Humility is a Superpower
I’ve been fortunate to cross paths with amazing people through my advisory, mentoring, and volunteer work and from hosting the What I Wish I Knew podcast with Simon Daw. They are a very diverse group but they share a common trait: humility.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. Here’s why. Humility is a permanent state of openness. Like Marie Kondo for your mind, humility makes room for…
Reflection and thinking constructively about circumstances and events.
There’s a saying that “experience is inevitable but learning isn’t.” Ego is often the reason it holds true. There’s a natural tendency to own decisions and that pride of authorship is often good. The same sentiment also makes it hard to be objective in evaluating results. Jeff Campbell had a meteoric rise to become global CEO of Burger King. Success made it hard for him to reflect on circumstances and relationships and he later lost his way. As he said, “I was smart enough to do the job but I wasn’t wise enough.”
Jeff shares a lot more in our conversation, From Mad Man to Burger King and Beyond.
Learning from mistakes, from success, and from others.
Follow a baby around and it’s obvious that humans are born learners. So why do we ever stop? Or why do some of us stop? There are a whole bunch of factors ranging from the external environment in which we work to the one we live with between our ears. It takes a degree of humility to be able to admit that we have something to learn and to accept the sources from which we can learn it. Ann Hiatt worked alongside Jeff Bezos in the formative years at Amazon and then later with Eric Schmidt and Marissa Meyer at Google. Could anyone ever be ready for that? Here’s the thing. For Ann, the experience completely changed her definition of the meaning of “ready”. Before, she thought ready meant ready to be perfect. After, she believed ready meant ready to learn.
Our conversation with Ann covers more of her insight into the growth of the two tech giants. Have a listen, here. Ann’s new book, Bet On Yourself, is coming soon from Simon & Schuster.
Self-awareness and understanding our own actions, thoughts, and impact.
If I had one wish for leaders, entrepreneurs, or anyone, I’d wish for them to be self-aware. I still think that but I also realize that self-awareness doesn’t come without some degree of humility too. Dr. Debbie Chen is founder and CEO of Hydrostasis, a hydration monitoring company. She also holds a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, was recently awarded a patent, is a parent, an advocate…and a Muay Thai fighter. Her story about considering all the experiences that connect one’s life is a perfect reflection of the kind of self-awareness that makes for effective humans.
Dr. Chen’s journey from lab scientist to Muay Thai Fighter to founder and CEO is remarkable. Have a listen.
Clarity of purpose unweighted by ego.
In the wise words of Eric S. Thomas, Chief Storyteller for the City of Detroit, “Purpose can mean absolutely everything or absolutely nothing at all.”
Eric has a lot to say and that’s why more than 3 million have read his work. Have a listen to our conversation, here.
It’d be fair to say that meaningfulness is a legitimate measure for purpose in any organization or life. And the most effective organizations convey purpose so clearly and in such a compelling fashion that people go all in. Mark Tercek is former CEO of The Nature Conservancy. With $1 billion in revenue and 1 million members, TNC is the largest environmental nonprofit in the world. Tercek demonstrated that balance of clarity of purpose unweighted by ego when he said, “We think of our critics as our friends.” Imagine the power in seeing criticism as a path to improve.
Mark talked with us about why organizations should go beyond ESG measures to make an even bigger impact and when CEOs should speak up about social issues. Listen here.
Most of all, humility makes room for others to exist, to grow, to thrive.
Hannah Ingram-Moore started a mobile company in Spain which she sold to Motorola, grew Swatch group across Europe and the US, and also held leadership roles with Fortnum & Mason, Gap, and Whittard of Chelsea. Her philosophy is pretty simple: everything is about the people. This is probably the reason why her teams were so successful and why her clients at Maytrix Group benefit so much.
More from Hannah about organizational leadership, as well as the journey she led with her father, Captain Tom, in raising more than $60 million for the NHS in the UK. Listen here.
Still, making room for others is an noble and obvious priority. It goes right to the heart of why people want to lead. Vanderbilt University professor Patrick Leddin reflected on the role of humility in leadership here.
Dr. Leddin offers a pragmatic, step by step, approach to becoming the leader that people deserve in his new book, The 5 Week Leadership Challenge.
Humility is, indeed, a superpower. Join the humility club. It’s your choice and you won’t even need to tell anyone…because they’ll know.
Mike Irwin is an advisor, blogger, mentor, operator, podcast host, and strategist. Drawing from his past as a startup co-founder/President, executive officer of a $1+ billion market cap company (WD-40), public company CFO, VP Marketing, global chief strategy officer, head of sales, and board member, Mike helps companies grow sales, improve profitability, and scale up. He serves as an advisor, consultant, fractional or interim CEO/GM/MD, and on boards of directors. He serves on the boards of directors of Kano Laboratories, Kitchens For Good, and San Diego Sport Innovators. He is co-host the podcast, What I Wish I Knew with Mike Irwin & Simon Daw. Follow him at BottleRocketAdvisors.com, get in touch at mike@bottlerocketadvisors.com or connect on LinkedIn.