The Cost of Lost Humility in a Leader

As millions suffer on Main Street, many leaders on Wall Street don’t seem to understand the meaning of humility. The former CEO of Merrill Lynch, John Thain, a Wall Street kingpin, resigned after it was reported that he recently spent $1 million to decorate his office and rushed to pay billions in executive payouts just days before his firm was bought out by Bank of America and bailed out on the backs of hard working taxpayers. (1) The opposite of humility is hubris (i.e., excessive pride or arrogance). I hereby crown Thain the king of hubris.

Contrary to Thain’s pathetic example, there is some evidence that corporate leaders are acting with greater humility. Take for example John Edwardson, CEO of CDW, a $5 billion company that sells to IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and other computer manufacturers. Edwardson demonstrates his humility by not taking himself seriously. He has made regular bets that the company couldn't reach certain goals. When it did, he responded by shaving his head or growing mutton chop sideburns. (2) Humility also translated into visibility and availability. The conspicuous corner office with the foreboding door gave way to a large picture window. Employees can now look in and watch him work.

Former UPS CEO, Mike Eskew captured the spirit of a leader's humility when he pointed out that he was only one of 360,000 people who worked at UPS.

As I mentioned in my last blog, researcher Jim Collins defined a Level 5 leader as one who "builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will." (3)

Collins and his team of researchers found Level 5 leaders demonstrated personal humility in the following manner:

- A compelling modesty, shunning public adulation; never boastful.

- A quiet, calm determination; relying on inspired standards, not inspiring charisma, to motivate.

- Channels ambition into the company, not the self; sets up successes for even greater success.

- Spends more time looking out the window, not in the mirror, to apportion credit for the success of the company.

Humility is the ability to keep your accomplishments in perspective. It must be hard to do if your perched in an office on the 100th floor, above Wall Street. Let us pray for them. As Pastor Rick Warren says, "humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less."

Keep eXpanding (but don't inflate),

Dave

1. http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/01/22/2009-01-22_former_merrill_lynch_ceo_john_thain_resi.html

2. Justin Martin; Rise of the New Breed: The Age of the Imperial CEO Is Waning. In Its Place, a Crop of New CEOs -- Humble, Team Building, Highly Competitive -- Are Rising, Chief Executive, August 1, 2003.

3. Jim Collins; Good to Great, HarperCollins, New York, NY, 2001, page 20

The Humble Leader - Wimp or Winner?

George Harding, a renowned patent attorney, had been hired by the John Manny Company of Rockford, Illinois to defend its reaping machine against a patent infringement charge. Harding thought it best to hire a local lawyer who understood the Chicago judge who would be trying the case. He picked a young, ambitious, Springfield lawyer named Abraham Lincoln. It was a poor choice.

Lincoln was delighted to accept the work in the summer of 1855. He was paid a retainer and promised a substantial fee when the work was done, and excited to have the opportunity to practice law against well-trained, highly educated East Coast lawyers.

Within weeks of hiring Lincoln, Harding received word that the case had been transferred from Chicago to Cincinnati. This allowed Harding to team up with the lawyer he had wanted all along -- Edwin Stanton. The problem was nobody told Lincoln, who continued developing his case throughout the summer.

Lincoln learned about the change in venue, and arrived in Cincinnati in late September, with his lengthy brief in his lanky hands. When he met Harding and Stanton as they left the court, Stanton pulled Harding aside and whispered, "Why did you bring that long-armed ape here... He does not know anything and can do no good." Stanton and Harding turned away and walked on down the court hall.

Over the next several days, Stanton made it perfectly clear that Lincoln was a poor choice and was to remove himself from the case, which Lincoln did. Nevertheless, he remained in Cincinnati to hear the case. Although Lincoln stayed and ate at the same hotel as Stanton and Harding, they never asked him to join them for a single meal or to accompany them to or from court.

As he prepared to leave Cincinnati, despite suffering what many would consider a supreme insult at the hands of Harding and Stanton, Lincoln told one of John Manny's partners that he was so impressed by the lawyers’ sophisticated arguments and thorough preparation, that he was going back to Illinois to really “study law.”

How would you have responded to such egregious treatment? The next encounter Lincoln had with Stanton, six years following the trial, President Lincoln offered Edwin Stanton the cabinet post of secretary of war.

Lincoln's expansive humility helped him achieve extraordinary results. Author Doris Kearns Goodwin points out that every member of Lincoln's administration was better known, better educated, and more experienced than he was. Lincoln placed all three of his rivals for the 1860 presidential Republican nomination in his cabinet. (1) Are you humble enough to surround yourself with superior people?

In his groundbreaking book Good to Great, author Jim Collins points out that only 11 CEOs of the 1,435 companies he studied possessed what he calls “Level 5 Leadership.” A Level 5 leader is one who "builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will." (2) Humility is defined as "the modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance, rank, etc.” Humility helps leaders direct their ego away from the “me” towards the greater cause of the "we."

Humble leaders, like Abraham Lincoln, are winners because they subjugate their ego for the good of the team. How about you?

Keep eXpanding... humbly,

Dave

1. Doris Kearns Goodwin; Team of Rivals - The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 2005.

2. Jim Collins; Good to Great, HarperCollins, New York, NY, 2001 page 20.