Humility in Leadership
Leadership is a fickle thing. Seems everyone has an idea how to do it, or how it should be done by someone else. There are endless books, articles, and opinions on what is and isn’t leadership. Ask ten people and probably get eleven different answers. The goal here is not to define it but to examine what makes leadership great. There is a value that keeps popping up in leadership studies that followers want in their leaders: HUMILITY.* What is even more incredible is the gap between the number of leaders/managers who believe they are humble and the employees who agree!
The fact is there is a desperate lack of humility in leadership today. And it is not a purely secular problem either. A lack of humility can and does impact the world of the church and faith-based non-profits as well. It is an equal opportunity problem. It impacts every level of leadership as well. A core value of leading in the Bible is the virtue of humility. Humility probably sits as THE core virtue of leadership. It really sits at the center of any and all spiritual growth, but that is a different article different discussion.
Everybody leads somebody. Even if you are checking out at the grocery store you are leading somebody. That person at the register is being led to some degree by how you act and converse. If it is self-checkout then you are still leading, but you might not want to engage a long animated conversation with yourself. Some people might think that is weird. What this means is that you lead, and you are always leading in some capacity. You are leading your spouse, your kids, your friends, the stranger, etc. Since you are leading, you should lead well. And leading well demands growing humility. There are three aspects to leading out of humility versus self-centered news.
Knowing Yourself
Knowing yourself means accepting that you are limited. You can’t do everything. You have strengths and you have weaknesses. God made you with both. You simply can’t do everything and you are not made to do everything. There are always things that only you can do that aren’t not in your strength but learning to do the things you are strong at while delegating and empower others to do what they are strong at leads to a multiplied impact. It leads to growth. It leads to success. You need to know who you are and how God made you.
Willingness to be Wrong
Leaders are always willing to learn. And learning is allowing what is wrong in your belief, or understanding, to be challenged. If you are not willing to be wrong you will never be right. You should never stop learning, growing. And in order to learn you have to recognize that you might not be right about certain things.
Self in Proper Perspective
The self is the core of humility problems. Are you able and willing to view, act, or do things that are not in your own self-interest? Best for you doesn’t mean best for everyone. It is not to say that your ideas are never right, or the correct direction. A leader who is learning and growing will develop the instinct to wisely discern a proper course. However, just because it is your idea doesn’t automatically make it correct. Other people have good ideas also. Give credit where credit is due. Understand that ultimately all credit goes back to God.
Humility is a muscle that must be trained and developed. It needs to be exercised. Think about this. Is there anyone around you that can tell you, “No?” Family? Work? Life? How do you respond to honest feedback? Humility is vital to leadership. Its absence is hard to notice in your self, but often easy to see in others. The task of humility is not to somehow make yourself less than human, but to acknowledge and recognize your own very real limited “humanness.” Make an honest assessment of the driving force of your heart. Is it your own self? Or is it trust in the power of Jesus?
*This article is merely an example. Feel free to search and see how much the world is finding out that humility is paramount to leading people.