Business leaders tend to be high-achieving, highly competitive people who want to win big and see fast results. These instincts are powerful and often necessary: After all, every organization needs ambition. Every company needs to build successful products and grow its market share. But traditional styles of command-and-control, hard-charging, domineering leadership are no longer the right fit for today’s business challenges.
After the trauma and stress of the COVID-19 pandemic, with talent shortages across many industries, our people are demanding more human-centered and nurturing company cultures. Instead of the “conquering hero boss” who orders people around and leads based on force of will (or worse: authoritarianism, fear and intimidation), today’s successful managers need a higher level of emotional intelligence (EQ) and nuanced soft skills, not brute force.
More than ever before, there is an opportunity for a new style of leadership in the business environment. Instead of self-glorifying “alpha dog” leaders who dominate their teams, today’s organizations need humble leadership. Company leaders can still bring the best of their competitive drive and achieve massive wins for their organizations, while being tender, caring people who love their teams — and generously share the credit. This spirit of selfless, high-EQ leadership is called “radical humility.”
Let’s look at three key tenets of radical humility — and how to build these emotionally intelligent leadership skills in your organization.
1. Self-knowledge: Knowing and growing ourselves and our colleagues.
Humble leaders are good at developing true, accurate self-awareness. Radical humility requires leaders to embrace their strengths and talents, while owning their shortcomings and weaknesses. The better you know yourself and have awareness of your limitations, the more likely you are to help your team accelerate its performance and manage risks.
Leaders should constantly seek honest 360-degree feedback about their own performance. Use these questions as prompts during your one-on-one meetings:
- “What do I do well as a manager?”
- “What could I do better as a manager?”
- “What should I stop doing, start doing or continue doing?”
This doesn’t mean that leaders should never feel confident or talk about their strengths! “Humility” doesn’t mean “low self-esteem” or being an emotional doormat. Instead, it means that leaders should try to be accurate in their self-perceptions. Humble leaders don’t expect to be the smartest person in the room on every possible topic. Be cognizant of what you don’t know. Be sensitive to how (and when) to ask for help, and be ready to draw upon the strengths and expertise of others.
2. Leading relationally: Building strong relationships with trust and transparency.
Leadership is about getting important stuff done through cooperative relationships with other people. Good leaders maximize the efforts of others to achieve something bigger and better, beyond anyone’s individual actions.
As a leader, you are part of a two-way relationship with everyone you manage, work with, or report to. It’s important to show your direct reports that you value them and care about them as human beings, not just as human resources (HR) inputs who complete tasks for you. Humble organizational leadership requires you to understand and actively develop the interpersonal and group dynamics of a larger team.
When you practice radical humility, regular check-ins with your stakeholders in all directions become exchanges of transparent feedback and feedforward (suggestions for the future). This helps create a fearless team culture, where everyone feels safe to speak up and contribute. This is the exact opposite of a top-down, authoritarian, fear-driven culture where people are afraid to make mistakes or displease “the boss.”
In my research over the last 10 years, I consistently found that organizations that practice radical humility enjoy a more collaborative, creative, confident culture and achieve massive bottom-line business results.
3. Growth mindset: Empowering people to learn from failure.
Humble leaders are lifelong learners who do not fear failure. Instead, radical humility can reframe failure or past mistakes as a growth opportunity and a key component of innovation.
Part of creating a growth mindset — for yourself and for your team — requires that you get out of your comfort zone. Growth lies behind door number “discomfort.” Try new things and learn new skills to exercise different parts of your brain. This could include taking an online course for new career skills, joining an improv class, trying a new sport or learning a new language. Trying new things — even if it’s uncomfortable, even if you fail or make mistakes — can stimulate your spirit of growth. Discomfort and challenges can keep us humble, in the best possible ways.
Humility often gets a bad rap because it’s associated with weakness. People resist it because they think being humble means they lack confidence and ambition or that they can’t assert themselves. But that’s not true. You can be humble and ambitious. You can be humble and assertive. You can be humble and tough, demanding and confident. You can be humble and competitive. In fact, in today’s market for talent, radical humility could be the biggest competitive advantage of all.
That’s because today’s organizations are competing for talent more than ever before. And most people don’t want to be bossed around by thin-skinned authoritarians; instead, they want to be part of collaborative cultures where people are valued. Radical humility can help leaders create a culture where decisions get made with trust and transparency, and where people are not afraid to share ideas, try new things, and even make mistakes — because failure is another occasion for learning and growth.
Your company’s next big innovation or game-changing product idea could be lurking in the minds of your people, who are just waiting to speak up and be heard. Radical humility can help draw out the best ideas and contributions of everyone on your team – and drive big wins for your organization.
