Sisters reflect on leadership
A successful, confident leader can possess many different skill sets that shape their ability to lead. School Sisters of Notre Dame are leaders in many different ministries. Read four sisters’ reflections on what they believe make a courageous, compassionate leader.
Sister Julie Brandt currently serves as the director of schools for the Joplin Area Catholic School system. While serving in this role, and previously as the associate superintendent of schools for the Jefferson City Diocese, Sister Julie earned her doctorate in Catholic educational leadership. She began her School Sisters of Notre Dame teaching career in 1987, teaching elementary students at St. Mary’s School in Worthington, MN. She later served as principal at St. Bernard Mission School in Fort Yates, North Dakota. Throughout the years, Sister Julie has served in education as well as in SSND community service. When asked what makes a courageous and compassionate leader, she had this to say:
"I believe that courage and compassion are both manifestations of love."
To be a courageous, compassionate leader is to recognize that these two elements are joined together at the heart of the leader. Like two sides of a coin, courage and compassion are both often evident in the manner in which a leader responds to the challenges and opportunities they encounter. I believe it is essential for the courageous, compassionate leader to possess the capacity to be discerning to determine when a situation calls for them to respond with either compassion or courage, or oftentimes a combination of both.
A courageous, compassionate leader gives all they are to the mission and ministry to which they are committed. In the divisiveness that we encounter in our world today, it takes courage and compassion to invite others to embrace the call to a common mission; which for me as an SSND generally is connected to our charism of unity.
A significant aspect of courageous, compassionate leadership is the capacity to form relationships with and among those whom you lead, for it is through relationship that you can help to inspire others to respond to a particular mission. Additionally, in relationship, a leader can hear someone’s piece of the truth and either compassionately affirm a given reality or courageously challenge this reality. Compassion calls a leader to listen with the ears of love. Courage invites the leader to respond with the strength of love. Ultimately, one’s response must be infused with love lest the response becomes destructive or diminishing of others or self-serving of the leader’s interests.
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Sister Gloria Cain currently works in Dallas serving as a sister donor representative for the Resource Development Office of the Central Pacific Province. Her previous leadership roles include being the first superintendent for the Diocese of Lake Charles, Louisiana, where she served in that capacity for 11 years. She went to Texas in 1996, serving as the first superintendent for the Diocese of Victoria and then in 2008, as superintendent for the Diocese of Dallas. After retiring as superintendent, and at the request of the bishop, she served for one year as the bishop’s delegate for mission effectiveness for the Diocese of Dallas. When asked what makes a courageous, compassionate leader, Sister Gloria answered:
"Leadership is integral to me as a School Sister of Notre Dame! I believe that all persons are called to be leaders—that is, influencing others for the greater good."
“We are called and sent to deepen communion with God and among people wherever we are---in every place, in every time, in every situation. The values, attitudes and virtues that foster oneness in our faith community, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, are the same by which we promote unity among all people.” (You Are Sent, C #9)
I understand this call to unity as a way of living and serving that calls to growth, always striving for the enablement of persons and striving for the common good.
I believe a good leader takes time to know the unique gifts and qualities of individuals and strives to affirm these, at the same time gently challenging them to grow. Effective, courageous and compassionate leaders understand the importance of listening and learning from others, especially those whom they lead.
Effective, courageous, compassionate leaders are constantly looking to the future, knowing that every new day is an opportunity for growth and greater unity in an ever-changing world.
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Sister Barbara Pfarr’s passions are in social justice and advocacy. She entered the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) community as a social worker and was assigned as “Community Outreach Minister” in a Milwaukee city parish. However, she soon realized that food baskets and confronting bad landlords were not going to make the changes that were necessary for her neighborhood. She got involved in broad-based, direct-action community organizing. Throughout her years as a SSND, she has organized, advocated and mobilized through a variety of organizations. She founded and was the lead organizer of Communities United to Reach Equality (CURE) in Immokalee, Florida. She was an organizer with Interfaith Worker Justice, Chicago; Stewards of Prophetic Hopeful International Action (SOPHIA), Waukesha, Wisconsin; and WISDOM in Milwaukee. Sister Barbara shares what she believes a compassionate, courageous leader is to her:
"A strong leader engages deeply with others."
