Humble leadership skills great for your business
Studies have shown humble leadership is great for business success. Being humble you display the bigger purpose of accountability to your team and business. It does not mean you think less of yourself but think of yourself less. Humble leaders make great role models, people are ready to jump off the cliff for them. Do you know organizations eye humble leadership traits in candidates during hiring?
Great leadership does not mean being egoistic, aggressive, arrogant, or carry a fear-raising air. Gone are those days of top-down leadership which is often counterproductive. Today, business demands leadership skills blended with humility for growth and sustainability. Humble leaders are approachable and always ready to lend an ear.
Humble leaders make the best leaders. Humble leadership builds stronger teamwork, increased employee engagement, reduced turnover, and continuous learning and development. A 2018 New York Times investigative writeup found, only 15% of people have humility as their trait. This means, only 1 out of 10 CEOs will display humbleness. A 2015 survey found that humbleness in CEOs yielded better team performance, more flexible strategies, and a great boost in collaboration.
Leaders when work with inputs from everyone passes through the length and breadth of the organization. Other managers and executives try to emulate the leader’s humble approach creating a culture to bring out the best from everybody.
Modern corporate leadership is less about style and more about execution. From that aspect, humble leadership displays the bigger purpose of accountability essential for sustained business growth. Humble leaders make great role models, people are ready to jump off the cliff for them Let us focus on 5 humble leadership skills:
- Be willing to be in the trenches with your mates
If your staff find you among them in work, there is nothing they won’t do it for you. Take up the work of your subordinate in his/her short-term absence. It does not belittle your position. You win strong loyalty.
- Learn the art of asking instead of telling
Shift yourself from the authoritative role to the companionship role. Instead of showing employees way to do jobs better, ask them how you can help them for the same. Men on the ground are more aware of their pain points and can suggest better ways.
- Create a risk-free space to experiment
Allow some elbow room to your employees to experiment with new ideas. Encourage them to push their boundaries. You will be surprised to see new ideas that you ever imagined.
- Nurture a culture of authenticity
Everybody has a unique story. Talk about your mistakes and adversities in life and how you fought them. It is a great way of passing your experience as a learning module to your team.
- Be open-minded and humanize professional relationships
Be open to ideas, suggestions and even criticism from your subordinates. This will deepen the relationship with your staff. It sets the habit of continuous improvement. You feel more confident while making the toughest decisions.
You are not just a leader but also the voice of your team and therefore, their grief and complaints are supposed to be heard and addressed by you for sure. Being a leader if you overlook their problems and got only concerned with plans and projects, then there are stronger chances of non-cooperation from employees. Therefore, it is one of your prime duties of the manager or leader to ensure that he or she is lending your ears and support to your team and winning their confidence as well.
