A Petition for Leadership

Dear Lord, as those entrusted with leading this great Xavier University, please help each of us become Leaders in Balance and realize the importance and impact of our way of thinking and our way of being, because leaders are built from the inside out:Help us approach leadership as a relationship not just a position...listening, reflective, and intentional;

Help us understand that each of us embodies Xavier's brand promise...setting the tone for what is doneand valued...building trust;

And that each of us focus on a higher purpose...Xavier's mission above personal interests;

Lord, help us appreciate how collaboration with a purpose can enable us to reach better decisions and toexecute our decisions better;

And to that end, Lord, help each of us think "outside the pyramid" to share powerand authority...encouraging innovation, releasing energy and spreading influence;

Help us realize that teaching and leadership have much in common...as we search for truth and reality;

Understanding that at the center of collaboration is a true comfort and sincere valuing of diversity ofpeople, ideas and ways of thinking...an enormously strengthening factor;

Finally Lord, help us all believe during these difficult times, that the challenge of leading change atXavier University is not about leadership in control, but leadership in balance;

To that end, we collectively embrace the value of nurturing the gene of collaboration throughout allXavier leaders...deep into our organization.

We make this prayer not alone, but together, for Together there is power.