Leaders with Humility

We have been working with a leader and her team, helping improve leadership, her own and the team members’. It is a special and rewarding experience for us as nearly everyone embodies humility, is selfless, no personal agendas, and allows themselves to be vulnerable, recognizing and sharing with one another their areas of potential improvement. 

The following are their areas for growth:

• I must be timely in responding to calls, emails, and texts
• I must learn the art of having the difficult conversations and address problems, conflict, and difficult employees promptly
• I tend to check my iPhone in meetings and conversations
• I sometimes forget what I have committed to and do not follow through
• At times, my tone of voice and or my facial expression will intimidate others
• I have not connected with colleagues outside my specific area of responsibility
• If I was more organized I would be more efficient
• I need to ask for input, then prepare agendas and distribute several days in advance of meetings – and distribute minutes the day after meetings
• I tend to be late for meetings
• I can be too emotional, can have a short fuse
• I need to boost my self-confidence and contribute my ideas

Your initial reaction could be that this is not an effective team. To the contrary, they are an amazing team, likely one of the best in their field, which is the financial industry. The key is that the leader sets the tone of allowing herself to be vulnerable, sharing what she is working on herself and asking her team members for their help by giving her feedback going forward and that she will be appreciative. Thus, her team members and other colleagues in her company are also comfortable sharing their development goals and asking for timely and honest feedback, and they too should be ready to offer feedback to others.

As a result, each of the eight team members has developed into a leader themselves as they are encouraging, supporting, helping one another, and contributing their ideas.

When we look at the development goals outlined above we could well feel that this is common sense, and it is. Leadership is common sense, e.g., it is how we communicate with, serve, and respect others. That should be easy, and for some it is. Yet, a universal challenge is the busyness and competitiveness in today’s business environment.

We all have areas of potential improvement, each of us. It is key to recognize them. Some we now realize as they may be long-term habits, and some may be blind spots. We can ask people for their perceptions of what we are doing well and how we might improve, and we could also request a 360 Leadership Assessment. Co-worker feedback is powerful and usually leads to our resolve to improve.

Key to success is highly effective leadership, which is founded on humility coupled with being genuine and truly caring for the success and well-being of our team members and other colleagues.

Our internal relationships mean everything, and these relationships are built by one-on-one conversations, true two-way conversations, when we ask our people how they are doing, how we may help, and other purposeful open-ended questions and we take the time to attentively listen with our full attention.

If we think we are too busy to have these conversations and to take the time to listen, well, we must realize that we must make the time. That may mean having fewer and more efficient meetings and setting boundaries on reading emails and other information coming at us and, in fact, it is our duty as leaders to be with our people, to create and maintain productive working relationships with each of them. This is how they know that they are appreciated, valued, and heard, and that their ideas matter.

It is no wonder Kerry and I enjoy our work with this team and admire them so much. The CEO embodies humility, is selfless, allows herself to be vulnerable, genuinely cares about her team members, and her team members themselves now embody these same qualities. It is an organizational culture with positive energy, their people are truly happy as they are communicating well, are encouraging and supportive of one another, and ideas are flowing up.

Strong leadership is founded on our humility as it is not about our being great ourselves, it is about our helping others be great.