‘Igwebuike’ As the Moving Spirit of Pope Francis’ Compassionate Leadership

Abstract

Leadership is a process by which an executive directs, guides and influences the behaviour and work of others towards the accomplishment of specific goals with confidence and zeal in a given situation or organization. The success of any organization, religious or secular, is highly dependent on the quality of leadership. Where there is no good leadership, the success of the group or organization would be affected. This explains why whenever an organization runs into crises the first step taken is to assess the quality of leadership and make a change if need be. Because of the significant place that leadership occupies, it has been an area of concern that Pope Francis has focused on in his major writings and homilies. Connectedly, a new concept which the Roman Pontiff brings into leadership discourse is the idea of compassion. This piece, therefore, has studied Pope Francis’ concept of compassionate leadership in a bid to generating the antidote for the diseases or maladies of leadership. This research discovered that the idea of compassionate leadership in Pope Francis is based on six pillars: listening, sympathizing, companionship, hospitality, protection and service. This discovery has also led to the understanding of ‘Igwebuike,’ an African philosophy of humanity towards the other, as the moving spirit or operative condition of Pope Francis’ leadership of compassion. These pillars on which Pope Francis’ compassionate leadership stands, come together, as though knit by a thread to support the achievement or realization of compassionate leadership. For the purpose of this work, the thematic and ‘Igwebuike’ approaches in research were adopted.