If you’re an experienced leader, then you’re already aware of this reality. You’ve learned how it feels to be squeezed between grand expectations and constraints you cannot overcome. Sometimes, despite your best intentions and efforts, you don’t succeed.
But failure is a better teacher than success, and when you stumble as a leader, there’s one most important lesson to recall.
Negative experiences are humbling. Failure resets your attitude, opening your mind to change and to the pursuit of knowledge. Failure reminds us that we are human.
As a leader, it’s gratifying to exercise influence, having people watching your every move and reacting to your every word. A sense of self-importance can slowly infect leaders, blinding them to reasonable alternatives and seducing them to discount the input of others in pursuit of their own ideas. This treachery of hubris is more dangerous than any other potential problem a leader can encounter, and it is a leading cause of failure.
The antidote for hubris is humility. Humility is the most important lesson taught by a failed experience, and it’s the most proven means of resolving the conflicts and contradictions of leadership. You can avoid the quicksand of hubris by recognizing your human fallibility – your need for the contributions of others in order to succeed.
The word “humility” is derived from the Latin word “humus,” meaning earth. Having your feet firmly planted on the ground, being down-to-earth, defines humility. It can get harder to stay grounded as you rise in the organization.
Admitting your humility takes courage – it tests your values and nerve to concede that you don’t know it all, that you can’t anticipate every possibility or envision every outcome, that you can’t solve every problem or control every variable, that you aren’t always amiable or good-natured, that you make mistakes.
Leaders who have mastered humility help their teams achieve higher levels of performance through self-effacing humor, active listening and generosity. Remain humble, and you’ll be ever open to new ideas and to the promise of success.
How consistently do you demonstrate humility as a leader?
What can you do to increase engagement with your team?
