Humility in Leadership

What?

Having humility as a leader within your organization is vital. Knowing your level of knowledge as a leader and being able to let others in to educate you can make your organization thrive. However, humility goes far beyond your level of knowledge and letting others in. Assessment Systems states that “Humility is broadly defined as self-awareness, appreciating others’ strengths and contribution and openness to new ideas and feedback regarding one’s performance.” (Assessment Systems, 2018). Humble leaders put their organization and their collaborators at or above the level they are as a leader. The leader creates a safe and respectful place to work where creativity and ideas flourish.

So What?

Why should we care about our humbleness as leaders? Simply put by Medium, humility makes you a better person. Humility allows you to better take in criticism, new ideas, and perspectives. It also helps create positive influence, patience, and making people comfortable around you (Burrison, 2020). These skills can help you as a leader lead your organization better but can also make your co-creators feel heard, respected, and more inclined to be involved in projects. Smart Brief says that “Humility is a superpower in leadership. It is about knowing what you don’t know and having the curiosity, authenticity and confidence to put that out there so that you and your team can find the answers. The ultimate reward rests both in the value of information you might not otherwise get and in the trust that it fosters between you and the people you lead.” (Smart Brief, 2021).

Now What?

As a rising leader in the world, taking humility into account wasn’t on my forethough. There’s a reason for this. As I’ve gone through high school and college observing different leaders and how their leaders lead them, I’ve noticed that correcting or adding your idea can be seen as “stepping on someone’s toes.” I find this to be disgraceful. There’s a good example of this that stuck out to me when we were learning about humility in class. When I was in high school, I was captain of my color guard team my junior year, this was taken away from me my senior year due to nepotism on the board. One day during my senior year fall, we were going over drill and choreography. I notice that our line was not straight. I simply said to the group of people “hey can we dress (making sure everyone is where they are supposed to be) this line?”. Right then and there the coach of the guard snapped at me for making this suggestion saying, “You are not a captain anymore, you cannot make corrections”. This was heartbreaking to me. I felt like I was inferior to my peers merely because I simply did not have a title. I had as much knowledge, possibly more due to my position on the field yet was undermined and shamed for saying something that could help my team. This continued throughout the semester till I quit because the captains were being rude, throwing things at me angrily, and simply not taking in my knowledge. I believe if someone feels their toes are being stepped on then they merely lack the emotional maturity to take in criticism. I take my past experiences with me to help make myself a better leader, but I also take in new knowledge from my peers, professors, and leaders in my life.

References:

Burriston, N. (2020, June 22). 11 reasons to be more humble. Medium. https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/11-reasons-to-be-more-humble-1f4da497f34c.

Humility in leadership (Dr. Robert Hogan interview). Assessment Systems. (2018, October 28). https://asystems.as/the-importance-of-humility-in-leadership-interview-with-dr-robert-hogan/.

Humility: A leadership superpower. SmartBrief. (2021, April 15). https://www.smartbrief.com/original/2021/04/humility-leadership-superpower.