What Can Business Leaders Learn from Pope Francis' Leadership Style?

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Feb 21, 2014, 04:50 ET

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 21, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pope Francis has been attracting worldwide attention with his unique approach to his office and his soaring approval ratings among the Catholic faithful and the public at large.

Best-selling author Chris Lowney says America's CEOs can learn a lot from the pope about leadership. Lowney will share his insights in his talk, "Noble Vocation or New Idolatry? Business Leadership Lessons from Pope Francis," on Monday, Feb. 24, at 7:15 p.m. in Loyola Marymount University's Hilton Center for Business auditorium.

Lowney, the author of "Heroic Leadership," "Heroic Living" and "A Vanished World," is a former Jesuit seminarian and then managing director of J.P. Morgan in New York, Tokyo, Singapore and London. He now chairs the board of Catholic Health Initiatives, one of the nation's largest healthcare/hospital systems.

"Like everyone else in the world, I was galvanized by those incredible first 48 hours (of Francis' papacy) — asking us to bless him, hopping the bus, paying his own hotel bill, etc. And so I was intrigued by the chance to look at him as a leadership case study," Lowney said.

"Too many so-called leaders are 'out of touch': pampered and cocooned, they deal with the world only through reports, ideology, numbers, television, etc. This doesn't do."

Lowney will discuss what business leaders and private individuals can learn from Pope Francis to become more effective in their business and private lives.

This event is sponsored by LMU's Center for Accounting Ethics, Governance, and the Public Interest in the College of Business Administration.

About Loyola Marymount University
Located between the Pacific Ocean and downtown Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University is a comprehensive university offering 60 major programs, 36 master's degrees and a doctoral degree in education from four colleges, two schools and Loyola Law School. Founded in 1911, LMU is ranked third in "Best Regional Universities/West" by U.S. News & World Report. LMU is the largest Jesuit Catholic university for undergraduates on the West Coast with more than 5,900 undergraduate students and more than 3,000 graduate and law students. For more LMU news and events, please visit www.lmu.edu/news.

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SOURCE Loyola Marymount University