8 Traits of a Humble Leader
You can see humble leaders share lunch with their employees during the work break, making them their true partners.
They do not deal with them with the mentality of the boss and the subordinate, but rather with the mentality of partnership for the success of the work. Yes, they are good listeners to the opinions of others and their participation. Their ego is balanced and they have nothing to do with arrogance. They are filled from the inside, their values are complete, and they are fully aware of the values of others, so they protect and respect the other. They have good intentions in their dealings with others, and their appreciation of things is high, and they give everyone their rights.
They know that the real investment is the investment in the human being, so they treat their employees in a classy manner, sure that they will give their best with love, passion, and desire. Yes, a humble leader is a content person, who is skilled in embracing negative situations, extracting real messages from them, and facing any new situation with flexibility and a smile.
What are the characteristics of a humble leader? What is our view of humble leaders, and how do we develop our skills to become humble leaders? This is what we will learn about in this article.
Among Hollywood stars, and humble leaders:
We have always had an image of the leader similar to the images of movie stars; That is, a shining image full of lights, full of movement, charisma, and thoughtful, elegant speech.
However, research tells us that the truth is more accurate than that. According to James C. Collins in his book Good To Great, the best leaders are those who possess a mixture of humility and strong determination.
They are humble, moderate, considerate, self-actualized through their organization, and committed to achieving the best results. Organizational culture also found that millennials cited humility as one of the three most important traits of a leader, along with strategy and ethics.
Traits of a humble leader:
Humble leaders are distinguished from other leaders by many features, including:
1. Share their ideas with others and listen to their opinions:
Humble leaders find real pleasure in working in a group, as opposed to arrogant leaders who tend to work alone.
Humble leaders have a terrible chest and a high capacity for containment, which enables them to extract the best talents of others. Their motivational energy is high, which makes others loving and passionate workers.
Humble leaders don't hesitate to share their ideas and resources to help solve other people's problems because their view of things is a holistic and integrative view, not limited or personal.
They also respect the ideas of others and welcome their participation, no matter how simple, and no matter what the position of its proponent is. They are convinced that real success lies in cooperation, and that a simple idea can make a big difference. On the other hand, arrogant leaders tend to hoard their resources and not share them with anyone unless there is something in return.
2. Take responsibility and admitting mistakes:
The strong man adopts the saying: “I am the cause.” Humble leaders take responsibility for the existence of mistakes instead of blaming others, and admit them, and then seek to analyze their causes, and work seriously to avoid them .This is done in cooperation with the employees in a positive atmosphere full of acceptance, satisfaction and awareness.
Their interpretation of errors is a conscious interpretation; They are looking for the true, beneficial purpose behind it. Mistakes are just a way of telling us that something needs to be changed.
They are aware of their weaknesses and strengths, so they work to enhance the positive points and reduce the negative points; As if they follow training courses to help with that.
Whereas, arrogant leaders tend to blame others, portraying themselves as perfect and infallible leaders, feeling their superiority over others, and not acknowledging their exploits. They regard error as weakness because they are not reconciled with themselves, and they refuse to blend in with others, learn from them, and teach them.
3. Praise others and celebrate their accomplishments:
Humble leaders do not miss any opportunity to praise their employees. They are happy and appreciate their achievements, knowing in depth that they will be in the interest of the business as a whole.
They are professionals in seeing success through an integrated team that has one spirit and one goal in which personal interests are negated.
Arrogant leaders tend to ignore the achievements of others, as their negative outlook and ego stand in the way of their inclusion.
4. Accept constructive feedback:
Humble leaders are well-meaning and creatively resilient to positive change, making their response to feedback a dynamic and purposeful one. Their main goal is to create added value for the company, so they will adopt any observation that supports this goal and strive to work on.
Their flexibility helps them open up to others, make the most of their important observations and experiences, and see topics from different angles.
However, arrogant leaders have poor flexibility and little openness to others, which makes their view of the subject narrow and one-sided. They cannot accept views that are opposite to theirs.
