Humility
What a word! It seems to conjure up a wide array of thoughts and ideas when raised as a topic, especially in discussions about leadership. Too often, leadership success in business is primarily associated with achieving financial targets and delivering another year or quarter of “shareholder value.” When that financial measure is attained (or even when it’s not), how often do we hear business leaders not only announce and celebrate the results but also defer credit to all the people who, aligned with a common vision, provided exemplary teamwork and collaboration to achieve that success? And how often do we hear a leader acknowledge a poor quarter or year without pointing fingers, instead taking full responsibility as the leader of the team, department, or company, acknowledging where they might have failed to provide what the employees needed to succeed? In most cases, what’s needed isn’t merely technology or machinery.
In other words, when results fall short, we rarely hear a humble, confident leader openly acknowledge the lack of desired success, while accepting accountability. This, along with articulating the direction, support, development, and coaching that people require to succeed.
I am grateful that Jim Collins, in his NYT best-selling book, ‘Good to Great’, highlights this particularly well. He concluded that what makes a company great—both financially and culturally—is developing and hiring Level 5 leaders. Collins defines these leaders as follows:
“Far from being ego-driven, level five leaders are modest and understated. They're slow to take credit for their company's achievements, always looking for an opportunity to praise their team, but also quick to shoulder the blame and
responsibility for any shortcomings. I know this sounds like a magical person, but great companies are built by great leaders.”
Now, here we are in 2024, soon to be 2025, almost a quarter of a century after Collins wrote his extensively researched book. How has this assertion held up based on today’s experiences?
It seems that even with all the analytics we now have on workforce sentiment—turnover rates, employee satisfaction surveys, and so on—success in business often still boils down to financial attainment without a genuine pursuit of a vision realized through people, human beings! As Collins also noted, technology and equipment are merely tools; they accelerate progress but do not guarantee it.
I would argue that it’s rare for employees to witness a senior leader conduct themselves daily in a measured, proactive, intelligent, realistic, and humble manner, not only when everything is going well.
Yet, humility lives precisely in this space. For many, based on lived experience, it’s challenging to encounter a leader who genuinely leads people first and focuses on results second. I sense humility has become almost a forbidden word in the boardrooms of the West.
Can we revive and inspire leaders in industry to rediscover what it is to live with, by, and through humility? In a world where a poor year can—and often does—lead to a leader's removal based solely on twelve months of financial results, can we work to ensure that any leader, at any level, is committed to a vision realized through the efforts and behaviors of a diverse group of people? The diversity of perspectives is invaluable, yet differences in values can challenge communication, collaboration, and ultimately decision-making.
Humility is certainly not a four-letter word, but it is indeed a heavy one. I paraphrase a dear mentor (in a way fit for this G- rated blog) who once said to me regarding leadership and humility: “Gino, to lead others, you must get over yourself. No one is irreplaceable on this earth. Lead as you want to be led, and when that doesn’t work, listen and learn how someone wants to be led to do consistent, good work—and then give that to them, regardless of how you feel, as long as it’s ethical.”
Sadly, I’ve only had one “Good to Great” experience in my life—well, two if you count my current journey. It was actually a sporting experience. While I’ve had several good and even very good experiences, I can’t say they were truly great, using Collins’s definition of consistent KPI success coupled with a genuinely healthy, thriving culture. In that sporting example, our team knew our “Hedgehog Concept” and what we could be the best at—champions of a high-level tournament. We had an infectious, unified passion to achieve this goal, knowing that it couldn’t be done alone. Our leaders also helped us identify and stay committed to key success factors, building our skills and our sense of togetherness, which sustained us in challenging moments. We were fortunate to have Level 5 leaders (three of them, in fact) who taught, inspired, and supported us, instilling belief in us even when we struggled.
When we won and the media would speak to them, they would always highlight the players, our work ethic, and our solidarity. In our rare defeats (two losses that year, which I remember more than most of the wins), our leaders would speak highly of our opponents and take responsibility for not providing what we needed to overcome those challenges. They’d commit to learning and working with us to address those lessons as a group, always unified in our vision and always doing so ‘together.’ You may even call it a ‘Ted Lasso’ type of approach, only real.
Looking back now, over 40 years later, I can clearly see the elements Collins describes of great teams. I now know that without humility, there was no way such a diverse, talented group would have reached the pinnacle of success. Our leaders’ humility—and their willingness to work alongside us in every way—was the key to everything. Years later, when we gather and reminisce about that special time, they still credit us, saying they merely guided us to bring out the best in each other. Humility, it seems, never stops giving.
Imagine what a company, division, department, or team could achieve with this lost virtue—a virtue as essential to a team as the heart is to a human. Without a heart, there is no life. Without humility, there is no consistently great team, by any measure.
The good news is that humility can be learned, honed, exercised like a muscle, and practiced daily. Let’s discuss how we can assist your business team in becoming ‘great’!
- GF
Sign up for our Newsletter (at the bottom of this page) for exclusive early access to all of Ferrin's Fervor Blog Posts!