony: step up, its time to lead this department, your family, this classroom, or, as the case may be, the whole Catholic Church.

Some folks approach such opportunities knowing that they are superbly prepared to lead, and that unshakable self-confidence stays with them every day of their careers. We call such people narcissists. They often get their organizations into trouble because, blinded by the radiant glow of their self-perceived greatness, they dont see what havoc they create or what misery they inflict on others.

Those of us with even a smidgen of self-awareness, on the other hand, quickly realize that no one fully trained us for the leadership challenges we inherit. Early in my own career at J. P. Morgan, I was trained to dissect corporate balance sheets and could ferret out companies that dared boost earnings by liquidating LIFO layers; I learned how to persuade corporate clients to save a few basis points by using our proprietary Eurobond structures instead of floating bonds in the United States.

Im not sure I ever used either skill, and Ive long forgotten how to do those technical stunts. After a few years at Morgan, I found myself as one of the managing directors in our Tokyo office, and in subsequent postings in Singapore, London, or New York, I never met a problem where liquidating LIFO layers was handy knowledge. And I quickly discovered that in the grown-up world, most problems dont have the same black-and-white answers as those pat bond-analysis equations.

Instead, I had to help the company figure out how to manage a large downsizing in the London office or how to motivate an unhappy subordinate. Now, some years after leaving Morgan and serving as board chair of one of Americas largest health care and hospital systems, I have to offer modest advice and oversight as our superb management team navigates a rapidly changing health care landscapeshifting laws, new technology, ethical dilemmas, and a dozen other equally complicated challenges.

The skills I have most needed were not the narrow technical ones, but broader, all-encompassing ones, like making complicated decisions when the facts and my values collide; managing my priorities when fifteen things must be done before lunch; knowing when to play decisions safe and when to take major risks; and, ultimately, figuring out what is most important in life.