“I believe . . . the call to be Marianist is itself a call to leadership.”[1]
-- George Lisjak
What makes Marianist Leadership both good leadership and also authentically Marianist? This question is at the heart of Stances of Marianist Leadership: The essential really is the interior, a new book written by George Lisjak, the director of the North American Center for Marianist Studies (NACMS).
Lisjak, who has more than 40 years of leadership experience in Marianist institutions and holds a doctorate in educational leadership, believes that Marianist Leadership is not limited to organizations or groups that are explicitly Marianist.
According to Lisjak, “Marianist Leadership is a response to a call from God. The ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of leadership may cause it to appear to be Marianist, but it is the ‘why,’ an internal ‘yes,’ to the call that makes it so. The essential really is the interior.”[2] This book contends that leadership does not follow a recipe, a set of steps that lead to a predictable result. Rather, it involves standing in the face of reality in ways that make desired results more likely.
What are the stances that increase the probability of one’s acting in ways that represent not only good leadership but also authentically Marianist Leadership? Read Stances of Marianist Leadership to find out.
[1] George J. Lisjak, Stances of Marianist Leadership: The essential really is the interior (Dayton, OH: NACMS, 2025), 9.
[2] Lisjak, Stances of Marianist Leadership, 11.
