Humility: A Leader's Fierce Advantage

Yes, there have been thousands upon thousands of books written about leading. While I've not read all of them, I've read many and could not argue with any really. In a sense, books and articles about leading and leadership in general, are common sense. Now, I'm not trying to discredit any of the great authors or speakers who have labored over their works or created very fruitful studies proving the traits and effects of great leadership. Yet, I'm still perplexed by why it is so darn difficult for most people to lead, and lead truly effectively, despite the simplicity of what so many authors have prescribed for us. Aren't you?

You're probably wondering if I have some magical answer. Well, I wish I did have a simple recipe to offer. Instead, I have a very strong opinion to share that is based on thousands of interactions, hundreds of conversations, dozens of relationships, several past jobs, many board meetings and one rather long career! And, I've taken in the goodness of so many books and studies by experts and leading researchers. If you're curious, I hope to at least entertain you with yet another hypothesis on why leading is so hard and what each of us can perhaps do to lead better.

As is my style, I give the punchline first. No sense beating around the bush when you, the reader, deserves to know my core hypothesis so you can choose to read on or not! If I had to boil down the single most important ingredient that I've experienced first hand, it's the ability to listen to the advice of others. Countless times I've seen such seemingly great leaders become headstrong and refuse to listen to the voices of others and then fall from grace in some way- sometimes temporarily and sometimes irreparably. If you think about it, listening to others' advice/feedback is not a new idea and you are probably saying to yourself "it's not that simple". You're right- it's not that simple and here's why. Listening to others requires a host of other capabilities and traits. It is also something many leaders fail to do when under great duress. When we're in dire straights, we retrench, often doubting ourselves and others. I've seen so many people close others out and just do the irrational thing everyone is telling them not to do!

What are the ingredients necessary for listening to others when the stakes are high and the pressure is on? Humility, courage, calmness, to name just a few. Many humble people, in my experience, suddenly become less humble, more arrogant and more entrenched in some form of "safety zone" of self-reliance. This is likely related to how most of us are not at our best when the situation is at its worst. This self-reliance strategy is a known response to anxiety that I've seen play out many times unfortunately. While I'm not a behavioral scientist, my sense is that this anxiety response is common amongst leaders who are "over their skis", so to speak, for a particular situation or worse, their jobs.

This form of over self-reliance can be present in many great leaders. It's a blind spot of sorts. For example, a leader can be engaging, intelligent, strategic, humble, confident, effective by all accounts but when pushed to a certain point, this inward turn happens and no amount of conversation, with even the most trusted sources, yields reconsiderations.

I recall hearing about a situation several years ago that is a great example, unfortunately, of my point. Sadly, I doubt this is a terribly uncommon story. A product company was growing more than 50% year over year. The complexity of the products was increasing exponentially while headcount was doubling in manufacturing and other teams. One particular leader was hired from a top manufacturing company who was considered a "rock star". He was tasked with scaling manufacturing at one of the company's frenetically paced production plants. His prior experience, while at massive scale, was not similarly complex, not even close. At this new company, the plant leader had outstanding customer feedback, strong employee engagement scores, a highly productive team, minimal turnover, and was hitting his manufacturing metrics, until the company began to diversify products and create incredible complexity, while still expecting very high margins. The leader was confident that he could deliver and committed to the expectations.

To compound the situation, the newly hired leader had no formal manufacturing experience at all as his prior role in the massive company was not a technical manufacturing role at all. He was a "high potential" leader who senior leadership believed could do anything given his prior track record of conquering past challenges. Funny how we think that some people are invincible and that past performance is a good predictor of future performance, even when the circumstances are so different. This manufacturing leader was very operationally focused and unable to coach the manufacturing plant leader how to scale with the added complexities. This was truly a case of the "blind leading the blind." But, no one seemed to fully grasp the gravity of this situation. The CEO and Board were hyper focused on growth and wide margins. Both leaders got more and more pressure, less and less support, and ultimately, began to slip into a malaise that is recognizably undeniable. You may have even experienced this yourself. It's not pretty. While the company continued pressuring the two leaders, it became harder for them to ask for help and admit they were rapidly sliding off course. Ultimately, one was apparently let go and the other was demoted. In the process, manufacturing imploded into chaos and just about every golden rule of efficiency was broken.

The lesson? No one finds their way into leadership unless they've been in situations that stretch their abilities. We've all walked the tightrope so to speak, and either we've had a safety net or not. Either we've been able to seek support or not. When we don't have direct organizational support, we have to ask for it. Humility is the key to unlocking long term success in all of us. Humility is what allows us to ask for help. It sets us free.

Humility is not a new idea. But, it's a quiet idea. It doesn't take center stage or demand any sort of attention. It is the silent hero that acts on our behalf. But, humility takes courage and self confidence, not the chest beating type of self confidence but the quiet kind that watches, takes in information and listens. Countless articles and books have been written about humility but it still eludes so many of us.

My hope is that more of use humility as a way to not only lead fearlessly and selflessly for others but for ourselves. Humble yourself and have the courage to seek the wisdom and grace of others when things get really tough. As Bill Taylor, co-founder of Fast Company said: "We live in a world where ego gets attention but modesty gets results. Where arrogance makes headlines but humility makes a difference." Humility is the long-term winner. Arrogance and fear can generate bravado that is hollow. Use humility as your fierce advantage to keep growing and challenging yourself. Demonstrate to your teams how humility allows us to hear feedback, recognize our foibles, and ultimately keep growing, no matter what level we are in an organization. I hope you choose to win for the long term!