Humble Leaders by Dada J P Vaswani - Humility Is Very
Necessary For Leaders
A young MBA student told me that her ‘ultimate’ experience at her Institute was when a Fortune 500 CEO
visited the campus and interacted with the students. “Just imagine,” she
exclaimed, “His annual salary exceeds the annual budget of a developing country!
That is how great he is!”
This is the way we measure human worth and wealth! Money has come
to dominate our lives. A man is known by the wealth he owns. We respect people
with big bank balances and who drive big cars; we are awed by their designations
and power. There was a time when a man was judged for his character, his
values and his knowledge. Today, these things do not seem to matter. Money has
come to rule our lives. The truth is that money has become our Master, instead of us becoming
masters of the money we have earned! Do remember that money is a good servant
but a bad master.
Experts tell us that the word humility is derived from the Latin
‘humilitas’ which means ‘grounded’ or, from the root of this word, humus, that
is, the earth, which is beneath us.
However, we proclaim that “This world is for fighters and pushers. If you have a
low profile they will walk all over you. If you want to get anywhere, cultivate
aggression. Otherwise you will be regarded as a loser.” Thus we prefer to pay
lip service to humility, but will not recommend it for practise in deeds of
daily living!
“This is a competitive world, Dada,” a brother said to me.
“Humility is a virtue of past ages. It is not something which I would recommend
to an entrepreneur or a business leader.”
You will be surprised to know that humility is now being studied
as a virtue necessary for the best leaders, in management circles. It is not
perceived as lack of self-esteem or lack of confidence, but an attitude which
allows for others’ greatness, and thus helps the manager create the right
perspective which enables him – not just to manage, direct and order people –
but to help them discover their best potential, by helping them to transform
themselves.
The trouble is that we have a very wrong notion of humility; we
associate it with timidity, self-effacement and lowliness in its worst sense!
This is not true! For if you recall the Beatitudes, they begin with the
assertion: “Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit this earth.” Jesus
anticipates the modern management experts I told you about, when he points out
that humility is the hallmark of the most successful people whom he has singled
out to “inherit this earth”.
When Jesus’s disciples got into an argument over who was holy and
who would get places in heaven, Jesus said to them: ‘Whosoever desires to become
great among you shall be your servant. And whosoever of you desires to be first,
shall be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served,
but to serve, and to sacrifice His life as a ransom for many.’
Let us ask ourselves: How many of us will be prepared to accept
such a role? How many of us will do our best, in our allotted sphere of life,
without worrying about ‘greatness’, ‘fame’, and ‘popularity’? Let’s bring
humility back to the forefront; let us benefit from this noble
virtue.
