Servant Leadership, Humility, Listening and Leadership

I am working on a book on servant leadership. Humility in my view is the conerstone of servant leadership. To first have the desire to serve others you have to be humble. But how do you develop humility? Harry Joiner’s blog points out: The paradox of humility is that if you think you have it you don’t. (http://adjix.com/yr2p)

As a matter of fact I am mostly convinced that the best way to learn humility is to have a big failure or a few of them. With the way things are going for much of the world there is ample opportunity for people to develop some humility right now! But it is important to realize that humility is not the same as a lack of self-confidence. Instead it is defined as a ‘lack of vanity or self-importance’ by wikipedia. As Ed Brenegar (http://adjix.com/dcyr) points out it involves reflection upon humility and establishing a baseline.

For example, Harris Dennis (http://adjix.com/dcyz) points out we have seen a lot of examples of what it is not: “Over the past few months, several celeb CEOs have left their kingdoms with no remorse for their failure to lead. Their lack of humility, all so obvious, continues to be disgusting to all of us.” He gives some suggestions on how you might show it in your actions: serve others, listen to feedback and criticism, be patient with injustice against you, acknowledge mistakes, submit to authority (yeah, I know, I have a tough time with that one too), forfive and speak well of others. Ed brenegar suggests you should read, share, reflect and then make changes in your behavior accordingly.

I think back to one of my mentors in particular, Jim Miller, ACSW. He is such a kind man and so unassuming, but brilliant as well, but he listened. He listened to me when I was 18. He listens to me now that I am 44. Although he had his own thoughts and he was forthright and clear about them, he listened and my thought had an impact on him. Even my challenge to him that he had a greater impact on the lives of those around him than he thought. I have seen some great humble leaders. I just hope a little has rubbed off on me!

Charles Shinaver, PhD