5. Challenge and intense determination:
Humble leaders love challenges and difficult tasks, and they can only achieve themselves by reaching their goals that stem from the interest of the company and the integrated work team.
Yes, they are able to overcome any obstacles in their way because they are one hand with the employees, and they are strongly committed to the company.
6. Have high standards:
Humble leaders tend to be upscale, ignoring gossip; That's because they have enough wisdom to know that there is always another side to the story.
On the other hand, arrogant leaders tend to spread gossip. They want the atmosphere among employees to be negative and substandard, as it makes them feel superior and comfortable.
7. Obey laws and rules:
The humble leader realizes the importance of adhering to the rules and laws imposed in the society to which the company they lead belongs, so they are keen to adhere to all the imposed laws like any other person, far from condescension and chaos.
8. Curiosity:
Humble leaders are eager to learn, and to continuously improve in their performance and the performance of the integrated work team. They do not spare an effort in developing their skills and methods of running their company. They also care about the human element, so they undergo intensive courses that enrich their communication skills and raise their capabilities.
A view of humility, and humble leadership tests:
The concept of a humble leader is exposed to many fallacies and accusations. So, that their wonderful participation with others and their high ability to contain them are understood as weakness, subservience, and helplessness. However, humble leaders express great confidence and ambition but in different ways.
The idea that they prefer the interests of the company over their personal interests will not be easily understood, especially in the midst of a society that loves ego and personal interests, where a humble leader needs a lot of awareness for his distinguished understanding.
There has to be a change in the way we manage talent in our companies, so that new tools and tactics encourage humble leadership, and counter cultural prejudices towards glamorous (Hollywood) leadership.
Changing the traditional corporate view of leadership is very important. Moving away from considering humility as an essential trait, and adopting the traits of charisma and promotion will negatively affect the productivity of the company.
James C. Collins found in his book “Good To Great” that the two common traits of CEOs in companies that transitioned from mediocre performance to superior performance are humility and an iron will to advance the organization.
On the managerial level, reliance on humility, as a basic quality, generates the ability to create added value for work, better performance, a stronger commitment to the company, and a deep effective participation among the company’s elements as a whole, which enhances the culture of innovation in organizations and increases their productivity and distinction.
Therefore, companies should deal with humility as an issue with two dimensions, which are internal and external ones.
The internal dimension of humility necessitates strengthening this quality among the employees within the company. This is achieved by developing their communication skills, raising the level of positive awareness of real leadership rather than marketing, and stimulating constructive teamwork.
As for the external dimension of humility, it is necessary to reconsider the criteria for selecting administrative people, so that humility is measured like other personal traits.
For example, the sudden-quick questioning method is used as one of the interview techniques to measure the amount of social confidence and flexibility that people applying for senior management positions must have. On the other hand, there was no specific technique to measure humility.
Develop yourself to reach the ranks of a humble leader:
If you have the trait of humility, you can take steps to develop your identity and establish useful and authentic ways, such as:
- Motivate yourself by achieving comprehensive and impressive goals - rather than working on your own limited personal success - and recognize your accomplishments as part of your team's overall work.
- Focus on acting as an integrated leader by promoting your noble values such as honesty, clarity, and integrity, which help you actively participate with others.
- Unleash your ambition and passion, so that your leadership skills and vitality are highlighted.
- Change your thoughts and behaviors, and increase your awareness. The development of humility needs to change the wrong inherited behaviors and ideas about it, and this is done through a high level of self-awareness.
- Set the level of your ambitions high to increase your motivation to work as a result. As the value increases, so does the incentive.
Conclusion:
The humble person enjoys self-sufficiency and spiritual fulfillment that overflows with love, honesty, and inclusion to include everyone, in addition to having a pure intention to create a comprehensive, not personal, added value. Yes, they have a high ability to merge and fuse in the other to bring out the best of what they have. They address the luminous side of every person.
The humble person deserves the highest and most important appreciation, and every organization should give a real and thoughtful opportunity to these people because they are the real rich, ideal producers, and positive catalysts for innovation, excellence and creativity.