Skills Developed From Humility

 

 

The Leadership Series

 

 

In the previous article – Leadership and Humility – we laid the groundwork for why you should be intentional with your humility where leadership is concerned. It has massive implications for more than most people readily understand – or will ever really achieve, to be honest. Humility, when properly understood and executed in your leadership endeavors, just like The Art of Intentionality, will build specific traits in the leader.

That’s what this article explores – skills a leader can expect to develop via humility. They are (in order) Courage, Gratitude, Loyalty, Accountability, and Integrity.

Let’s get started.

 

NOTE: This article is part 10.1 of a series on Leadership here at The Wealthy Ironworker

1. Foundational Leadership Truths
2. Leadership and The Three Areas of Your Life
3. Personal & Professional Development in a Leadership Context
4. Leadership, Management, and The Skilled Trades
5. The 4 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader
6. Leadership and The Task-Oriented Trades
7. Situational Leadership and the Skilled Trades
8. Leadership and The Art of Intentionality
   1. Skills Developed From The Art of Intentionality
9. Leadership and Emotional Intelligence
   1. Skills Developed From Emotional Intelligence
10. Leadership and Humility
    1. Skills Developed From Humility
11. Leadership and Listening to Understand and Not to Respond
    1. Skills Developed From Listening to Understand and Not to Respond
12. Skills Developed Overall in the Leadership Process
13. Mentored & Mentoring in Leadership
14. Influence Vs. Inspiration
15. Inspiration – Going Beyond Influence

 

***The above is subject to change as this series expands***

 

Humility and Courage

 

The first one we look at is courage.

Courage – as defined by Merriam-Webster – is “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.”

I suspect most people can readily see courage – even if they cannot accurately explain it – the definition is fantastic and will work for our purposes.

The first thing we need to understand is courage isn’t just what people believe you are doing on the job; it isn’t working at heights or working with electricity. I am not referring to doing something dangerous or terrifying – even though doing those occupations is, in a sense, courageous.

We are talking about the courage that a leader demonstrates. The courage to admit he is wrong. The courage to confess they aren’t that important. The courage to give others credit when it’s due – often in public. The courage to accept responsibility for everything, especially when troubles abound. The courage to stand in opposition to EVERYONE else at work.

If you’ve ever been a leader before, you understand what I mean. For those of you who haven’t, allow me to explain.

Most of us are prideful by default. Add in some difficulty, responsibility, and privileges, and watch pride increase. What’s more, pride feeds off of others. When everyone around you is prideful, the likelihood you’ll be prideful and arrogant increases, too. In short, it’s contagious.

Do you know what else is contagious?

Courage.

 

“Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened.”

Billy Graham

 

When you are intentional about your humility, you MUST have courage. Others see it, even if you think they don’t. What’s more, as you are growing your humility and the various skills that follow, you will find that courage helps you with every other one. Gratitude, Loyalty, Accountability, and Integrity – ALL need courage to get the most out of them. The better you display courage, the greater its effect – on your leadership and influence.

This is how your humility journey should start: with a lot of courage.

 

Humility and Gratitude

Two little words hold tremendous power

 

On the heels of courage, we find gratitude. It is defined as “the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.” How can you be grateful if you’re full of pride and arrogance? You can’t – which is why you must have courage first.

What’s more, this is not easy, nor is it desirable for most. Each of us believes we are more important than we actually are, so admitting to others you’re thankful for their contribution and efforts is the opposite of what’s natural. If you think people are not used to seeing courage, though, wait until you display gratitude – you’ll REALLY throw them a curve ball.

Through humility, when you display a level of gratitude – whether it’s saying thank you, praising others in public, admitting their contributions are really important, or simply acknowledging your own deficiencies and limitations to others, you WILL, over time, influence others around you. I guarantee it.

Gratitude isn’t some urethral skill, either. Point of fact, it could be explained as the absence of pride and an overinflated sense of self. No need to act, to pretend you have everything, know everything, or are the most important thing since sliced bread. Once you understand this, you’ll free yourself from the chains of pride.

As a leader, if you truly want to be the best you can be – influencing and inspiring others – you’ll want to be intentional about your humility and let it fuel your gratitude. When you make gratitude a focused skill to strengthen via humility, it doesn’t end there.

You’ll start to notice loyalty – a nice segue into our next skill.

 

Humility and Loyalty

 

Loyalty is a foreign term to many. Often, we believe people should be loyal to us, but we have trouble being loyal ourselves. If you take a second to reflect on it, you know it to be true. However, when we are intentional about humility, things begin to change. We begin to shed pride in favor of a courage most will never develop. Gratitude follows, and that authenticity will bring about loyalty – both from you and to you. Let’s explore them both.

