Early in my career – young and naive, but determined – I found myself in disagreement on a matter of policy and principle with my boss and appealed to the board chair, the ultimate authority. He listened and then asked me to sit in the lobby outside his office while he made a call. About 15 minutes later he came out, shook my hand, thanked me for coming, and said, “Always be humble in victory.”
Individually, humility can be hard to find particularly as one rises the ladder in an organization. “Leader humility, creating a gracious space for others' dignity, is a game changer,” Marilyn Gist, a consultant and professor emerita at Seattle University, writes in. “It is not the only thing leaders need to do, but it is the critical foundation for working well with others.
Sometimes our principles can lead us to leave humility behind, as we fight for a point of view we know to be superior, like in that early career situation I mentioned. To others, we may seem immodest or egotistical but to our mind it’s not about ourselves – it’s about the principle. The reality is too often it may well be ego wrapped in principle. Yes, be humble in victory but maybe also be willing to let the matter go so it doesn’t lead to battle.
Organizations are comprised of individuals like us. When they boast it’s often we who are cheerleading the effort, or at least buying in. We may subscribe to humility individually but can be oblivious to that value with respect to the organizations we care about. Yes, sometimes we run those organizations down but more often we convince ourselves we are part of the greatest organization of its kind – the greatest youth group, or best university, or top charity, or best coffee shop.