Leadership humility is strength with gentleness and an awareness of the strengths of others on your team.
I had the opportunity of working with an executive who very strong leader. But when he moved to a new company that had previous experience with a leader everyone respected, he was having trouble connecting.He would go to the various department meetings and take time talking to them about what his vision was and how he hoped to connect with them, and it just wasn’t working.
One of the things I suggested to him was go to one of the departments and ask to talk to one of the line supervisors. Take time to sit down with that person and ask them what’s working here.
I want to get a chance to know what’s happening and what you’re proudest of. During the course of those conversations, he would take notes.
And then the next time he went to the meeting, he would not start the meeting with his own comments or his own vision of the future. He'd start by saying, I was in your department the other day, and I was talking to Jim. And everybody looked at Jim, he was talking to Jim, and he was telling me about some of the work that was done in this area. I just so excited to hear about the project success and about the involvement of the entire team. That’s the kind of thing we want to see at this company.
All of a sudden, he was connecting, not because he was great, but he was humble enough to acknowledge the greatness of even the lowest supervisor. You. Our responsibility is to listen, capitalize on the strengths of others, and with that kind of humility, you’re a good leader.
Take time to read my article in Epoch Times. Leadership humility is.