 

From You

As a leader, when you internalize that it isn’t all about you and your gratitude level has increased, you begin to develop a level of loyalty for those who do what they are supposed to. They make your job easier. They begin to understand that you are being humble, are grateful for the work they do, and that authenticity from you even enables others to cultivate loyalty, too.

 

To You

Some find this a bit perplexing, but even when people disagree with you, they become loyal when you’re authentic. Allowing humility to fuel your leadership, you become “tough but fair,” you may even say predictable. Knowing that you, the leader, aren’t wishy-washy or unstable goes a LONG way in creating loyalty TO you from others – and that loyalty can be priceless. If you haven’t experienced loyalty like it before, endeavor to develop your own first. It’s absolutely worth it.

 

Other Forms of Loyalty

As you lean into your leadership development, you’ll begin to see loyalty in many other areas: work, your company, industry, and even from others you never thought of. Loyalty towards work is perhaps the most known, but loyalty does not mean you are a workaholic. You are more intentional about your work, your growth, leadership, and influence. As such, you take more mental notes, think ahead, plan, and – as a result, develop loyalty towards getting the job done to the best of your ability.

As a result, the company you work for and the industry as a whole benefit. To be sure, there are some second-rate employers out there, and they will seek to exploit this. For the ones who are top-tier, however, they appreciate the effort and look to take care of their intentional people.

Perhaps even more interesting is the loyalty from people you didn’t really consider. They could be from other companies or industries. When others request you, want you to work on their jobs, seek to recruit you to their team, and are loyal to you in such ways, it’s easy to see what’s taking place.

Ever worked for a leader who stood up for others? Who wouldn’t allow someone to be taken advantage of, maligned, or who stood in between you and others – standing in the crosshairs, as it were?

If you have, reflect on it and seek to be one, yourself.

Good leaders make things memorable. Great ones make them unforgettable.

 

Humility and Accountability

“The buck stops here” – President Truman

 

Accountability – something many in the trades lack, unfortunately. Let’s take a look at how it’s defined.

Merriam-Webster says it is “the quality or state of being accountable. Especially : an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions.” 

Most leaders are quite the opposite: “It wasn’t my fault,” you hear them say. Ever been thrown under the bus when something goes wrong? It’s likely you have. Well, that describes the average, run-of-the-mill “leader” that many of us are accustomed to.

But not the intentional leader developing their humility. Stemming from their increased loyalty – both from and to them – accountability flourishes.

Why?

Because you cannot be authentic without it. If you seek to be loyal, you will not shake off or avoid being accountable; indeed, you are courageous, remember?

What’s more, since others around you know you to be loyal (tough but also fair), you will see an increased level of accountability from others, too. It is contagious, too – and that’s a good thing.

Accountability, properly understood, is building in us the last skill via humility: Integrity.

 

Humility and Integrity

 

Integrity is “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness,” according to Oxford Languages. But let’s be honest for a second: we know integrity when we see it. When someone does the right thing even when everyone else is not, when someone goes against the grain, when someone knows what’s right – and does it even at a cost to themselves – THAT is integrity.

Integrity is the last on this list because it is the most difficult to obtain and develop – but it’s also the most rewarding. If your integrity is subpar, you’ll be a better leader than many – especially those who’ve come and gone before. But why read The Leadership Series in the first place if you only aspire to be a “good” leader? This series is for those who seek to be the best they can be, encompassing one of the most difficult skills you could develop: integrity.

Moreover, integrity isn’t as contagious as some of the other skills leaders develop and use. There are a few reasons for this, but this skill, like being authentic, will cost the leader SOMETHING – while sometimes, it could cost a leader EVERYTHING – and it’s a price many will not pay.

That shouldn’t be a deterrent for the aspiring leader, though; this series is about YOUR development – and if others prosper from it? Good. When others follow in your footsteps? Even better. But that isn’t a guarantee, though. You can only work to develop these skills in your own leadership development.

And out of the skills we’ve discussed in this article, integrity is the ultimate one leaders will develop when embracing humility.

 

Humility: From Courage to Integrity

 

Having examined each of the above traits individually, let’s now look at a more cohesive example of how they are all intertwined and how one helps build the other.

 

You want to be a leader. More than that – you want to be a great leader. You know what poor leadership looks like; after all, you’ve seen plenty of examples of it until now. Determining to be different, you decide to study leadership, discover The Leadership Series at The Wealthy Ironworker, and what you find is a model that makes sense.

You intuitively understand that the road to becoming a great leader begins with being intentional about it. It’s always on your mind: in your interactions, decisions you make, and jobs you’re a part of.

Following the first indispensable quality – intentionality – emotional intelligence was next. You studied it and discovered that when you did, you took leadership to the next level.

