When I start working with a client I’ll often ask them about great examples of leaders in their lives. It warms my heart each and every time as their faces light up thinking of the teacher, coach, manager, or mentor who changed everything for them. They describe them and it usually goes something like this. He always had time for me. She always seemed to know what the next step was. We just had a genuine connection. Whether I hit the goal or not, I knew they had my back. He had high standards, but I wanted to hit them. He would always tell me the stories of his mistakes. She was willing to get her hands dirty. It is those great bosses who are creating great culture at work. (Click here to see the YouTube video on the one attribute you need to create a great culture at work)
Each of the examples is very different but the feeling they gave their employees is so similar. It is a warm credibility that instills confidence and security. Can you imagine then, having one singular attribute that is responsible for all of that? I know, it sounds far fetched. Particularly coming from the woman who has a quiz designed to identify your unique leadership attribute. You can take the quiz here. There is one attribute though that is critical to building a winning culture at work and that is humility.
Winning culture at work is dependent on true humility
Years ago I was sitting across the table from a middle manager whose team just had a major breakthrough. One of her teams just broke through an efficiency ceiling no one had previously been able to crack. A process that was taking 7-10 days on average now took 3-4 days after her review. Senior management was laying on the praise and she smiled boldly, nodded and said, Casey and the team did an amazing job identifying and implementing the change. I’m so glad I could be a part of that. A wave of pride swept over me listening to her. That is true humility.
Too often people think of humility as denying praise. They will say that the hours or months of work was no big deal. When someone appreciates the result they will minimize their impact or, worse yet, launch into a critique of it. Many people are so conditioned to not take credit for other people’s work that they deny even the credit they rightly deserve. We want to avoid appearing arrogant at all costs resulting in down playing every effort we partake in.
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What does it mean to be arrogant anyway?
We know being arrogant is bad, right? But do you actually know what it means? The definition of arrogance is an attitude of superiority manifested in presumptuous assumptions. Read that again, but slower. Arrogance is an attitude of superiority manifested in presumptuous assumptions. Arrogance has nothing rooted in fact. It is entirely subjective. Subjective isn’t bad but a baseless attitude of superiority is. Case in point, the director who seems to think he can do no wrong despite a track record of failures. Then take it one step further and make assumptions based on that attitude alone. That’s why we see that same director get promoted to executive because he has used his arrogant attitude to influence assumptions that presume he can get it done.
Humility on the other hand is the complete opposite
Look up the definition of humility. Humility is a freedom from arrogance. Doesn’t that just give you a breath of fresh air? Note though, it still doesn’t speak to your track record. That is because you can be humble and still do amazing work that you get credit for. You can be humble and still accept the praise. You can be humble and still share the credit with everyone who deserves it.
Humility is free of assumptions and superiority, regardless of the work product or end result. With humility you can be free to enjoy the fruit of the labor or the lesson from the error because there is no presumption to uphold. That means, you instill confidence in yourself and those who work with you because they trust you don’t have an angle. Just like in my first example, the manager accepted and shared the praise without assumption or expectation. This posture reminds everyone that you’re there to make an impact, not advance your own agenda.
And how does this impact culture at work?
It’s the freedom from arrogance that people feel, but it’s how that freedom manifests itself that people see as culture. Leaders and senior leaders give credit to those who were closer to the work. Communication is transparent and authentic because there are no presumptions to uphold. Mistakes are treated as learning opportunities because everyone makes them and has no reason to hide them. There are countless other examples, and I’d love to hear from you on how you’ve seen humility impact culture in your organization. Hop on IG and send me a DM to let me know yours.
Humility also is the one leadership attribute that requires some degree of the other attributes to be realized. For example, you have to be some level of an action taker to have any accomplishments to be humble about. You also have to have the ability to reflect and connect with others to display humility. That means, if you’re a humble leader, with a quiet confidence that respects the contributions of others and your own, you already have other strong attributes to be proud of, humbly of course.