Personal LeadershipHUMILITY

Objectives • Set context around the challenges of leaders today in business• Explore elements of humility from academia, industry and beyond • Identify why humility is a powerful leadership trait for everyone• Outline tangible ways to improve our humility • Have fun and generate discussion about humility

What does it mean to be a leader today?

Molinaro (2013) –The Leadership Contract (John Wiley & Sons)

New Demands of Leadership Today

1. Align and engage others around a strategy that delivers customer value

2.Take an enterprise-wide perspective that defines success for the whole company not just functional areas

3.Build strong relationships with key internal and external stakeholders

4.Help others deal effectively with ambiguity and uncertainty associated with complex business environments

5.Build strong leadership within an organization by developing future leaders

6.Model the values of the organization, rather than being self-absorbed with one’s own personal ego and agenda

Weiss & Molinaro (2005) –The Leadership Gap (John Wiley & Sons)

Strategy + Execution

Two Pillars That Drive All Organizations

Key activities, decisions and trade-offs that enable an organization to achieve

its identified goals

The things people in an organization do on a day to day basis to achieve it’s

strategy

Humility Impacts Both Across ALL Organizational Levels and Functions

A Moment to Reflect……..• What is Humility? •Think about a leader you know who is humble that you admire (Doesn’t have to be someone more senior than you from your previous job- think about leadership more broadly) • How does their humility impact their leadership ability?

With the person next to you……

What is Humility? (Research Approach)

According to Owens (Humility in Organizational Leadership, 2009) Humility is a developmental orientation which is associated with: • A willingness to view oneself accurately• An appreciation of others' strengths and contributions• Teachability• A low self-focus

Sauder’s Michael Daniels AddsThe components of humility • Viewing oneself accurately• Willingness to admit mistakes and accept weaknesses• Receptiveness to new ideas, feedback• Awareness of one's abilities and accomplishment• Transcendence (being aware that you are a part of something greater)• Valuing the different ways people and things contribute to our world

What is Humility? (Other Perspectives) • “Humility is the personal honesty that you, as the leader, do not know everything and do not have all the answers”- Business insider Magazine • “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less. -C. S. Lewis•“Self-less practices that ameliorate the negative effects of narcissism”- Forbes Magazine• “Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying”- St. Vincent de Paul• “Selflessness is humility”- Jeff Wilson • “Humility asks us to acknowledge our imperfections. It requires that we admit when we are wrong and then change course”- Benjamin Franklin

Humility in Great Leaders

“Be the zero” “What will kill me next?”

SO WHAT?

Why is Humility a Leadership Attribute?

Laszlo Bock- SVP People and Operations @ Google

In a global marketplace where problems are increasingly complex, no one person will ever have all the answers……………

“Your end goal, is what can we do together to problem-solve- it’s intellectual humility. Without humility, you are unable to learn.”

Prime and Salib (2014)- The Best Leaders Are Humble Leaders (HBR)

Strategy Execution+

LEVEL 5 Leadership: An enduring model of great leaders……….

Humility + Will = Level 5“Level 5 leaders are a study in duality: modest and willful, shy and fearless.”

Collins (2001)- ”The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve”- (HBR )

Strategy Execution+

What Can We Do To Get Better?• Share mistakes as teachable moments• Engage in dialogue, not debates• Embrace uncertainty• Role model being a “follower.”

Prime and Salib (2014)- The Best Leaders Are Humble Leaders (HBR)

Got Humility?“The Donald”- Republican Presidential Candidate Kenneth Lay- Former CEO of Enron

Justin Bieber- International Pop Sensation Kim Kardashian- Cultural Icon and “Role Model”

Jim Balsillie- Former CEO and Co founder of Blackberry

Parting Thoughts…..• How does humility have a direct impact on an organization’s strategy? Does it? Why or Why not? • In what ways does humility impact an organization’s ability to execute its strategy? • How does humility influence one’s leadership ability and perception? • Where are the common humility pitfalls?• What are the things each of us can do to improve our own humility?

Some Words From Pandora….

https://hbr.org/video/2363593483001/leadership-takes-humility