1. Personal Leadership
HUMILITY

2. Objectives
• Set context around the challenges of leaders today in business
• Explore elements of humility from academia, industry and beyond
• Identify why humility is a powerful leadership trait for everyone
• Outline tangible ways to improve our humility
• Have fun and generate discussion about humility

3. What does it mean to be a
leader today?
Molinaro (2013) –The Leadership Contract (John Wiley & Sons)

4. New Demands of Leadership Today
1. Align and engage others around a strategy that delivers customer value
2.Take an enterprise-wide perspective that defines success for the whole
company not just functional areas
3.Build strong relationships with key internal and external stakeholders
4.Help others deal effectively with ambiguity and uncertainty associated
with complex business environments
5.Build strong leadership within an organization by developing future
leaders
6.Model the values of the organization, rather than being self-absorbed
with one’s own personal ego and agenda
Weiss & Molinaro (2005) –The Leadership Gap (John Wiley & Sons)

5. Strategy + Execution
Two Pillars That Drive All Organizations
Key activities, decisions and trade-offs
that enable an organization to achieve
its identified goals
The things people in an organization do
on a day to day basis to achieve it’s
strategy
Humility Impacts Both Across ALL Organizational Levels and
Functions

6. A Moment to Reflect……..
• What is Humility?
•Think about a leader you know who is humble
that you admire (Doesn’t have to be someone
more senior than you from your previous job-
think about leadership more broadly)
• How does their humility impact their leadership
ability?
With the person next to you……

7. What is Humility? (Research Approach)
According to Owens (Humility in Organizational Leadership, 2009)
Humility is a developmental orientation which is associated with:
• A willingness to view oneself accurately
• An appreciation of others' strengths and contributions
• Teachability
• A low self-focus
Sauder’s Michael Daniels Adds
The components of humility
• Viewing oneself accurately
• Willingness to admit mistakes and accept weaknesses
• Receptiveness to new ideas, feedback
• Awareness of one's abilities and accomplishment
• Transcendence (being aware that you are a part of something greater)
• Valuing the different ways people and things contribute to our world

8. What is Humility? (Other Perspectives)
• “Humility is the personal honesty that you, as the leader, do not know everything and do
not have all the answers”- Business insider Magazine
• “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less. -C. S. Lewis
•“Self-less practices that ameliorate the negative effects of narcissism”- Forbes Magazine
• “Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying”- St. Vincent de Paul
• “Selflessness is humility”- Jeff Wilson
• “Humility asks us to acknowledge our imperfections. It requires that we admit when we
are wrong and then change course”- Benjamin Franklin

9. Humility in Great Leaders
“Be the zero”
“What will kill me next?”

10. SO WHAT?

11. Why is Humility a Leadership Attribute?
Laszlo Bock- SVP People and
Operations @ Google
In a global marketplace where problems are
increasingly complex, no one person will ever
have all the answers……………
“Your end goal, is what can we do together to
problem-solve- it’s intellectual humility.
Without humility, you are unable to learn.”
Prime and Salib (2014)- The Best Leaders Are Humble Leaders (HBR)
Strategy Execution+

12. LEVEL 5 Leadership: An enduring model of
great leaders……….
Humility + Will = Level 5“Level 5 leaders are a study in duality: modest and willful, shy and fearless.”
Collins (2001)- ”The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve”- (HBR )
Strategy Execution+

13. What Can We Do To Get Better?
• Share mistakes as teachable moments
• Engage in dialogue, not debates
• Embrace uncertainty
• Role model being a “follower.”
Prime and Salib (2014)- The Best Leaders Are Humble Leaders (HBR)

14. Got Humility?
“The Donald”- Republican Presidential Candidate Kenneth Lay- Former CEO of Enron
Justin Bieber- International Pop Sensation Kim Kardashian- Cultural Icon and “Role Model”
Jim Balsillie- Former CEO and Co founder of Blackberry

15. Parting Thoughts…..
• How does humility have a direct impact on an
organization’s strategy? Does it? Why or Why not?
• In what ways does humility impact an organization’s ability
to execute its strategy?
• How does humility influence one’s leadership ability and
perception?
• Where are the common humility pitfalls?
• What are the things each of us can do to improve our own
humility?

16. Some Words From Pandora….
https://hbr.org/video/2363593483001/leadership-takes-humility