When we think of powerful, influential people, we normally associate them as being confident, smart, motivating and decisive. While leaders must possess these personality characteristics and more, it could be argued that humility may be the most important skill set of all.
Do not mistake one’s sense of humility with a sign of weakness. True humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less. In fact, a leader must be self-confident if they demonstrate a sense of humility.
To be humble, you must control your ego. There is no room for ego in effective leadership. Someone with a strong ego believes they know everything, and they are not open to learning from others. Any leader who is unwilling to learn from others will never achieve their highest potential. Understanding you do not have all the answers requires a sense of humility. To state in another way, C.S. Lewis once wrote “Pride has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began.”
Nelson Mandela is recognized as a humble, but effective, world leader. We can learn a valuable lesson from Mandela’s leadership style. His sense of humility allowed him to learn to speak less, and to speak last. Mandela sought the input of others before forming his opinion. This allowed him to consider different perspectives before making decisions. As a result, he typically made good decisions because they were well thought out. Since his decisions considered each perspective, he rarely wavered. People are drawn to leaders who are good, consistent decision makers.
Finally, a sense of humility makes a person seem genuine, trustworthy and likable. Every leader needs to find a good balance of many different skill sets. Humility is one of the most important to develop and seems to be a non-negotiable requirement of every true leader.
