The author and management consultant, Patrick Lencioni (one of his most well-known books is the leadership fable, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team) once said about humility, For organizations seriously committed to making teamwork a cultural reality, I'm convinced that the 'right people' are the ones who have three virtues in common - humility, hunger, and people smarts. In other words, humility is one of a select number of key leadership traits. Successful organizations need leaders who are willing to sacrifice their own self-interests for the interests of the greater organization. In other words, successful organizations need servant leaders. Servant leaders, almost by definition, are humble leaders.
As it turns out, research shows that humble leaders improve overall employee engagement and job performance. Unfortunately, humility is sometimes associated with weakness. However, nothing can be further from the truth. Humble leaders fully recognize their strengths and weaknesses, as well as the strengths and weakness of the members of their teams. Angela Sebaly, author of The Courageous Leader said, Humility is about minimizing the self and maximizing the bigger purpose you represent. She goes on to explain further, When you think about humility in that way, it becomes a vital competency in leadership because it takes the focus from the 'I' to 'We.' Leaders with humility engage us and give us a sense of identity and purpose.
Humility can be a tough thing to learn, especially for leaders who are accustomed to personal success (which in many cases is why they have been given leadership opportunities in the first place). The important thing for these leaders to remember though is that success is indeed fickle. Success doesn't last forever. Simon Sinek, author of the book, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Action (the TED talk by the same name is one of the most viewed TED talks of all time) offers a very poignant example of this in his most recent book, Leaders Eat Last. He tells the story of how a former Under Secretary of Defense had been invited to give a speech. During his speech, he paused to take a drink of coffee. He noticed, perhaps as a number of members of the audience noticed, that he was drinking from a Styrofoam coffee cup:
"You know," he said, interrupting his own speech. "I spoke here last year. I presented at this same conference on this same stage. But last year, I was still an Under Secretary," he said. "I flew in here in business class and when I landed, there was someone waiting for me at the airport to take me to my hotel. Upon arriving at my hotel," he continued, "there was someone else waiting for me. They had already checked me into the hotel, so they handed me my key and escorted me up to my room. The next morning, when I came down, again there was someone waiting for me in the lobby to drive me to this same venue that we are in today. I was taken through a back entrance, shown to the greenroom and handed a cup of coffee in a beautiful ceramic cup.
But this year, as I stand here to speak to you, I am no longer the Under Secretary," he continued. "I flew here coach class and when I arrived at the airport yesterday there was no one there to meet me. I took a taxi to the hotel, and when I got there, I checked myself in and went by myself to my room. This morning, I came down to the lobby and caught another taxi to come here. I came in the front door and found my way backstage. Once there, I asked one of the techs if there was any coffee. He pointed to a coffee machine on a table against the wall. So I walked over and poured myself a cup of coffee into this here Styrofoam cup," he said as he raised the cup to show the audience.
"It occurs to me," he continued, "the ceramic cup they gave me last year...it was never meant for me at all. It was meant for the position I held. I deserve a Styrofoam cup. This is the most important lesson that I can impart to all of you," he offered. "All the perks, all the benefits and advantages you may get for the rank or position you hold, they aren't meant for you. They are meant for the role you fill. And when you leave your role, which eventually you will, they will give the ceramic cup to the person who replaces you. Because you only deserved a Styrofoam cup."
What an incredible story! I wonder if the Under Secretary in Sinek's story was a humble leader when he first spoke at the conference and received the "VIP treatment." Perhaps it was only when he noticed that he had been drinking from a Styrofoam cup the following year at the conference when the lesson of humility was learned.
Apparently, Dwight D. Eisenhower, hero of World War II and the 34th President of the United States of America, used to carry a copy of a poem by Saxon White Kessinger in his pants pocket. The poem is called The Indispensable Man and goes like this:
Sometime when you're feeling important;
Sometime when your ego's in bloom;
Sometime when you take it for granted,
You're the best qualified in the room.
Sometime when you feel that your going,
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow these simple instructions,
And see how they humble your soul.
Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to the wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that's remaining,
Is a measure of how much you'll be missed.
You can splash all you wish when you enter,
You may stir up the water galore,
But stop, and you'll find that in no time,
It looks quite the same as before.
The moral of this quaint example,
Is to do just the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself but remember,
There's no indispensable man.
Humility. It is an indispensable characteristic of leadership. Even if it is hard to be humble...
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