Humility Always Trumps Hubris
- Jim Lopresti
- Aug 17, 2016
- 5 min read
One morning in mid-November of 2008, I was apoplectic upon reading the following on ABC News online:
“The CEOs of the big three automakers flew to the nation's capital yesterday in private, luxurious jets to make their case to Washington that the auto industry is running out of cash and needs $25 billion in taxpayer money to avoid bankruptcy…Wagoner flew in GM's $36 million luxury aircraft to tell members of Congress that the company is burning through cash, asking for $10-12 billion for GM alone.”
When you think about it, it isn’t wild speculation to conclude that perhaps one of the major contributing factors behind the dire financial straits of the “big three” automakers was an excess of hubris and a lack of authentic leadership; leadership grounded in accountability, a firm grasp of the reality of their organizations’ dysfunctions and, yes, a little humility.
On second thought, it may simply be a case of egos so inflated they just wouldn’t fit on a commercial airliner, even with the legendary roominess of first class.
Hubris (and its fraternal twin, arrogance) is a disease on all rungs of the leadership ladder, in all functional roles; organizational, societal, and political. As pervasive as hubris may appear to be these days, the most effective means of combatting it still is a large dose of simple, and sincere, humility.
In 2009, Lord David Owen, a former medical doctor and a member of the House of Lords and psychiatrist Jonathan Davidson of the Duke University Medical Center published a paper in the journal Brain entitled Hubris syndrome: An acquired personality disorder? A study of US Presidents and UK Prime Ministers over the last 100 years. Owen and Davidson see hubris as a ‘syndrome’ that is a consequence of acquiring power.
The authors point out that the acquisition of power typically does not come without a certain degree of self-confidence and ambition which, in themselves, are fairly benign. It’s when that self-confidence becomes excessive and evolves into a pathology that we begin to see hubris rear its ugly head. Owen and Davidson go on to note relevant links between hubris syndrome and narcissistic personality disorder.
Good leaders possess typical leadership qualities, such as the ability to inspire a shared vision, to influence without coercion, and the ability to communicate with transparency and honesty, among others. However, there are far too many leaders who fall into the lure of the dark side of the power that comes with leadership. The hubristic leader is a self-inflated bully who takes credit for the successes of others; the failures, of course, are the fault of others. Their business decisions are driven by egotistical motives. Self-confidence, a benign, even critical, quality for effective leadership morphs into cockiness and vanity. Hubristic people are manipulative; you better see the world their way or you’ll find yourself on the highway. And they are always ‘right’.
In their study, Owen and Davidson identify 14 symptoms of hubris syndrome, several of which include:
Using power for self-glorification;
An almost obsessive focus on personal image;
Excessive self-confidence, accompanied by contempt for advice or criticism of others;
Loss of contact with reality;
Speaking as a messiah;
Reckless and impulsive actions; and
Hubristic incompetence where supreme overconfidence leads to inattention to details.
We have all seen these “symptoms” manifested in public leadership figures past and present. In the business environment, an executive is typically hired for his or her experience. They are fired, however, because of their personality. Interactions with hubristic or arrogant people are uncomfortable, at best. If those people also hold positions of power or authority, the effects can be torturous. Steve Jobs and his tirades and tantrums in elevators and other public places is just one such example.
Despite the overabundance of hubris in the world of leadership today, there are truly humble leaders who stand out simply because we, as followers, are hard wired to gravitate emotionally toward those who are humble and empowering. These are the leaders who speak in terms of “we” rather than “I”. They regularly ask: “How can I help you?” Humble leaders make it their job to support, inspire, and develop their people. They are authentic coaches and guides to all who are willing to learn how to develop their own skills and to refine their best qualities, enabling them to higher levels of achievement.
Humble leaders genuinely care for and about people. Their expanded capacity for compassion reaches beyond their followers to all people, no matter who they are. What truly distinguishes the humble leader from the hubristic leader is their unqualified willingness to share power rather than jealously hoard it to the point of abuse. Of course the real irony here is that displaying humility is a sign of strength, not weakness. Humble leaders have high self-esteem and self-awareness and are continually keeping one eye on their own personal development and the other eye on the development of their followers.
As a result of this focus on personal development and self-improvement, the humble leader often comes across as self-effacing or unusually modest, downplaying his or her laudable strengths and skills. According to research conducted by the leadership development consultancy Zenger/Folkman, ‘leaders who underestimate their own competence are the most effective and have the most engaged employees. The findings were reported in the Harvard Business Review in November, 2015
Zenger/Folkman examined 360-degree assessments for 69,000 managers rated by 750,000 respondents at hundreds of firms. The results found that there was incongruence between most leaders' perceptions of themselves and how others perceived them — leaders thought they were either more or less effective than they really were. Leaders who overestimated their own competence were the least effective. However, leaders who underestimated their own competence were the most effective and had the most engaged employees.
As human beings, we look to leaders to serve as guides for us through the chaos and uncertainty that life presents to us on a daily basis. We look to them to be a powerful and effective extension of ourselves – our hopes, our dreams, our aspirations. We defer to them to represent the very best of who we are as a city, a state, a nation, an organization, and so on. We recoil (and often revolt) at those who decide to only serve themselves, who are only inspired to self-interest. After all, as human beings, we are a communal species – e pluribus unum.
In the final analysis, humility does trump hubris, no matter what the circumstances or level of authority of the individual. The truly humble person becomes a mirror for all of those outside him or herself. The Gandhis, Martin Luther Kings, Mother Teresas, Pope Francises, Malala Yousafzais, and Dalai Lamas of the world did and do represent the “we” of the world, not the isolated “I.” As C.S. Lewis so wisely observed: “True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”
