TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – If I asked you to give me a list of words
describing qualities you admire in a leader, what would be on it? Perhaps honest, selfless, competent, dedicated,
courageous, charismatic or empathetic easily make the list. What about humble? A word synonymous with others like meek,
submissive, modest or undistinguished couldn’t possibly be on your list of top
leadership qualities. After all, who
wants to follow an undistinguished leader?
I do and here are a few reasons why.
First, showing some humility while interacting
with others makes a leader more approachable and ultimately better able to
establish mutual trust. Having been part
of many leadership teams within various organizations, I firmly believe people
will only take advantage of the “open door policy” if they feel like the person
offering the opportunity is approachable and genuine in their offer. I know I personally have a hard time bringing
up an issue to someone who I perceive as not having the time or seems uninterested
in my perspective to begin with. Leaders
want their subordinates to be comfortable bringing up problems or sharing
thoughts on how to make things better. A
dose of humility goes a long way in enabling an environment of mutual trust
where that open feedback is possible.
Another reason humble makes my list is because,
by definition, a modest person refuses to seek out the limelight and take
personal credit for an organization’s success.
A humble leader is quick to share or deflect the praise among others
within the organization encouraging a team first mentality. An organization that fosters a culture of
teamwork will always outperform one that strictly focuses on individual
recognition or gain. A dose of humility goes
a long way in fostering teamwork across an organization.
The last reason I’ll leave you with is the fact
that a humble leader doesn’t pretend to know it all. I don’t think anyone has the ability to know
everything especially in an organization as diverse as the Air Force. I would assert that successful leaders are
humble enough to acknowledge the fact that they don’t know everything and
therefore, place their trust and confidence in others that do. By doing so, a leader empowers others within
the organization to be the best at whatever role they are placed in. I can say from my experience that when I feel
empowered I am quick to take responsibility for whatever task is at hand and
will do my best not to disappoint. A
dose of humility goes a long way in empowering individuals across an
organization.
I hope by sharing this I’ve at least made you
think about humility as a positive leadership trait. One last thing I’ll offer is this excerpt
from Simon Sinek’s book, “Leaders Eat Last” – “When a leader has the humility
to distribute power across the organization, the strength of the company
becomes less dependent on one person and is thus better able to survive. In this model, instead of trying to
command-and-control everything, the leaders devote all their energy to training,
building and protecting their people so that the people can command and control
any situation themselves.”