Mirror or a Window? A Lesson on Humble Leadership
Have you heard of Elvis? Not the singer, but the 2022 movie about the singer. It was the second highest-grossing musical biopic of all time. Our Australian film producer Baz Luhrmann demonstrated peak humble leadership when accepting his ACTAA award for Best Film.
He didn’t make it about him. As many leaders would turn the blame when faced with a scandal, Luhrmann turned praise to the other nominees, producers and younger producers when faced with a win.
While giving a brief thank you to “my mom, my agent, and my…” seems to be the norm when these awards are accepted, Luhmann didn’t seem to be acting out of mandatory phoney humility. He not only praised numerous collaborators by name but spoke in depth about the importance of their role, and how their dreams and overall character inspired him. Lurhmann went a step further, and instead of rambling on, placed his valued team into the spotlight and glory by having them talk about the wonderful work they did.
Luhmann’s victory speech reminded me of Jim Collins’ mirror and the window analogy in his book “Good to Great”.
The leaders who sit in the most powerful seats in our organisation practice the “window and the mirror.” They point out the window to people and factors other than themselves to give credit for success. When confronted with failures, they look in the mirror and say: "I am responsible."
To me, Baz did precisely that. And ultimately, that kind of leadership serves the leader and the team.
Here’s how we suggest you turbocharge your leadership humility:
In a previous blog, we identified vulnerability as a source of strength and trust. We suggest adding a “what’s up” agenda item to your daily and weekly meetings as a perfect opportunity to display humanity.
Catch people being competent red-handed and tell them how much they are “crushing it.”
The best teacher is also a good student. By sharing your own work lessons with the team, you encourage colleagues to model this behaviour, and you will be seen as more human, fallible and approachable. Here’s a Lithuanian proverb: “A person learns all their life and still dies stupid.”
Search for opportunities to openly explore differing perspectives and opinions to those you currently hold. It’s possible to disagree with someone while understanding them completely.
Ask for help with a difficult assignment. It might surprise you how much a person can appreciate being helpful.
To really crank up the ultimate multiplier effect of humble leadership in your business, we suggest you ask the team to do some personal reflection on how often they are demonstrating humble leadership. Can they name examples? You could follow up by asking them about the one commitment they might undertake in the next 90 days to elevate humility.
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