C.S. Lewis wrote, humility is thinking of yourself less and not thinking less of yourself.
In other words, don’t see yourself greater than you are but also don’t discount your talent and contributions to the team. I read this from Patrick Lencioni’s book – The ideal Team Player – and it did stick with me. Humility is an essential quality of every team player – leaders and team members alike – and team cohesion and effectiveness is compromised if each individual doesn’t possess this attribute. Indeed any individual in a team that does not have this (doesn’t matter if all the rest do), is a weak link in the team and chips off the team’s effectiveness.
A humble person will not project himself at the expense of other teammates but will collectively share credit and continuously, actively look for avenues to project his team or other teammates. They look for ways to enhance others’ strengths and how to compliment others’ weakness. Imagine if every person on a team is doing this. Can you even imagine how effective this team will be?
A humble person is neither arrogant nor self-centered but also does not have a low self-esteem. As a leader, never substitute humility for competence when hiring nor overlook/refuse to confront or deal with a competent person on the team who is not humble. It is destructive in the long run and a canker in the short run.
The best thing is that humility is learnable!
