| Humility vs Hubris |
| Written by Ron Potter |
| Tuesday, 19 May 2009 05:32 am PDT |
|
When I met with Wayne Hastings for the first time to discuss the writing of our book, Trust Me, I carried with me a research paper I had been reading that eventually became Jim Collins' book, Good to Great. In his book Jim described what he termed a "Level 5" leadership style that was present every time a company went from being a good company to being a great company. The two pillars of that style were humility and a strong will to endure and succeed. Our book outlined 8 leadership principles that began with humility and ended with endurance, the same characteristics. Jim is now publishing a new book titled How the Mighty Fall where he looks at the signs that we can detect that indicate a company may be on it's way down from great to good (or worse). What's the number one sign? Hubris! Hubris (/hju:bris/)
Humility: the first principle in great leadership. Hubris, the first step of the fall from glory. Are you a great listener? Do you accept the brutal reality of your situation? Do you have great faith in people? Do you see it as your job to help everybody perform at their best or be in a place where they can be successful? Or, do you believe you're successful because you (and your team) have figured out the right way to do things. You're smart. You know what you're doing. Hubris? |
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