Note to Reader: before reading this piece, you should check out the short essay “The Core of a Leader”
Humility is one of the more ill-defined concepts in culture at large, particularly for those of us who approach life from a religious background or with a view toward redemptive leadership. Too much cultural baggage has been projected on the word, but humility is indeed the core of a healthy leader, as long as humility is defined correctly.
Humility has nothing to do with being small, subservient, or unseen. Here is a solid definition of the realities of humility:
Humility is the quiet confidence to be fully your self, without proving anything to anyone.
Humility is a full embrace of the realities of who you are as the person God made you to be, which requires a shift in natural perspective. The world is perpetually attempting to shift your view of self to conform to its system. Even worse, your false self is perpetually leaning toward self-deception, saying what is not true and getting you to live small.
True humility is extremely confident, but quietly so. A humble leader knows that comparison and conceit will lead only to competition and proving, growing insecurity in the heart of a leader. True humility knows “this is who I am, and this is who I am not” without flaunting itself as such. Humble leaders are seen and felt by those they lead. The leader who needs to be continually reminding everyone (actively or passively) who they are, what they offer, and how they work, is the leader who does not lead from a healthily humble place.
Embracing and growing in humility requires an ever-deepening journey into self-knowledge before and with God. When Jesus says that we are to “love our neighbor”, He tells us how to do it: “as you love yourself.” Loving yourself has nothing to do with warm feelings and magnanimously inspiring words of positivity and self-belief. To love oneself is to see and live as your true self, a self that is named and defined by God. Humble people see themselves the way that God sees and names them, and they stand quietly confident in that position knowing they do not need to prove anything because God is their Provider and Protection.
Following a humble leader is life-giving to those being led. Leaders who are not truly humble project their self-deceptions and need for value on to those they lead. This is heavy and suffocating to their team members, and a leader who is not truly humble often has no idea their team is experiencing the ramifications of their self-deceptions and insecurity.
Humility is the core of healthy leadership. Humble leaders produce healthy organizational growth and add value to their enterprise because they themselves are always growing and experiencing their own value from God.
