Humility, the Sire of All Virtue

How it can turn around a company 

and accelerate innovation

By Mark Faust

Have you ever worked in a team where the rate of innovation was low to nonexistent or known of a company that needed a turnaround? Or have you or a leader you have known ever seem to hit a wall of growth and development in your leadership abilities? One of the most common constraints to growth in a team is a spirit of unhealthy levels of pride, especially in the leader. Here is a story and tool that can help turn all of that around. 

There was a product manager at a large consumer products company who was forced to work with a haughty executive who was wont to wear his degrees on his sleeve. With his JD and MBA along with two undergraduate degrees he was quick to say, “I have a degree in...” and irritate the sense out of his coworkers. One day in reviewing a problem, he said to the product manager, “You know, I have a degree in this area, and....” The product manager interrupted and said, “Even thermometers have degrees, and you know where people stick thermometers.” She was able to say it with a smile and in a way that even he laughed. She had a gift with communication as well as a level of humility that this well-degreed executive did not.

There is no virtue in leadership as important to accelerated growth, turnaround, or innovation as that of humility. Not so much because mistakes must be admitted but because the source of the solutions will come from without, not within. One’s personal education and experience are probably not the key sources of the solutions that will be needed. The strength of the relationships you have and the process for synergizing those relationships, internal and external to your organization, will be the source of many ideas that will be the steps to your growth and turnaround.

A best practice to show and prove your humility is to have confidential blind-spot sessions. This is the simple but potentially painful practice of inviting your team, one by one, to meet with you to share your greatest blind spots that most hinder you and your company’s growth. They are to point out your character missteps with specific examples, and, if they wish, discuss how it might have impacted others. When you as a leader can listen to, understand, acknowledge, and respond to the weaknesses that your subordinates bring to you in this setting, it will do more to bond your relationships and tap the full potential of your people than many a management tactic.

These confidential blind spot sessions are much more than the question, “What are the things that your superior does that most hinder me?” Your people will bring up your character flaws and habits that may seem unrelated to your effectiveness—but they will bring them up for a reason. They will test you with smaller issues to see how you react, and if you take notes, to confirm what you’ve heard, and that you are not making excuses for the examples but that you acknowledge them and ask for their help in keeping you accountable to better character in the future. As a result, you will see people and your team transform before your eyes.

This one practice alone has saved bankrupt companies. Turning around a company is first about turning around the people, and the first turnaround is you!

The quality and strength of humility in an organization, especially as exhibited by the top echelon, can have significant impact
on the potential of the organization to start a turnaround
as well as its ability to innovate.

#innovation #leadership #turnaroundmindset #faustindepth #humility #teambuilding