Homily in Monte Agudo
By Rafael E. Cabarles, OAR
Church choice:
Manager or Pastoral Pope
On February 11, 2013, Pope Benedict XVI stunned the world by announcing his resignation effective February 28, 2013. He was 85 years old.
On March 12 of the same year, the Philippine Daily Inquirer on page A12 quoted the Official Organ of the Vatican, L’Observatore Romano: “VATICAN CITY—Cardinals gathered for their final talks on Monday before the conclave to elect the next Popae, amid debate over whether the Catholic Church needs MORE of a MANAGER POPE to clean up the Vatican or a PASTORAL POPE who can inspire the faithful at a time of crisis.”
The Title of this article therefore is taken from the debate among the Cardinals before the actual voting. “What kind of Pope are we going to CHOOSE: a Manager Pope or a Pastoral Pope.”
The Cardinals must be aware of the differences between a Manager and a Pastoral. Pastoral comes from the Latin word pastor which means shepherd, which is equivalent to servant-leader. That leaves them two choices: Manager Pope or Leader Pope.
On March 13, 2014: the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church. He chose the name ‘Francis’ after St. Francis of Assisi, the lover of the poor.
Since the time of his election, much has been written about Pope Francis. His Papal visit to our country was a tremendous success. He was declared by the Time magazine “Person of the Year.” He was a candidate to the Nobel Prize for Peace. On April 7, 2013, an article in the Inquirer on page A15 appeared with the title: What do you think of Pope Francis?
Is he a manager? Or a leader?
Let us remember that sometimes we need a manager style and at other times a leadership style. The question is not which is important of the two, but which is MORE IMPORTANT as “debate over whether the Catholic Church needs more of a manager or a pastoral pope.
To paraphrase the words of Shakespeare in Julius Caesar: Not that I love Caesar less but that I love Rome more.” We could also say: Not that I love ‘manager’less but that I love ‘leader’ more.
A political critic once said: It is better to have good dictator during bad times and a democratic leader in good times.
This brings us to the distinction between a manager and a leader. There are plenty of misconceptions and myths that people embrace about leaders and leadership. There is a lot of leadership training but actually they are manager-ship training. A lot of books or articles confused leadership with management. Up until a few years ago, books that claimed to be on leadership were often really about management.
According to John C. Maxmell in his Book Leadership 101 on page 64 said, “A widespread misunderstanding is that leading and managing are one and the same.” He mentioned some myths about leadership.
The first main difference between management and leadership according to Maxwell is that leadership is about influencing people to follow, while management focuses on maintaining systems and processes. The best way to test whether a person can lead rather than just manage is to ask him to create positive change. Managers can maintain direction, but they can’t change. To move people in a new direction, you need influence.
In his book Be a People Person on pages 77-78, Maxwell made several distinctions: The manager drives people; the leader coaches people. The manager depends upon authority, the leader depends on goodwill. The manager inspires fear, the leader inspires enthusiasm. The manager fixes the blame for the breakdown, the leader fixes the breakdown. The manager knows how it is done, the leader shoes how it is done. The manager says, ‘I;’ the leader says, ‘We.’ The manager says, ‘Go!’ The leader says, ‘Let’s go!’”
Secondly, we confuse salesmen and entrepreneurs as leaders. But that’s not always the case. People may be buying what he has to sell, but they are not following him. At the best, he is able to persuade people for a moment, but he holds no long-term influence with them.
Third, we confuse bright people as leaders as the saying goes, “Knowledge is power.” We assume that those who posses knowledge and intelligence have power and therefore are leaders. It is not necessarily true. Genius people usually even creates problems in the community. IQ doesn’t necessarily equate with leadership.
Fourth, the greatest misunderstanding about leadership is that people think it is based on position or appointment. Maxwell said, “It is not the position that makes the leader; it’s the leader that makes the position. The OIC or officer-in-charge and CEO or chief-executive-officer are not necessarily leaders. They are positional leaders. You can lose you title and position, but you can continue to be leader.
“He who thinks he leads, but has no followers is only taking a walk.”
Sometimes we easily learn by comparison, here is the comparison between leader and manager:
1. Manager wonders what happened while leader makes things happen.
2. Manager sees a tree while leader sees a forest.
3. Manager sees the problem, while leader sees the solution.
4. Manager consults while the leader participates.
5. Manager reacts to the events while leader pro-acts to the event.
6. Manager is efficient while leader is effective.
7. Manager sympathizes while leader empathizes.
8. Manager helps while leader serves.
9. Manager manages things while leader leads people.
10. Manager instructs while leader educates.
A bulldozes and a plow are both useful. To be a leader, one must be a plow—that cultivates people while a manager ‘bulldozes’ or scraps people.
A rubber band and a ruler are both useful. To be a leader, one must be rubber band,; it functions when it is stretched. It is flexible and adaptable while a ruler-manager is always 12 inches long, no more, no less.
A thermometer and a thermostat are both useful. To be a leader, one must be a thermostat—pro-active, controls the heat of the car or of the air conditioning unit while the thermometer or manager is passive. It receives and records the heat of the body or of the room.
Conclusion: Be a leader more than just a manager. Be a leader just like our Pope Francis.
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