How Humble Leaders Overcome Limiters
You aren’t a leader when you do it yourself.
Humble leaders expand their leadership by including people. Excluding competent people limits opportunities.
Openness is strength.
Leadership Limiters:
Know-it-alls think they’re always right.
Feeling superior restricts leadership. Superiority expressed by indifference, distrust, and judging chokes potential.
Arrogance judges. Standing aloof gives permission to close your heart, ignore people, and make snap decisions.
7 Practices of Humble Leaders:
Humility expands leadership.
- Investigate suggestions. Ask, “What are the advantages and disadvantages of your suggestion?” Or “What brought this to mind?” Suggestions irritate arrogance.
- Make important decisions slowly. Quick decisions exclude others. You may be right, but you end up alone.
- Push with. What if their insights add value? How might it work? (This strategy works best when exploring options.)
- Lean in, when you feel like pushing away. You could be wrong.
- Honor candor. Say, “Thanks for speaking your mind. What makes this important to you?”
- Invite people to challenge your ideas. Ideas are purified by challenge. Ask, “What are we missing?”
- Listen deeply. Two ears and one mouth aren’t enough. Imagine you have six or seven ears and one mouth. Feelings of superiority come out in disinterest.
Tip: The next time you think a teammate doesn’t get it, ask yourself what you’re missing. Being open isn’t being a pushover.
Openness is strength. Humble leaders are open to learn even when they don’t agree.
What behaviors suggest a feeling of superior to others?
How might leaders address the limitations of feeling superior to others?
Still curious:
How Humble Leadership Really Works
Humble Leadership (Edgar and Peter Schein)
Level 5 Leadership: The Triumph of Humility and Resolve (HBR)
This is good, thanks Dan! I like #2 ‘Make important decisions slowly. Quick decisions exclude others. You may be right, but you end up alone.’ The longer I work with others, the more I see the strength in surrounding myself with people that think differently than I do.
Thanks for your insights, Mike. It can take awhile to come to this wisdom. Cheers
If I had to sum it up in one word, it would be ‘open.’ Humble leaders are open to feedback, new ideas, fresh questions, alternative ways of defining problems, and the underlying reasons behind others’ perspectives. Humble leaders are curious to know more.
Thanks, Paul. Your inclusion of “curious” points out a concept that goes hand in hand with openness. Respect for others fits nicely as something that fits in the bucket of openness as well. Best to you
I worked for someone once who like to say, “If you are the smartest person in the room, you need to find another room.” Not only are you doing those around you a disservice by solving all their problems, but you are also doing yourself a disservice because you aren’t learning.
Well put, Jennifer. It’s easy to say “surround yourself with smart people.” The living of it is a challenge because ego is involved. It feels good to know more and be smarter. Humility realizes knowledge is limited. You might know more in some area, but you know less in others. Knowledge also grows irrelevant as time passes.
We also tend to over-value our knowledge and undervalue the knowledge of others. You got me thinking about this. Thanks for adding your insights.
As I read this I thought about the richness that comes with openness.
I’m always amazed at the diversity of people’s experiences — wait?! you actually see with your mind’s eye? that’s really a thing? I had no idea.
I’m surprised at their perspectives — Oh, I never thought about it like that. My mind shifts like a Rubik cube.
I’m impressed with their abilities — wow, that looks so much better than what I did. I’m happy to let you do that from now on.
The list goes on. But notice how my life, world, experience is enriched, changed, deepened by allowing others in.
Maybe you should do a piece on why humility is selfish.
Such an encouraging and practical reflection, Elizabeth. Thank you. Your reference to, “Oh, I never thought about it like that,” was a lightbulb moment. I’ve said the same thing. I just hadn’t connected it with humility/opennes. Cheers
I love the phrase ” Ideas are purified through challenge”. It states that there is always more to add and even invites more insight. There’s a similar saying; “Diamonds are made under pressure”. By asking for another’s perspective, you are inadvertently admitting that you don’t have all the answers and that there’s room for someone else to add value. It’s the test dummy phase of any idea.
Thanks for adding your thoughts, Pablo. The “test dummy” phase is a wonderful way to say it. Let’s bang around awhile and see what we learn. Cheers