Leadership for mission-driven teams: Superiors and DOWs meet at Prerana

On : 2023-11-13

Superiors and directors of work (DOWs) came together to reflect and deliberate on the theme ‘Leadership for mission-driven teams’ at Prerana, Mount St Joseph, Bangalore on November 11-12. There were over 75 participants.

The keynote speaker was Anand Nayak, former HR, ITC and presently the HR Manager at St Joseph’s University, Bangalore. In his two-part address, Mr Nayak enumerated what it is to be a leader in a challenging modern world.

He said: “A true leader is one who is true to oneself, transparent, living one’s values, dependable, person of his word, one who walks the talk and one who does not speak ill of others in their absence.” He added that personal trustworthiness is the foundation of a high trust culture. “A leader leads himself to lead others. It is important that we increase the domain of our shared self, so that we become more open and proactive,” he said.

Mr Nayak also asserted that revisiting paradigms can result in quantum leaps in outcomes. “It is important that we make our so called adversaries in our organisation as our partners or collaborators, rather than making them our enemies. For this, we must listen with an intent to understand. We must always see what could be the third alternative, particularly in times of conflicts,” he opined.

Provincial, Fr Dionysius Vaz, in his address called upon the Jesuit leaders to have mission-driven teams rather than activity-driven or report-driven teams. “The primary role of a superior is to seek and discern the will of God. Further, his duty is cura personalis. It is important for superiors and DOWs to balance between administration and animation,” he said.

Fr Provincial thanked Bangalore Jesuit Education Society for helping the province to buy an estate at Beccodu, Sakleshpura. He also informed the gathering that many donors had helped the Jesuit works and missions in the recent past. “We must make sure to engage with them constantly and pray for them. God has been very generous to us through them,” he said.

There was also a discussion and discernment on starting a CBSE school at Harihar. Fr Sunil Fernandes coordinated the two-day programme.