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Christians and Politics Christians and Politics http://www.christianpoliticsportal.org Book review: Alexandre Havard's Virtuous Leadership A book review by Jyri Soria Let us first discuss what leadership is about. When Alexandre Havard (1962) speaks about leadership, he is talking about the call of all human beings to serve mankind, the search of personal excellence to help others, and - at the end of the day - the struggle to become - and help others to become - fully human. Leadership differs from managerialism in its basis. Managers do things through people, leaders do people through things. Leaders' power comes not from potestas, but from auctoritas - the authority people recognize in true leaders because of their inspirational character. So, ”leadership is about character? No, leadership is character”. Leadership stems from the most inner part of the human soul, its personality. Not everyone is born with a strong temperament, but everyone can improve upon his or her personality, everyone can develop an equilibrated net of skills and virtues which defines his or her character. That is the secret of 'Virtuous Leadership's” success: ”leaders are not born, but trained”. Lacordaire said once, give me a person with passion and I will give you an orator, Havard seems to say give me a person that wants to improve his or her character and I will give you a leader. But how to improve my character? What if I can't change it? Here is maybe the best point of the book, the differentiation between character and temperament. Temperament is the natural legacy of our biological constitution, it is determined by birth, but it can be improved – what’s more, it should be improved - developing good and strong character. An Agenda for Personal Excellence How to become virtuous? By aretology, the classical science of developing virtues. A virtue is a habit incrusted in our nature that helps us to strive towards good. Aretology helps to develop temperament, to shape personality. It is an ancient science studied mainly by old Greek philosophers and Christian theologians. Aretology considers humanity as a whole, as the amazing mix between body and soul it actually is. Here lies its amazing potential, in its philosophical realism. Alexandre Havard shows a way to begin improving ones own personality. Although his theses are based on profound classical studies he succeeds to present them in a dynamic way that makes it easy to understand for those who do not have much knowledge of philosophy. On the other hand their accuracy will also satisfy adepts. Let us think of the human soul as a temple. A human - as he or she is human - is called to two things that go hand in hand: greatness and service, or, in Havard's words, magnanimity and humility. They are the cornerstone. From them we can start building. Using the classic Christian teaching about virtues Havard puts up the pillars of his temple in the 4 cardinal virtues: prudence, courage, self-control and justice. And what is the keystone? The golden stone that crowns this temple: this stone is what we call leadership. Part IV and V of the book are a study on leaders of the past century. He takes examples from different fields: science, politics, business and religion. All of them share two main things, the authority of their characters and their Christian example. All people are called to develop themselves and to become better and better, but Christians have a secret weapon: Grace. Although the book is not targeted only for Christian people, Havard speaks clearly about faith. The reason is simple, he is convinced about the impact of Christianity in his life and has to share it, as it couldn't - or it shouldn't - be otherwise. To sum up - and weighting all the things said before - Virtuous Leadership is an amazing book, a book that everyone should read, especially those who want to serve our society, and most certainly all Christians in politics. .
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