A Winning Combination

Here’s a word you may not have heard to describe great leadership. Humbitous! Amer Kaissi, award winning professor, writer, and executive coach, says exceptional leadership is all about humility and ambition combined. Humbitious! I heard Dr. Kaissi speak a couple of weeks ago and what a privilege. He has done fascinating and extensive research on leaders from all areas of business and politics and has found the most successful leaders bring a quality that is forward thinking and ambitious but humble.

There is always talk about being ambitious, but humble is not a word you hear much when you talk about leadership. So how do you start being a humble leader? Here’s what I found. Humility (being humble) starts with our relationship with ourselves: it’s about self-awareness, being aware of our strengths and areas of improvements, and looking at your capabilities as accurately as you can. Self-awareness is the cornerstone of emotional intelligence and impacts the relationships that lead to your success (or failure) at work and in your personal life.

Take a Look at You

Have you ever been around someone that was not self-aware? When I think of this type of person, I think of Cousin Eddie from the National Lampoon Vacation movies. Cousin Eddie is a humorous and awkward character.  Loveable, but with no awareness of how to act or how his actions affect others. We all have family members or coworkers that are not aware of the negative influence they bring to the group. We all have a little bit of Cousin Eddie in us. Heck, sometimes I am the cousin Eddie.

Although I work hard on being aware of those around me and my behavior in a group, it’s easy to slip in our pursuit of self-awareness. That old saying you don’t know what you don’t know applies to self-awareness, but once you understand that self-awareness is necessary for you to live better, the next quest is learning how to cultivate the skill. Here are four suggestions to get you started:

• Evaluate your thoughts, feelings, and actions.
• Quit being overprotective of yourself and be more willing to be vulnerable.
• Socialize more to help improve empathy and your overall people skills.
• Try to see yourself from the point of view of others.

Put Humbitious to Work

Self-awareness is a muscle to some extent; you must exercise it and continue to refine and use it to keep it sharp. It is just as important to work on your self-awareness as it is to work on your abs.

Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life says, “Humility is not denying your strengths, humility is being honest about your weaknesses.” This week, take some time to cultivate being humbitious by being more vulnerable, humble, and honest about your strengths and weaknesses. If you are interested in learning more about humbitious leadership, Dr. Kaissi has written a new book on the subject that is available on Amazon and other online retailers.

Take some time to enjoy these first beautiful days of fall. That’s the view this week from where I sit.