Humility is a value that all successful leaders must develop in order to earn respect and have a meaningful impact in the workplace. This is a value that is absent in many leaders in today’s world and it seems to be constantly overlooked.
People have misconceptions about humility and what it means to be humble. Humility is often interpreted as being “weak” and most people believe that humble people often get oppressed by others and are not confident about themselves. People also define humility as having a low opinion of oneself.
The actual definition of humility in this context is “freedom from pride or arrogance” as dictionaries define it. C.S Lewis stated – “Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it’s thinking of yourself less.” Being arrogant is a trait that makes many leaders undesirable and unrespectable. Genuine humility is neither a weakness nor insecurity.
In the corporate world, once you’ve found success it is normal for you to dismiss criticism or feedback from others. Not all criticism is valid, but doing this constantly can build pride and a sense of being better than others. This can even lead to a personality in which you dismiss your own faults and blame others.
As a leader, you need to delegate and innovate with your team. If you’re a humble leader, your team members are satisfied. The team works more efficiently and they are more willing to speak their minds because they know that the leader is willing to listen.
When leaders are willing to accept who they are, they no longer have to defend themselves all the time. You need to acknowledge your shortcomings in front of your team, even if it feels uncomfortable and unseemly. But, in the end, your team members will have a greater sense of respect for you and will be more willing to act according to your ideas.
Strength and confidence are very important in today’s corporate world, but you constantly need to demonstrate that you’re humble and vulnerable at the same time to succeed. The less time you spend protecting your own value; the more you can focus on the value of your team as a whole.
As a human, you’ll never have answers to everything that you face in your life, no matter what role you occupy or how confident you are. Your mistakes and missteps define you and accepting them makes you a better person in the long run.
The first step you can take to build these qualities is to stop creating artificial hierarchies. Your team members won’t feel like an integral part of the team until you start realizing the importance of their role in the team. All corporations need to give the team members an opportunity to express themselves and work on involving them in their roles.
The second thing that you can do to be humbler is to ask your subordinates and team members for their feedback. It is possible that you are a high performer and you feel like you don’t need other’s help. But this is an ego-driven misconception and you can’t improve yourself until you start soliciting feedback. Asking for opinions and feedback from your subordinates can encourage them to outperform themselves as well.
The third thing you need to do is try to seek innovative ideas from your team members. It is rarely possible that you will find out the best route to innovation by yourself. The worst thing you can do is push your own ideas while ignoring the team member’s suggestions.
Being humble can help your team to have continuous improvement because as a result of the collective humility of the team, you will have more realistic and accurate goals. This can help you to accurately assess the downfalls of your company and helps create positive change.
Having a wide variety of diverse team members can also help if you make it clear that they can freely voice their opinions. This will naturally create a healthy and creative environment that can give your organization the boost that it may need.
To conclude, humility is one of the most underrated values in the current age. It is something which is essential if you need to succeed not just professionally, but also in life. The openness to new ideas and lessons can help you throughout your life. Once you learn to embrace the two opposites – humility and confidence, you learn how to spend less time bothering about your own value and spend more time creating value in the world.
Written by - Soumya Deepta Sarkar
Edited - Kashish Chadha
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