availability and openness

Pope Francis is arguably best known for availability and openness to the public. On his first day as Pope, he reversed the tradition of blessing the people by inviting them to bless him instead. He's since decided to ride in a bus with his team rather than in a bulletproof limousine. Pope Francis has also been seen getting around Rome in a Ford Focus and a Fiat during his U.S. visit.

Personal, handwritten thank-you notes and birthday lunch invitations to the homeless of Rome take priority in his schedule and exemplify his leadership vision.

Those who aren't spiritual leaders should also rethink what their most important responsibilities are—people over processes, names over numbers. Accessibility sows trust and loyalty among colleagues and customers, making other transformations possible.


William Vanderbloemen
The 5 Leadership Lessons From Pope Francis. 9/25/2015.

your brand: the people who report to you

Reflecting on his time as CEO, Hurt emphasizes that there is no better way to enforce culture and values than by the way you hire. “You’ll be most defined as the CEO by the people [who] report to you. That’s going to be your brand.” Moving quickly at startup speed brings out the true integrity of your hires — both the good and the awful. 100 mph work speed is where your top players step up, the people Hurt describes as “born to change the world.”

The individuals you choose to bring onto the team speak volumes. With each new hire, the CEO reinforces the values of the company, highlighting the traits perceived as most valuable for the organization. The same concept is applicable to firing. Hurt clarifies, “If you fire brilliant jerks, it says to everybody, ‘that’s not going to be condoned.’ If you hire people that have real passion, love your calling, it’s going to feed on itself.” The CEO sets the tone.

Drake Baer (presentation by Bazaarvoice CEO Brett Hurt)

"You Aren’t Born Knowing How to Be a CEO" First Round Review. 7/2/2013

a new order of things

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.

Niccolò Machiavelli 

"The 4 Core Steps of Change Leadership:How to lead change for results" by Samuel Bacharach. 2015

living on the frontier

There is another group of people whom Francis admires, and this one has nothing to do with social stratification such as marital status or sexual preference. These are special people who go beyond the call of duty, day in and day out, because they live on what Francis has described as the “frontier.”

Here, Bergoglio uses a very personal example to explain the term: “The frontiers are many. Let us think of the religious sisters living in hospitals. They live on the frontier. I am alive because of one of them. When I went through my lung disease at the hospital, the doctor gave me penicillin and streptomycin in certain doses. The sister who was on duty tripled my doses because she was daringly astute; she knew what to do because she was with ill people all day. The doctor, who really was a good one, lived in his laboratory. The sister lived on the frontier and was in dialogue with it every day.” You can’t lead from the back, Francis is saying. You have to lead from the front, where the struggle doesn’t end just because the leader has left. So he lives on the frontier himself….

Although frontier – or new frontier – were popular words and phrases for John F. Kennedy when he campaigned for president, Francis has a slightly different meaning for the word today. In American parlance, he means pushing the envelope by doing courageous things on the front lines. Don’t be afraid to push yourself beyond limits that are self-imposed or placed on you by society or convention…

Jeffrey A. Krames

Lead with Humility: 12 Leadership Lessons from Pope Francis. 2014

TWIST

Tesco has a unique program that requires all its front office executives and the managers in departments such as distribution to work more traditional store jobs for a full week every year. The program is dubbed TWIST, for “Tesco Week in Store Together.” From Tesco: “TWIST reinforces our values and aims to improve knowledge-sharing throughout the company…. IT covers all aspects of store operations, from the back door to the shop floor working as a Customer Assistant, including: receiving deliveries, working in the warehouse, filling, working on checkouts and the Customer Service Desk and this year completing a nightshift.”

TWIST is only a part of what helped Tesco grow to become the largest retailer in Europe. However, this is the type of program that brings people at the top of an organization closer to those who get the real work done and, more important, closer to customers. 

Jeffrey A. Krames

Lead with Humility: 12 Leadership Lessons from Pope Francis. 2014