Humility in leadership
We don’t often hear business leaders talk about humility. But I have recently listened to an interview with David Heath, the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bombas. He brought up humility as a important trait for a good leader.
So what’s up with humility? Is it a character strength, like David Heath suggests, or a weakness to be overcome in our culture focused on self-promotion?
Most of the western world seems to dislike humility. The importance of self-worth, self-confidence, and self-advocacy appear to be in direct conflict with the virtue of being humble. It would seem that living in any western country, it is hard to take a position of humility because our culture teaches us that we are safer in positions of power. But is that really true?
I believe humility can be our strength. For one thing, it is directly related to our ability and willingness to learn. When we are humble, we are not the “knowers” but the “learners”, so we remain open-minded, ready to absorb new knowledge and new experiences from others. As humble leaders and team members, we embrace diversity, because we never see ourselves as superior to anybody else.
Moreover, humility allows us to be open to learning about our shortcomings and weaknesses. We are more open to feedback, so we can improve more easily. A humble leader is more likely to collaborate and take advice from others, which in the long run, can make them more successful.
My personal experience plays a big part in my understanding of humility. I come from a culture where humility was treated as a virtue. It was taught to children from a young age. However, in my upbringing, humility had a flavor of a catholic-style sinfulness, shame, and self-abnegation. My dad would scold me when I dressed up or looked at myself in the mirror, because, in his mind, it was a sign of vanity, or lack of humility, a major sin.
As such, my early experience of staying humble, although deeply ingrained in me, is not the most positive. In my professional and personal life, humility seemed to be a hindrance to advancing, getting recognized, or self-advocating. As a result, most of my adult life, I tried to overcome it rather than embrace it.
However, I have recently started to acknowledge and appreciate a healthy version of humility in myself and in others. For me, it feels like coming back to my roots. Maybe that’s why I got really excited when an accomplished leader, like David Heath, talked about the importance of humility in our leadership.
I found other authors who also acknowledge the value of humility in business leaders. For example, Jim Collins, in Good to Great (2001), has demonstrated that the most outstanding leaders are also the most humble. These leaders believe in human development. They do not crave credit, nor do they constantly need to show how great they are or undermine others to feel powerful. They are instead relentlessly trying to improve and learn from their failures.
Humble leaders “have successfully tempered or tamed the ego and embraced a leadership perspective that seeks to elevate everyone” (Alten, I.D. (2019, Feb 26) How humble leaders foster resilience: An interview with Dr. Bradley Owens on the value of humility. Psychology Today). They are teachable, eager to learn, willing to see themselves accurately, and able to praise those around them.
My personal belief is that humility is indeed a virtue and a character strength. It does not mean that if we are humble, we will live invisible lives, steeped in low self-esteem, but rather that we will know and acknowledge our strengths and weaknesses in a genuine and accurate way. It will help us remain curious and open to learning, we will realize that it is OK to be wrong and to fail because we do not have an overinflated view of our own self-importance. We can sometimes put the success and wellbeing of the group, the community, the organization we are part of ahead of our own individual accomplishment.
To me, humility is acknowledging that we are not the center of the universe. We can step back and realize that our time on this planet is limited and our achievements are transient. Humility can also remind us about the many teams of which we are a part (families, communities, nations, the organizations for which we work, the human species).
And in this context, humility can coexist with healthy self-confidence and well-placed self-advocacy.
“All streams flow to the sea because it is lower than they are. Humility gives it its power. If you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them. If you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.” ― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
