Humility in Leadership Fosters Collaboration and Teamwork

Most organisations, whether businesses, schools or nonprofits, want to hire the most talented people to be on their teams. And we all know that, sometimes, with big talent comes big ego. While a good sense of self-confidence and self-esteem can be a healthy thing, too much ego can get in the way of collaboration, cooperation, the development of new leaders and professional growth as well. It’s important for organisations and individuals within that organisation to maintain humility even as they work to be the best at what they do.

From a leadership perspective, humility is often what tempers charisma. Without humility charismatic leaders might start to believe they are responsible for all of their team’s successes. Even solo-entrepreneurs cannot do everything on their own, and leaders or principals within organisations must set aside their egos if they hope to foster an environment where collaboration, cooperation and teamwork can thrive.

The same goes for team members who become popular and in demand with their coworkers for their excellent work. Sometimes it takes humility to admit that you don’t have time to take on another task, duty or project and to recommend someone else for the job. This is one way in which popular contributors can avoid collaboration overload and give other team members an opportunity to shine.

Like most things, humility must start with leadership. Here are three ways for leaders at any level of the organisation to practice humility and foster teamwork:

Listen and ask questions. The temptation for many leaders is to have all the answers and dominate sessions. This kind of leadership can suck the air out of the room and make it hard for anyone else to offer up their ideas. The first step is to become aware if your tendency is to dominate, and then ask questions to prompt others to speak up. You might be surprised to find that there are lots of ideas out there and while yours might be good, your way is not the only way to get things done.
Develop others. In keeping with the first step, it takes humility to delegate and distribute responsibilities and nurture the growth of new leaders in your organisation. This means resisting the temptation to do it all, and trusting in the talent of your team to execute the greater vision. It also means getting to know individual strengths and providing opportunities for your staff to take on responsibilities that highlight those strengths.
Learn from mistakes. No one is perfect and it takes humility to learn from mistakes. Leaders have to learn from their own mistakes, but also have the foresight to learn from the mistakes of others too. Acknowledging what did and didn’t work and using those lessons as a teachable moment within the organisation can be inspiring for the rest of the team. In this way, humility becomes a secret weapon for individual growth as well and an invaluable cornerstone for a culture of learning and consistent improvement.

The bottom line is that teamwork requires humility and the understanding that the success of your organisation is not about you or any one individual. And when leaders model humility, they help to cultivate humility within the organisation and foster an environment where everyone can thrive.