How humble are you … really?

In Patrick Lencioni’s Ideal Team Player, one of the three pillars of a team player is humility. Too much humility, and you can be a pawn, an accidental mess-maker, or a lovable slacker. Too little humility and you can be a bulldozer, skillful politician, or a charmer.

But let’s face it, of the three pillars, Humble, Hungry, and Smart – Humility is the hard one. If you run or own your own company, you are hungry. It’s what got you here and will get you there. Smart isn’t book smart. I know many leaders who are not scholarly yet have the people and street smarts that Lencioni is defining.

Humility is hard. Why?

If you are running the place, it’s all about you. It had to be for some time. It’s when you need to let go of control, raise up others, become one of the dumber people in the room that the challenges start.

The Pride Monster plays internal games – conversations that happen inside your brain that contribute to this narrative.

I’m important. I’m the only one who can do that. I’m indispensable.

Are you … really? Graveyards are filled with the indispensable.

The Litany of Humility is a great list of what challenges us in humility.

We desire to be:

Loved, exalted, honored, praised, preferred to others, consulted, and approved.

We fear being:

Humiliated, despised, snubbed, slandered, forgotten, ridiculed, wronged, and suspected.

What happens inside you:

When others increase, and you decrease?

When others are chosen, and you are set aside?

When others are praised, and you go unnoticed?

The Pride Monster comes calling. What about ME?

And yet, when we lean out of our desires and through our fears we can multiply our impact and influence – and our business grows. It’s counter-cultural, and it’s true.

In law 21 of his, 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell states that “To ADD Growth you have to have followers but to MULTIPLY growth, you’ve got to have leaders.” The law is called the “Law of Explosive Growth.”

Are you ready for explosive growth?

Got followers or got leaders?

Humility is needed to become a multiplier. Multiplication is the fun part of business.

Where do you need to face your pride monster and lean into humility to start to multiply?

Who do you need to raise up while you step back to grow the leaders around you?