By Alberto De la Barreda Hernandez*
If in monetary terms, convincing quickly in a negotiation is an efficient way to save on expenses, convincing an entire organization with the exercise of leadership alone is the difference between a good business year and a great company. The secret of the most effective leadership is humility.
It is counterintuitive to assume that a leader must be humble, since it seems that he would be weak or that he would risk losing his position of power. However, an effective leader is effective to the extent that he commands with humility.
What is humility in the leader?
We can know the final frontier of our forces and avoid the exaggeration of qualities through humility. An objective examination that highlights our own weaknesses that prevent us from growing personally or professionally and, at the same time, controls the blinding ego. Humility places the leader on an equal footing with everyone.
The truth of oneself, the reflection that allows us to diagnose ourselves, is the key element to decide what to change and practice a reflexive evolution that, based on humility, gives rise to the exercise of effective leadership.
Humility is not a reduction in dignity or humiliation of character, but rather a guide that motivates the evolution of managerial skills. Knowing what we are, assuming ourselves even as something minor, we can be more. Knowing how to correct in time, lead the way to the right path and accept one’s own shortcomings is the immediate product of leadership with humility.
Great leaders like Darwin Smith (Kimberly Clark), Colman M. Mockler (Gillette), George Cain (Abbott Laboratories), Charles R. Cork (Wolgreen), Alan Kurtzel (Circuit City), Joseph Cullman II (Philip Morris), and even Abraham Lincoln, are a clear example of the compatibility of leadership with a humble character.
How can you be a humble leader?
Leadership, defined by the Mexican philosopher, writer, professor and businessman Carlos Llano Cifuentes, is the ability to achieve a common goal through the trust generated by leadership. The difference with the definition of leadership known from can be followed It lies in humility and focuses the follow-up not on the person, but on the goal.
Exercising effective leadership is the art of getting others to take ownership of the stated objective; the success of this appropriation is understood between the own firmness and required of others, and the human tone of conviction in command. Humility in all aspects of leadership is the link that unites the team around the goal and not merely points to the goal.
Humility and firmness mean balance; it is being able to correct without losing authority. It is to combat the arrogance of not rectifying in time. Seek not the best ways of doing, but the best ways of being.
No one wants to be governed by someone who bases his government action on his sentimental intuitions. We want as bosses people who take into account, yes, our feelings, but who act following the clear and firm ideas of their intelligence”,
Carlos Llano Cifuentes.
The leader cannot, nor should he try, to stop being human. But to the extent that he can govern himself and serve the people he commands with humility, he can govern a project by spreading his enthusiasm to others. Not being hesitant or weak, but exemplary and trustworthy; being authentic.
The true leader, the one who achieves and reduces conflicts effectively, is the one who fights against his own natural pride in a permanent degree. The best leader is the one who is hardly noticed… The good leader speaks littleproposed Lao Tzu referring to the royal leaders.
Example is the tool of the humble leader and it means that he himself is what he wants the other people on his team to be, that he infects the essential properties of the character that he believes are positive and necessary in everyone to achieve the magnanimous goal he has set.
At the end of a brief reflection on humility as a fundamental dimension of leadership, we can project our own leadership as the treatment of subordinates based on future leadership.
The effective leader the one who believes in the importance of the organization or the cause beyond his own person, permanently trains those who will serve as directors in the future. Hence the true creative delegation, typical of good leadership, is to delegate to others the task of making themselves – Carlos Llano Cifuentes.
The entrepreneur, as the leader of a living and productive organization, must assume himself not as a boss but as a guide. The result of any organization is the very stamp of the one who commands it and the head is precisely what it needs to be its employees, followers or collaborators. So humility becomes the key to turning teamwork into the mission of a united group.
*Alberto De la Barreda has a degree in accounting, a master’s degree in public administration and a specialist in philosophical anthropology. Professor at the Academy of Management Information Control of the Faculty of Business of the Universidad Panamericana.
Editor’s note: This text belongs to our Opinion section and reflects only the author’s vision, not necessarily the High Level point of view.
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