Humility – the third indispensable quality in this model, is even harder to bring out. It isn’t natural; it’s counterintuitive to everything most people are. Fortunately for you, working on your humility has given you courage, the first major skill you’ll develop. Courage to be different. Courage to make unpopular choices. Courage to do what others won’t. Even courage to go against the grain. Courage is absolutely necessary to counteract the pride so prevalent in everyone – including you.

That courage leads to gratitude. You know that when you deal with your pride, you see yourself as less important and others more valuable; it isn’t all about you. You begin to appreciate and value the contribution of others. You don’t have to take credit for everything, act like you know it all, or talk negatively about others. As a result, “thank you” or ” I appreciate that” flows more freely. Displaying gratitude strengthens your courage – and it also helps you cultivate loyalty.

You’re pleased to discover loyalty is a byproduct of your intentional gratitude. Your own loyalty – to those around you and those who work for you begins to show. They make your job easier, after all. You stick up for them. You advocate for them. What’s more, the people you work around, while they do not agree with you in everything, are loyal to you because they know you’re gratitude is genuine. They understand that you’re “tough but fair,” and that gains their respect. And interesting to note is how many other people – other companies, industries, competition, etc. – extend some level of loyalty to you, too. Before you know it, people request you and the guys working with you on their jobs – and your own company appreciates that, also. Loyalty builds in every aspect you find yourself in – and that’s a good thing.

Increased loyalty turns into developing your accountability. How could it not? Because you are loyal to those you are working around/with/for, you are accountable to them – but also hold them accountable, too. In the past, too many people did not accept responsibility, instead seeking to shift blame to those around them. But not you. If you make a mistake, you own it, and you don’t seek to shift blame to others. Nor do you allow others to do it. It’s best to acknowledge your failures and learn from them. Nothing teaches like failure – and how can you learn if you always flee from it?

You already know the answer: you can’t.

Insisting on accountability leads to the holy grail of humility: Integrity.

 

If you have made it this far in your leadership journey, congratulations are in order – and you know it, too. Most leaders never begin this process in the first place. To go from being intentional to developing emotional intelligence was an increase in effort. Humility, however, was exponentially more difficult. Pride is your enemy – and it is everywhere. It simply isn’t natural to possess humility or display it.

Despite the difficulties, setbacks, and outright struggle, the humility you began to intentionally grow has helped to increase your integrity. People begin to see someone who does what he says. You are who you say you are. There are no hidden agendas and no smoke and mirrors: what you see is what you get. Moreover, integrity is where we see a decided break from what is contagious and what isn’t. Never mind leaders; most people will not seek to develop integrity. They always look out for number one – and the ends often justify the means.

Not so with you. You seek to do the right thing (whether it is for you, others, etc.), whether it feels good or not. It doesn’t matter whether holding yourself accountable is comfortable – what matters is whether it’s right. You look to elevate others and take a humble approach to your own position. You know how important everyone else is in the operation and aim to ensure others understand that, too. What’s more, it doesn’t matter whether you are popular; indeed, there will be decisions you’ll make that will be unpopular – but that’s what integrity is.

And you stand out because so many others flee from integrity. You notice it, and other people do, too.

 

 

At this point, you’re pleased with the progress you’ve made following this model, and you’ve become more familiar with how your own humility has grown. You experiment with your approach, making tweaks and adjustments to increase your influence and ability. You would have never felt like you could do this before, but now that you have a foundation – from intentionality to emotional intelligence and now humility? You have that confidence, and you are pleased with the progress you’ve made.

Can you see woven through that quick little narrative how you go from courage to integrity – all the skills coming from your intentional effort to develop humility further?

Humility, pursued in such a way, brings further growth to the leader, confidence to those following, and smoother tasks overall. In time, developing a reputation as someone who is courageous, grateful for others, loyal, accountable, and most importantly – someone who possesses integrity – is worth all of the effort you put in.

And all these skills were developed and grown through your pursuit of humility.

Let’s do the hard work, shall we?

 

 

NOTE: This article is part 7.1 of a series on Leadership here at The Wealthy Ironworker

1. Foundational Leadership Truths
2. Leadership and The Three Areas of Your Life
3. Personal & Professional Development in a Leadership Context
4. Leadership, Management, and The Skilled Trades
5. The 4 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader
6. Leadership and The Task-Oriented Trades
7. Situational Leadership and the Skilled Trades
8. Leadership and The Art of Intentionality
   1. Skills Developed From The Art of Intentionality
9. Leadership and Emotional Intelligence
   1. Skills Developed From Emotional Intelligence
10. Leadership and Humility
    1. Skills Developed From Humility
11. Leadership and Listening to Understand and Not to Respond
    1. Skills Developed From Listening to Understand and Not to Respond
12. Skills Developed Overall in the Leadership Process
13. Mentored & Mentoring in Leadership
14. Influence Vs. Inspiration
15. Inspiration – Going Beyond Influence

 

***The above is subject to change as this series expands***