Lead With Humility: 12 Leadership Lessons from Pope Francis
Jeffrey Krames
AMACOM (2014)

A Pope for All Seasons

As Jeffrey Krames acknowledges, opinions are divided – sometimes sharply divided – with regard to Pope Francis’ leadership style. “During his first year as pope – as during his tenure in Argentina – Francis showed himself again and again to be a man of humility. However, we mustn’t confuse his humble ways with those of a one-dimensional leader. Like all effective leaders, he has multiple agendas. In fact, according to the journalist who have covered Bergoglio for many years, he is nothing short of a `political animal.’ He is also a man of enormous intellect, which often gets obscured by his acts of humility.”

According to one Argentine journalist, Elisabetta Piqué, “He was not an ingénue coming out into the world. He had almost a war with [one] section of the Roman Curia.” Another journalist used the word “ruthless” to describe the way Francis operates. And Rolling Stone cover-story journalist Mark Binelli wrote, “Bergoglio has shown himself to be a stealth enforcer, capable of summoning that old authoritarian steel if it serves a higher purpose.”

Now consider this observation by Pope Francis, “How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two point?” Krames suggest, “That’s him – in a single sentence.”

He then adds, “Pope Francis shows us where the world ha gone wrong and how our values have gone off the rails. Even the choice of hi name – inspired by St. Francis of Assisi – was meant to signal to the world that he would focus on society’s poor, as well as on the sickest and weakest among us.”

What we have in this volume are appropriate diverse perspectives on Pope Francis. It should be noted that neither Krames nor I is a Roman Catholic. His opinions as well as mine are mostly of Pope Francis’ leadership rather than of articles of faith, for example, or of the organizational structure and policies of one of the largest organizations in the world.

Krames suggests and discusses 12 lessons to be learned from its current leader who was elected during a papal enclave by the College of Cardinals in March 2013. He devotes a separate chapter to each lesson, concluding with a brief list of supplementary suggestions. Here’s how he frames them:

1. “Here are a few ideas to help you get your feet firmly on the ground on that path to greater humility” (Page 13-14)
2. “What additional steps can you take to more effectively smell like your flock?” (21-22)
3. “What can you do to make better assessments and ensure that you are not judging your people? Here are a few ideas” (29-30)
4. “Here are some other ideas you can implement to transform your organization” (39-40)
5. “Here are some other ideas that can make you and your organization more inclusive (47-49)
6. “What additional steps can you take to guard against insularity? Consider these potential actions” (55-57)
7. “What can you do to be more pragmatic and rely less on ideology? Consider these ideas” (63-64)
8. “How can you improve your decision-making prowess? Consider the following ideas” (72-73)
9. “How can you learn to run your organization more like a field hospital? Consider the following idea” (79-83)
10. “What other thing can you do to work on the frontier of your industry? Consider the following” (86-87)
11. “What other lessons can we apply from the Pope Francis example? Take a look at these ideas” (93-94)
12. “What steps can you take to get you closer to both customers and nonconsumers? Consider the following items” (99-101)

I have read and reviewed most of Krames’s previously published books in which his focus is also on effective leadership: what work, what doesn’t, and why. They include books about Jack Welch: Jack Welch and the 4 E’s of Leadership: How to Put GE’s Leadership Formula to Work in Your Organization; The Jack Welch Lexicon of Leadership: Over 250 Terms, Concepts, Strategies & Initiatives of the Legendary Leader; and The Welch Way: 24 Lessons from the World’s Greatest CEO. Krames also wrote What the Best CEOs Know: 7 Exceptional Leaders and Their Lessons for Transforming any Business, Inside Drucker’s Brain, and The Rumsfeld Way: The Leadership Wisdom of a Battle-Hardened Maverick.

With all due respect to these and other great leaders in business, government, the military, and religion, however, all organizations need effective leadership (i.e. productive initiative) at all levels and in all areas of the given enterprise. Great leaders seem to have a “green thumb” for “growing” the talent needed to achieve success in all seasons, fair or foul.

After Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope less than two years ago and chose the name Francis, it soon became obvious that he would lead with humility but also with a steadfast commitment to basic values and fundamental principles that are frequently lost or compromised within a global organization as large and as complicated as the Roman Catholic Church.

This is probably what Jeffrey Krames had in mind when observing, “Francis does not see the world as a static place but as an ever-changing landscape that we all need to be attuned to. Here, Francis evokes shades of Drucker when he discusses a pastoral ministry. ‘Pastoral ministry in a missionary key seeks to abandon the complacent attitude that says We have always done it this way. I invite everyone to be bold and creative in this task of rethinking the goals, structures, style, and method of evangelization in their respective communities. A proposal of goals without an adequate communal search for the mean of achieving them will inevitably prove illusory.”