Good Leadership Starts with Humility

At the HEART of every good leader you will find a tremendous amount of humility.

In simple terms, humility is others focused - it gets on one knee bringing relief to the weary or offers a ‘leg up’ over the obstacles others are facing.

Well known philosopher and author of the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis, said it best — “humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less”.

It was a game changer for me when I realised that I did not have to maintain a low self esteem or suppress my outgoing personality to cultivate humility. All I needed to remember is that ‘it’s just not about me’… Oh the freedom!

When it comes to leadership, there’s very little that is more fulfilling than leading my family on this wild adventure called life. The truth is my kids, and especially my wife, are leading me more often than I’d like to admit. It just takes me a little while most days for me to realise it. And one of the greatest lessons my kids are teaching me lately, especially August, my youngest, is this — ‘we’ is much better than ‘me’.

You see, my kids don’t always ‘need’ my help or ‘need me’, they’re more often looking for the shared joy and experience of ‘we’ — that magical place where we lose ourselves in the moment together. That regularly looks like endlessly jumping on the trampoline, or that 12th kiss goodbye at school drop off gate, or the bedtime story that dangerously lulls us both to sleep, snuggled up in his bed together.

The good leaders that have left a lasting impact on my life weren’t just my mentors, or guides, or teachers… they were my friends, who found joy on my pursuits and knew that I needed their presence and encouragement more than their principles and expertise.

Good leadership always starts with humility.

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