Let’s talk about your heart. The prophet Jeremiah nailed it when he wrote, “More tortuous than anything is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9).
The kernel of leadership, everything you need to know about being a true leader, is located within the human heart. Understanding our own hearts is the key to authentic, evangelizing leadership in our businesses.
Natural moral law is a set of “laws” not written on paper but inscribed on every human heart and applied when a person uses reason, prudence and justice to determine right and wrong. The Catholic Church recognizes that, due to original sin, our hearts are also naturally drawn to evil tendencies (concupiscence), which include selfishness, greed, lust, pride and other disordered desires. These tendencies often pull us away from what is good and can lead to immoral choices. The heart is where the daily battle exists between good and evil.
Whether you believe in God or original sin or not, you can see that this scenario sets us up for a continual internal struggle of the heart. It’s a battle of the will that plays out daily in the lives of the lowly and the famous as we try to recognize what we should do while being drawn to do the opposite. St. Paul wrote, “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold into slavery to sin. What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate” (Rom 7:14-15).
Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote, “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart–and through all human hearts.” I think we tend to point at the “others” out there as evil to take the focus off ourselves, what is happening inside our hearts and how that manifests in our families, neighbors, friends and the workplace.
The heart is where the daily battle occurs because of our love of comfort, pride and vanity. This battle spills out of the hearts of all people and into the streets, businesses, entertainment industry, politics and even our beloved Catholic Church. One doesn’t have to think too hard to bring up names that exemplify this battle in various sectors of society.
The answer to Jeremiah’s possibly rhetorical question, then, is that God understands every human heart and that the heart is the key to true leadership.
As Catholics, we believe we have been given the tools at baptism to battle our evil inclinations and attain the maturity to be true leaders through the Holy Spirit, the theological virtues of faith, hope and love, and sanctifying grace.
St. Paul calls us to be solid, mature and authentically Catholic business leaders. Ephesians 4:11-14 says, “…to equip the holy ones [We are called to be saints!] for the work of ministry [Your business can be your ministry], for building up the Body of Christ [To evangelize through your leadership], until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the extent of the full stature of Christ [Be an image of Christ in the workplace!], so we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery, from their cunning in deceitful scheming [To lead by faith in God and your intellect, informed by your mature heart and not by emotion or selfish desires].”
If you lead a business, it’s important to know that your heart shapes its culture and that the culture will only rise to the worst behavior tolerated. The importance of culture is rarely taught in business schools as a critical component needed for long-term success. It is only occasionally written about as a general interest piece in various business journals and magazines.
The role of the leader’s heart in shaping a business culture rooted in virtue won’t be taught in any business school or leadership workshop—but perhaps it should be. In a time when true virtuous leadership is sorely lacking across all sectors of society, we must recognize the importance of leading with integrity, guided by our moral compass–a well-formed heart. As Catholic business leaders, we have the opportunity to inspire change and cultivate business cultures that promote love of God and neighbor not only with our minds but with our hearts.
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