(1) The MBM Guiding Principle of Humility states:
Practice humility and intellectual honesty. Constantly seek to understand and constructively deal with reality to create real value and achieve personal improvement.
(2) Garry Kasparov', in his new book, How Life Imitates Chess, writes:
It's not enough to be talented. It's not enough to work hard and to study late into the night. You must also become intimately aware of the methods you use to reach your decisions.
Self-awareness is essential to being able to combine your knowledge, experience, and talent to reach your peak performance. Few people ever perform this sort of analysis.
(3) At the foot of Mount Parnassus in Greece lie the ruins of the Oracle at Delphi where ancient Greeks went to worship Apollo. It is a place that they literally considered to be the center of the earth. Inscribed at the entrance to the core of the earth?
γνῶθι σεαυτόν
(Roughly translated into Brooklynese by a friend as, "a man's gotta know his limitations," but perhaps more conventionally understood by others as, "Know Thyself.")
(4) The works of Abraham Maslow and Karen Horney suggest that health - for an individual, a team, a company, a society - is in part defined as having values and beliefs that keep you closely connected to reality. The further from reality we stray, the more likely we are as individuals to be sick or injured, as businesses to be unprofitable, as societies to be poverty-ridden, etc.
What is Humility? Here are some thoughts...
It is not the "heads-down-aw-shucks" false modesty we so often mistake it for... and it's more than a simple willingness to be wrong. It springs from a reality-based self-awareness built from introspection, studying the gaps between results we tried for and the results we got, and analyzing the observations of others who are kind enough to give us honest feedback about our behaviors and performance.
It takes real effort to truly know yourself - your biases, your strengths and weaknesses, what you know and what you don't. It takes discipline to act accordingly based on that knowledge. It requires courage to be intellectually honest and to stay connected with reality -- facing the truth no matter how ugly or inconvenient.
However simple in concept, practicing humility is not easy. Don't let that stop you from trying. What matters is the earnest striving to continually improve. The worst archer on the practice range still aims for the bullseye - and becomes better for it.
Perhaps, but the worst golfer at the driving range doesn't necessarily aim for the pin. I would know, 'cause that's me!
Posted by: David McGinnis | 06 November 2007 at 08:03 AM
I agree. Humility is not easy. it's harder to know your self than it is to know others. When your wrong, it's the willingness to accept your wrong. we all make mistakes, but as long as you learn from mastakes, we will move forward.
Posted by: Mike Braithwaite | 15 November 2007 at 05:41 PM
It is interesting that the Guiding Principles so often contain the principle in the subtext, yet many of the words in the principles could use more definition. This post goes a long way in explaining what humility is.
Beyond self-awareness, though, is a component where the value of others is considered. Paul writes in Philippians 2:3-4, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others." As stated above, this is not the "aw, schucks" false modesty, but truly moving beyond even self-awareness to the principles of respect and customer focus.
Posted by: Pat Peterson | 04 December 2007 at 12:18 PM