To become a successful individual has never been an easy task, and has always cost many sacrifices and endeavours to those who have undertaken the effort. That’s why those few who succeed in life, and have plenty of proofs of their success, are most of the time inclined to show it off to the rest of the world.
“Once you get at the top, you’ll stay at the top” they think, which is true most of the times. But even if being airy and full of it will never undermine a CV full of shiny stuff, it can cause irreparable harm to what other people think of you. Humbleness is not required to get to success and leadership, but since a successful leader needs to be loved – not just feared – by his team, humbleness is essential to keep being successful and get always more of it.
A practical and effective way for a smart guy to show people he understands the value of staying humble is self irony and understatement: it helps minimizing the person without undermining his role, thus showing to a team that the leader himself is able to grasp the difference between the two. It is also a cunning way to keep a team respecting Leadership without fearing the Leader.
Samuele Fazzi
Image source: Flickr – http://bit.ly/1of5Lp1– Duncan Hull (CC BY 2.0)
I agree.
The power of humility is in keeping safe the spirit of the errant (and we are ALL errant, sooner or later we will fail) from a constrained excess of apologises which make the presumptuous doubly ridiculuos: firstly because it reveals he has a far different nature than his usual ‘super-homme’ attitude (and this does confuse the team who begins to misknown their chief, because yesterday he was like this, and today, after the accident, he’s like that); secondly because it shows how puerile is the presumptuous approach to work/career/social life/etc.
Now, let’s put the case one day we’ll have the chance of being successful people; the problem will only lie in being always vigilant in order not to be the above-mentioned presumptuous… It’d be wise (and an act of love moreover) having a friend or a spouse who would tell us, from time to time : ‘remember you’re still a simple human being’ – just something somebody used to do with a Mr. Julius Caesar. 😉