NCRegister—It’s been less than two weeks since Pope Leo XIV was elected the 267th pope, and in that short time, he seems to have pulled off the incredible feat of winning over most Catholics at a time of deep division within the Church.
The Catholic Church is a global “corporation” — not in the modern business sense, but in the original meaning of the word: a corpus, a body, the Body of Christ.
And just as all eyes are on a new CEO, the world is looking at Pope Leo for signs that he is the right man for the job of St. Peter’s successor — a role that the Catechism teaches is “the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful.” 
The early reviews from corporate management experts? The Holy Father is crushing it, offering a “master class,” as it were, on how to move into the top job.
He’s embracing the role of a “servant leader.” The term “servant leadership,” coined in 1970 by Robert Greenleaf, an AT&T executive and management researcher, describes a leadership philosophy that prioritizes the needs and well-being of others within the organization.
In the business world, servant leadership can translate to higher pay and benefits for workers, investing in training and career development, and treating workers like collaborators in a common enterprise.
Experts like Andreas Widmer — a former Swiss Guard under Pope St. John Paul II and later a tech CEO — say the new pope is the epitome of that leadership approach.
“He’s surveying the landscape and finding the common ground with everybody. And that’s exactly what I would advise somebody who gets into a management position to do first,” explained Widmer, director of the Arthur & Carlyse Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship at The Catholic University of America’s Busch School of Business.
“It’s the tell-tale sign of servant leadership when you’re doing that,” he said.
At his inaugural Mass on Sunday, he explicitly stressed that the Vicar of Christ should be a “servant” rather than an “autocrat.” Pope Leo said:
The Apostle Peter himself tells us that Jesus ‘is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, and has become the cornerstone’ (Acts 4:11). Moreover, if the rock is Christ, Peter must shepherd the flock without ever yielding to the temptation to be an autocrat, lording it over those entrusted to him (cf. 1 Peter 5:3).
On the contrary, he is called to serve the faith of his brothers and sisters and to walk alongside them, for all of us are “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5), called through our baptism to build God’s house in fraternal communion, in the harmony of the Spirit, in the coexistence of diversity.
He’s being humble and authentic. Rob Neal, a real estate executive and chairman of the board of trustees at The Catholic University of America, believes these two qualities are essential for effective leadership.
“I think these twin points of authenticity and humility radiate easily from him, and that’s very important,” Neal told the Register. “You can’t fake authenticity. People can smell inauthentic authenticity,… Read full article here>>
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He’s focusing on the “main thing.” Neal learned this trade secret from Rex Tillerson, who was CEO of ExxonMobil at the time.
“I asked him, ‘How is it that you were running so exceptionally an organization with 400,000 people?’” and he said, ‘Rob, we focus on the main thing,” he recalled. For ExxonMobil, the main thing was not gas or oil, but energy. And, Tillerson told Neal, all of the company’s efforts from senior management to each individual in the organization needed to be focused on the main thing…. Read full article here>>
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