I’ve had the great fortune to be mentored by three exceptionally courageous, compassionate leaders. Each has developed a strong social justice organization, through which hundreds of leaders have won thousands of dollars in concrete benefits for marginalized people and communities. These leaders all came out of strong faith communities where key values were lived out and expected. All were driven by the way they read the scriptures. As Interfaith Worker Justice Founder, Kim Bobo, always said, “You can’t read scripture very long without reading about justice.”
It has been my experience as well. When it came time to prepare for final vows, while my classmates were drawn to scriptural passages of God’s love, I was drawn to passages of God’s call to act for justice. Where did that come from? How can we nurture that?
My niece is now teaching her baby daughter, Ava, the game of 'Can I have this? Here, you can have it back' She’s teaching a key value at a tender young age. Little Ava is learning that she can give away a treasure and expect to get it back?" When we know we will have what we need, we can be generous. When we know we’re loved, we can be courageous in making sure everyone else is loved and has what they need. We have to work for a world where everyone has what they need for a fully human life.
As a community organizer, I’ve been trained to recognize my own self-interest and look for the self-interest of others. Our self-interest drives us. It’s not selfishness or selflessness. It’s 'self-in-relation-to-others'. It’s about relationship: I know my wants and needs and goals, and I know your wants and needs and goals. What do I need to know about someone in order to really understand their self-interest? A strong leader engages deeply with others. It requires curiosity (who really is this person in front of me?), courage to probe a bit deeper, and compassion to do so gently while honoring what I discover.
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Sister Carol Jean Dust currently serves as chairperson of the SSND Central Pacific Province Ministry Commission and is a member of the SSND North American Vocation Team (NAVT). With almost 50 years since her first profession as a SSND, Sister Carol Jean has served in many school settings as a teacher, department chair, assistant principal and coordinator of religious education. She has also served internationally in Honduras as an administrator of Instituto Notre Dame and youth retreat director, on the board of directors for solidarity with South Sudan and in Rome as a general councilor for SSND. Sister Carol Jean strongly feels that courageous, compassionate leadership is derived from Jesus’ examples:
"A courageous leader knows that love often means taking new steps, trusting the grace of the Spirit within, and challenging others to a new way of acting, thinking, and serving, while reverencing the bond of unity."
“Jesus had always loved those who were his own in the world, but now he showed how perfect his love was. They were at supper …and he got up from table, removed his outer garment and, taking a towel, wrapped it round his waist; he poured water into a basin, then bent down and began to wash the disciples’ feet.” (John 13: 1-5)
I find no better example of a courageous, compassionate leader than Jesus, who showed us that to lead, one must serve. This example of humble service is at the heart of being a courageous, compassionate leader, because it calls one to build a relationship with another. It requires seeing in that relationship equality of being, a willingness to tap into the lives of those one is called to lead, even into the undesirable spaces as is the washing of feet. Humble service finds the leader willing to offer healing to wounds, promises of newness and visions of hope to those one leads. This loving service is the manifestation of compassion.
In the washing of feet, Jesus showed profound courage, as he did the unexpected. He performed something different, moving beyond what others might think or practice because in his heart love demanded this. A courageous leader knows that love often means taking new steps, trusting the grace of the Spirit within, and challenging others to a new way of acting, thinking, and serving, while reverencing the bond of unity. A courageous leader is ready to listen, dialogue and discern with others, maintaining one’s integrity while calling others to use their gifts and seek their potential.
Willing “to risk all in faith” (You Are Sent, GD 67) for the mission, leaders of courage and compassion move forward in hope, often onto untilled soil, trusting in the ever-present One who washed disciples’ feet.
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