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 Many
years ago, one of my university professors mentioned that
“windowsill” was voted the most beautiful word in the English
language. Being an armchair linguist, this factoid naturally
stayed with me. Words have enormous power. They can make us
erupt into laughter or bring tears to our eyes.
 They can
influence,
inspire, manipulate and shock. They can build and destroy.
Some words have different effects on different people. One such
word is humility. It is one of those words that are seldom in
neutral gear. Some, like me, love the word and all it stands
for. Some almost fear it and interpret it synonymously with lack
of self-confidence or timidity.
The dictionary defines humility as
someone who is modest, who lacks pretense, someone who does not
believe that he or she is superior to others. An ancillary
definition includes: “Having a lowly opinion of oneself,
meekness”. The word humility first struck me in the context of
leadership when Jim Collins mentioned it in his seminal work
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others
Don't.
In this book, Collins examined
companies that went from good to great
by sustaining 15-year cumulative stock returns at
or below the general stock market, and after a transition point,
cumulative returns at least three times the market over the next
15 years.
3 Strategies of Market Leaders
Among the many characteristics that distinguished
these companies from others is that they all had a Level 5
leader. Level 5 leaders direct their ego away from themselves to
the larger goal of leading their company to greatness.
Matsushita's 7 Core Principles of Management
Philosophy
These
leaders are a complex, paradoxical mix of intense
professional will and extreme personal humility. They will
create superb results but shun public adulation, and are never
boastful. They are described as modest.An example of such a
leader who epitomized humility is David Packard, the co-founder
of Hewlett-Packard, who, in Jim Collins’ words, defined himself
as a HP man first and a CEO second.
He was a man of the people,
practicing
management by walking around. Shunning all manner of
publicity, Packard is quoted as saying: “You shouldn't gloat
about anything you've done; you ought to keep going and find
something better to do.”
Another
great leader is the CEO of Enbridge, Patrick Daniel, who espouses
two
leadership attributes: determination to
create results and humility, shifting the focus away from
himself and continually recognizing the contributions of others: “I
have learned through the lives of great leaders,” he said, “that
greatness comes from humility and being at times, self-effacing.”
Smart Executive
Clearly these leaders, and many
others like them, don’t espouse
 the meaning of humility as
“meek”. On the contrary, it is a source of their strength. But
the notion of being self-effacing is one that we struggle with
in our competitive
culture, prescribing that we take every opportunity to toot
our own horn, and that we don’t dare leave the house
without our dynamic elevator
speech all rehearsed. We often confuse humility with timidity.
Humility is not clothing ourselves in an attitude of
self-abasement or self-denigration. Humility is all about
maintaining our pride about who we are, about our achievements,
about our worth – but without arrogance – it is the antithesis
of hubris, that excessive, arrogant pride which often leads to
the derailment of some corporate heroes, as it does with the
downfall of the tragic hero in Greek drama. It’s about a quiet
confidence without the need for a meretricious selling of our
wares. It’s about being content to let others discover the
layers of our talents without having to boast about them. It’s a
lack of arrogance, not a lack of aggressiveness in the pursuit
of achievement.
An interesting dichotomy is that, often,
the higher people rise, the more they have accomplished, the higher the
humility index. Those who achieve the most, brag the least and the more
secure they are in themselves, the more humble they are. “True merit,
like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes”. We have all
come across people like that and feel admiration for them.
There is also an understated
humility of every day people we work with who have the ability
to get the job done without drawing attention to themselves.
Witness the employee who is working at his computer into the
late hours, purely motivated by a keen sense of duty, the
executive assistant who stays after 5:30 p.m. on a Friday night
in an empty office to await a courier, or the manager who
quietly cancels an important personal event to fly out of town
to attend to the company’s business. This is akin to the
philanthropist who gives an anonymous donation.
Humility
is also a meta-virtue. It crosses into an array of principles.
 For
example, we can safely declare that there cannot be authenticity without
humility. Why? Because, there is always a time in a leader’s journey,
when one will be in a situation of not having all the answers. Admitting
this and seeking others’ input requires some humility.
Another mark of a leader who
practices humility is his or her treatment of others. Such
leaders treat everyone with respect regardless of position.
Years ago, I came across this reference: the sign of a gentleman
is how he treats those who can be of absolutely no use to him.
Something interesting happens, too,
when we approach situations from a perspective of humility: it
opens us up to possibilities, as we choose open-mindedness and
curiosity over protecting our point of view. We spend more time
in that wonderful space of the beginner’s mind, willing to learn
from what others have to offer. We move away from pushing into
allowing, from insecure to secure, from seeking approval to
seeking enlightenment. We forget about being perfect and we
enjoy being in the moment.
Here are a few suggestions on
practicing humility:
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There are times when swallowing
one’s pride is particularly difficult and any intentions of
humility fly out the window as we get engaged in a contest
of perfection, each side seeking to look good. If you find
yourself in such no-win situations, consider developing some
strategies to ensure that the circumstances don’t lead you
to lose your grace. Try this sometimes: just stop talking
and allow the other person to be in the limelight. There is
something very liberating in this strategy.
-
Here are three magical words
that will produce more peace of mind than a week at an
expensive retreat: “You are right.”
-
Catch
yourself if you benignly slip into over preaching or
coaching without permission – is zeal to impose your
point of view overtaking discretion? Is your correction of
others reflective of your own needs?
-
Seek others’ input on how you
are showing up in your
leadership path. Ask: “how am I doing?” It takes
humility to ask such a question. And even more humility to
consider the answer.
-
Encourage the practice of humility in
your company through your own example: every time you share credit
for successes with others, you reinforce the ethos for your
constituents. Consider mentoring or coaching emerging leaders on
this key
attribute of leadership.
Leader
360
There are
many benefits to practicing humility, to being in a
state of non-pretence: it
improves relationships across all levels, it reduces
anxiety, it encourages more openness and paradoxically, it
enhances one’s self-confidence. It opens a window to a higher
self. For me, it replaces “windowsill” as the most beautiful
word in the English language.
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