Humility in Your Leadership

Last week, in our post titled, That Wasn’t My Intent, we talked about the importance of owning your impact, and getting curious about the other person’s experience.

When your words or actions have an impact that isn’t in line with your intent, it can be difficult to lean in and be curious. This is where humility in your leadership is important.

WHAT IS HUMILITY?

Our definition of leadership explains how we think about humility in your leadership:

Leadership is the willingness
to influence your world,
and the willingness
to be influenced by your world,
regardless of role or title.

In a Psychology Today article, Karl Albrecht, Ph.D., describes humility like this,

“Humility is about emotional neutrality. It involves an experience of growth in which you no longer need to put yourself above others, but you don’t put yourself below them, either. Everyone is your peer.”

WHY IS HUMILITY IMPORTANT?

In a Forbes article titled Humility Helps Leaders- Here’s How, Dr. Franziska Frank (who has done extensive research on humble leaders) says this,

“Employees perform better, are more innovative and resilient, have improved client relationships and better morale . . . the managers themselves are less stressed, build better relationships with their teams, and tend to show greater leadership potential.”

WHAT DOES HUMBLE LEADERSHIP LOOK LIKE?

Being humble in your leadership can look like:

• allowing others to influence you with their thoughts and ideas
• PAUSING to interrupt your reactivity
• being vulnerable and admitting when you’ve messed up
• being open with your team about the importance of creating a sense of WE
• demonstrating to your team that they MATTER to you
• acknowledging when things are tough and encouraging the team to lean in to support one another

This week, consider what being humble could look like for you and your leadership. And then, give it a try!

Let us know how it goes.