Beside, Not Above: Catholic Leadership Through Listening, Unity, and Solidarity
In a complex, high-growth business, it’s tempting to drift toward top-down leadership. After all, when you carry the weight of payroll, investors, and scaling strategy, it’s easy to believe leadership must be out front - decisive, directional, alone.
But Catholic social teaching offers a different framework - one that challenges conventional leadership paradigms.
Solidarity isn’t just a theological ideal. It’s a leadership lens. A strategic edge. A path to building resilient, unified teams who share responsibility and mission.
From Command to Communion
At your stage, delegation isn’t your issue. Alignment is.
Your managers are making critical decisions. Culture is shaped less by what you say and more by how others lead in your name. That’s why the Catholic social teaching principle of solidarity matters: it reminds you that leadership is not about control, but about communion.
Here’s the shift:
From “me leading from the top” → to “us leading together”
From cascading vision → to co-creating clarity and buy-in
From information flow → to insight loops that move up and down the org
Leaders walk beside. Builders walk with. That’s what forms deep unity, even in growing or distributed teams.
Listen Like a Founder Again
When you started, you knew every hire personally. You listened, coached, understood context. Now, with 50, 100, or 300+ employees, that feels impossible. But solidarity doesn’t require proximity - it requires intentional listening systems.
Here are practical ways to embed listening as a strategic discipline:
Quarterly “skip-level” listening sessions: Meet directly with team leads 2–3 layers down. Ask: What’s something slowing you down that no one’s addressing?
Anonymous dignity pulse checks: Not just eNPS - ask “Do you feel seen and respected at work?” once a quarter.
Founder open forums (30 mins/month): No slides. Just you, live Q&A, and your heart.
Listening isn’t soft. It’s how you prevent blind spots, create trust, and scale your moral authority as a Catholic founder.
Find out how SENT can help you scale your venture and stay true to your mission.
A CEO Checklist: Practicing Solidarity at Scale
Here’s a practical leadership audit to evaluate if you're truly leading beside, not above:
I regularly meet with people outside my exec team to gather ground truth.
My leadership team has psychological safety to challenge me directly.
Our cultural values include dignity, trust, or servant leadership - and they’re practiced.
My direct reports feel co-owners of the mission, not just executors of my vision.
We have feedback systems that travel both directions - up and down.
If you’re checking most of these, you’re not just building a business - you’re forming a culture of communion. One that mirrors the Church’s vision of what it means to be united in diversity.
