Download Start with Humility - Mississippi State University, College of Business

Start with Humility (Merwyn A.
Hayes and Michael D. Comer)
Start with Humility
by
Merwyn A. Hayes
and
Michael D. Comer
Start with Humility
by
Merwyn A. Hayes
and
Michael D. Comer
Craig Weatherup – former
Chairman and CEO of Pepsi Cola
Company (member of Boards of
Starbucks and Macys)
Alex Gregory – President and CEO
of YKK Corporation of America
(producer of over 7 billion zippers a
year)
Frederick Franks, Jr. – retired fourstar General (served as
commander of US Army VII Corps,
leader of Desert Storm Main
Ground Attack, and Commanding
General, Army Training and
Doctrine Command
Linda Combs – former Controller,
Office of Management and Budget,
United States of America
(responsible for $3 trillion of audits
each year)
Jim Thompson – former CEO of the
Federation of State Medical Boards
(national regulatory body of
medical doctors)
Newsweek magazine: called these
leaders the “Quiet CEOs” and
reported that “old fashion traits like
integrity and character are trumping
a knack for getting headlines.”
The Chief Executive Leadership Institute at Yale
University reports a “new generation (of
leaders) is unfolding.” It is not the “hero”, or the
movie-star CEO of the 90’s or the more-recent
super knowledgeable puppet-master! It is the
person who is humble, intelligent, appropriate
and effective.
Humility often gets a bad name. It is affiliated
with humiliation, a lack of confidence, or the
proverbial door mat – where anyone can walk all
over you. All you have to do is talk to our five
humble leaders for more than a few minutes
and you will see that this is not at all the case.
Humility is one of the most important of
leadership attributes because it helps connect
the leader to followers because of their common
bond of humanity. Leaders who have humility
build trust, and trust is the essence of
leadership.
Of course leadership requires more than just
humility. It also requires vision, competence,
communication, courage and many other traits.
These traits are important, but understanding
humanity and responding with humility can
directly affect trust. And trust is essential to
successful leadership!
The ‘humility’ definition comes from the ancient
Greeks. The original Greek word tapenovB
literally means “not rising far from the ground”.
The original meaning of the English word
“humble” refers to the Latin word “humus”,
which, like the ancient Greek, also means “of the
ground or earth”.
The word has incorrectly evolved to mean
“having a low estimate of one’s importance,
worthiness, or merits, marked by the absence of
self-assertion or self-exaltation. Unfortunately,
most of the emphasis of the definition has been
placed upon “absence of self-assertion”, not on
absence of self-exaltation.
Because of this emphasis, humility and
leadership have often been seen as opposites.
How can one be an effective leader and exercise
humility?
Humility as a leadership virtue does not mean
lack of asserting one’s self. Rather, it relates to
how one asserts one’s self, and where one
places one’s focus—whether it is on the leader’s
accomplishments or on the team’s
accomplishments.
General Franks: “To lead is to serve. The
spotlight should be on the led, not the leader.”
What humility is…
-
Humanness
Vulnerability
Ability to keep one’s
accomplishments in perspective
The soil that grows effective leaders
What humility is not…
-
Not weakness
Not lack of confidence
Not low self-esteem
Not absence of ego
Not a lack of assertiveness, ambition or
speaking out
Ego is good. It is an important part of
leadership. It helps bring confidence, is
assertive in getting results, helps marketing
efforts and drives change.
Excess ego is bad! Arrogance, omniscience, and
constant verbal reminders of one’s omniscience
usually do not inspire followers or develop trust.
A Fortune magazine article put is this way:
“Abundant self-regard is an affliction that has
killed many a corporate career.” Think Lucent’s
Rich McGinn, oblivious to the signs of his ouster
until the very end.
And dumb! Think Jill Barad: A few years ago
Barad exhorted her staff to create a “CEO
Barbie”, even as Mattel’s sales and marketing
people argued that most little girls don’t know
what a CEO is. Barad insisted that the doll wear
a pink Chanel suit with gold buttons just like
hers and be accessorized with a bumblebee pin
like the one she always wore. CEO Barbie got
the boot. So did Barad!
The Waiter Rule – (Swanson, Ratheon): Anyone
who is nice to you but rude to the waiter is not a
nice person. This rule never fails.”
“You have to keep your feet on the ground when
others want to put you on a pedestal. After a
while on a pedestal you stop hearing the truth.
It is filtered by the henchmen, and they read you
so well and they know what you want to hear.
You end up as the queen bee in the hive, with
no relationships with the worker bees. My wife
and secretary are fully empowered, if they ever
see me getting a bit uppity, to give me a
thumping great hit over the head!”