Accidentally Aligned: Does Humility Display Weakness?

We are living in a time where many leaders view humility and transparency as weaknesses.

The data shows that this is not the case, but we are living in a time where leaders who have demonstrated strength and been promoted for arrogant behavior are finding it necessary to re-brand themselves to lead a new generations of workers.

The following data gives us some insight into this problem:

According to research from Zenger Folkman, a significant portion of leaders historically viewed humility as a weakness, with studies showing that only around 14% of leaders were categorized as "humble" while 20% were considered "arrogant"; however, when comparing effectiveness, humble leaders were rated significantly higher, with the majority of their overall effectiveness falling in the 66th percentile compared to arrogant leaders at the 34th percentile, indicating that a perception of humility is not aligned with weakness in terms of leadership success. Humility is directly tied to authenticity, which is what people seek from their leadership.

It seems that many understand why it is important to be an authentic leader, but at the same time, they realize that there are many other leaders in our organizations who are not authentic, that if we share something transparent, and with humility, others may weaponize it against us. The more that I think about this the more I realize how deep true leadership transformation runs.

The things that should be easy for us have become so manipulated over time that they are difficult to correct. Just the simple idea of being humble and transparent have become dangerous. My challenge today is that we would be the kind of leaders that our teams need us to be, regardless of the risks. Just as we can define, and fear, the risks, we can also live to see the rewards. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Let’s make tomorrow better than today.