Today was the Second Annual Social Entrepreneur Day in Colorado. I attended one of several events held throughout Denver to bring awareness to social entrepreneurship, as a way to solve global problems, by applying effective business practices.

Chris Lowney spoke at the Association for Corporate Growth monthly luncheon. Beforehand, I talked with someone at my table who had seen Lowney speak in the past and clearly was a fan of his. When I asked what we should listen for, she paused and said, "Listen for a redefinition of leadership."

My tablemate was right on target. Lowney started his talk by asking the audience to think of two people they considered leaders and then to think of the qualities associated with those leaders. (Seth Godin came to mind for me.) Lowney then asked the question, "Who thought of their own name?"

He went on to say that most of us have been raised to be modest but that modesty is misplaced. It’s a stereotype that leaders must be "people in charge." Thinking of leaders as the solution to our problems is the problem. Even worse, we have created environments that require self-leadership–flattened organizations with large spans of control. And yet we haven’t developed the capacity for self-leadership. I agree with Lowney when he said it’s a broken model.

Photo by Larry Nelson, www.w3w3.com 

Lowney, who spent 7 years as a Jesuit seminarian and 18 years working for J.P. Morgan drew from both worlds to illustrate his ideas on what a better model would look like. Some of his insights that I especially enjoyed:

• Heroism, as a component of leadership, asks us to look past our ego to serve others, with a dedication and doggedness that belies any sure outcome. Lowney gave the example of a teacher’s heroism as showing up every day, with only the possibility of having an impact on a student’s life. Heroism is both a faithfulness and a leap of faith, for the benefit of others.
• Self-awareness, as a component of leadership, points us to the following questions:
  • Who am I? This is a question that one could spend a lifetime answering, and yet with each new insight, we have more clues as to how best to use our gifts.
  • What’s worth doing in a human lifetime? I especially liked this question, because it speaks to time and effort spent purposefully and lifts our aspirations.
• When we are put to the test early in life, it causes us to accelerate our self-awareness.  Trauma brings to the forefront the question of "who am I?" and implicitly, "what am I made of?" And sometimes, we are never put to the test. I see far too many people, late in life, without a sense of who they are or what their purpose.   
• Make yourself free and only then can you freely choose. This was a wonderful point about letting go of attachment to ego, pride, or simply an old way of doing something. When we can do this, our choices are grounded in what’s best, rather than in what will satisfy an artificial demand.
• Love, as a component of leadership, is having the conscience to do right by your fellow man or woman. Lowney quoted St. Ignatious: "Love ought to manifest in deeds, not words."

Redefining leadership is as simple as Lowney’s closing statement: Think of your own name first.

Thanks to Chris Pelley for spearheading the effort to shine the spotlight on social entrepreneurship in Colorado and bringing Chris Lowney to Denver.