According to The Wall Street Journal, humble leaders "inspire teamwork, rapid learning and high performance." It is vital to identify personality traits that include "sincerity, modesty, fairness, truthfulness, and simplicity," a task inspired by what Kibeom Lee and Michael Ashton call the H Factor (a combination of honesty and humility).
All this raises an obvious question: if humility is so important, why are so many arrogant "leaders"? On the one hand, many leaders think that they can not be humble and ambitious at the same time. One of the great benefits of becoming a manager, according to the predominant logic, is that one is responsible for making things happen and delivering results. Edgar Schein, professor emeritus of MIT, once asked a group of students what it means to be promoted to a management position. They said without hesitation: "It means that now I can tell others what to do." These are the roots of the know-it-all leadership style, many believe that if you are not winning, you are losing.The tacit assumption among executives is that life is a competition between companies, but also between individuals within companies, it is not a mentality that recognizes the virtues of humility.
According to Bill Taylor, humility and ambition do not have to be at odds. In fact, humility at the service of ambition is the most effective and sustainable mentality for leaders who aspire to do great things in a world of unknowns. They focus on work, not on themselves. They look for success, but they feel humble when it arrives. They feel fortunate, not all-powerful.
There is another great reason why it is so difficult for leaders to be humble: humility can make you appear soft at times when problems are hard, it can make leaders seem vulnerable when looking for solutions. However, that is precisely virtue: the most effective leaders do not claim to have all the answers, the world is too complicated for it. They understand that their job is to get the best ideas from the right people wherever they are.
Humility (or the noble art of asking instead of dictating) has three modalities. First of all, there is the humility that we feel with elders and honorable figures, it is a basic part of society. Second, there is the humility we feel in the presence of those who amaze us with their achievements, it occurs mainly in professional life. And third, there is the humility "of the here and now," which is rarely observed in business and is the most relevant for leaders who want to achieve great things.
What is humility "here and now"? It's "how I feel when I depend on you," explains Schein. "My state is inferior to yours at this moment because you know something or you can do something that I need to achieve some goal. I have to be humble because I temporarily depend on you. But there is also another option: I can deny dependency, avoid being humble, not get what I need and, therefore, not accomplish the task or sabotage without knowing it. Unfortunately, people often prefer to fail to admit their dependence on someone else. "
We live in a world where the ego receives attention but modesty gets results, where arrogance generates headlines but humility makes the difference. Do we have enough security to keep us humble? Are we strong to admit that we do not have all the answers?
Let's never forget the mountains of life. The first time you are very successful, you are arrogant. When you fall, you suffer despair. Once you go back up, you release humility because you know you can go back down. The next descent, you have faith because you trust that you will triumph again.
Beautifully put. This goes right to my "Book of Wisdumbs" ... Why misspelling? To remind myself that there are no absolute truths. Here is one from Peter Brant - "There is a fine line between allowing a market room to run and protecting profits. It is my desire to give a market every opportunity to reach a target. It is also my desire to avoid popcorn trades. Unfortunately, I have not found the solution." P.S. popcorn trades are the ones that move quickly in your direction and then come all the way back to entry.