There's a certain kind of leader who prides themselves on being the smartest person in the room. You’ve probably met one. They have an answer before the question is finished, they add their two cents to every comment, and their eyes glaze over when listening to others. Unfortunately, for these folk, humility in leadership isn’t in their wheelhouse.

Don’t get us wrong, the problem isn't that these leaders are not smart, because most of them are. The problem is that they've confused their own ability with their team's, which essentially puts a ceiling on everyone around them. And that’s not particularly inspiring.

This article is all about shifting away from this harmful mindset, how leadership humility can help you do more for yourself and your team, and why the best leaders stopped trying to have all the answers a long time ago.

Humility In Leadership Starts with One Rule

At My Daily Leadership, we talk a lot about one foundational leadership rule.

It’s not about you.

By this, we mean real leadership isn’t about your reputation, your need to be right, or your desire to be the most impressive person ever born. It’s about measuring performance based on team growth rather than how clever you are. Or how clever you think you are.

This is difficult to achieve without humility in leadership. It’s also very limiting to the rest of the people within your organization.

How The Smartest Person in the Room Limits Everyone Else

When a leader positions themselves as the resident expert on everything, teams learn to wait rather than act. Their desire to problem-solve goes out of the window, because why would anyone bother if the answer always comes from the top? This causes a bottleneck in a leadership development framework that’s almost always the leader, even if they’re the last person to see it.

So, instead of focusing on your own capacity, focus on that of those around you. Because the most effective leaders we work with understand that their job isn't to have the best ideas. It's to build a culture where the best ideas can surface, wherever and whoever they come from.

Humility in Leadership Quotes We Love

Who doesn’t love a good quote? Let’s jump in with a few of the very best humility in leadership quotes from some famous names.

"To be aware of a single shortcoming within oneself is more useful than to be aware of a thousand in somebody else." - The Dalai Lama.

You can’t have a quote list without the Dalai Lama. It’s just not possible. And this one will help you achieve a state of leadership humility Zen before you know it.

"You don't lead by hitting people over the head. That's assault, not leadership." - Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Another big name and a big quote, which refers to the fact that if you lead with an iron fist, you get compliance and fear, not commitment or ideas.

"A good leader can inspire confidence in the leader. A great leader can inspire confidence in others." - Eleanor Roosevelt.

In our experience, the smartest person in the room tends to be very good at the first part of this quote. But leadership humility is what gets you to the second, which, if you ask us, is the most important.

Techniques and Strategies to Develop Humility in Leadership

Humility in leadership is something that can be developed deliberately, so here are four techniques and strategies to get you started:

1. Switch from telling to asking

"What do you think?" is a deceivingly powerful question and a secret weapon for leaders. Asking it often signals trust and builds capability, and it’s likely to bring something up that you hadn't considered.

2. Swap ego for self-awareness

The leader who responds to a team member's challenge by defending their position is making the ego choice. The leader who pauses and asks, "What am I missing here?" is making the self-awareness choice. 

Can you guess which one leads to growth?

3. Think on paper

Leadership journaling is all about slowing down to recognize the assumptions you're running on and the patterns you repeat. Start with your failures rather than your goals if you’re looking for inspiration, because that's where the genuine learning tends to be unearthed.

And don’t just reel off your best bits in your leadership journal. It’s an honesty tool, not a highlight reel.

4. Develop the right habits

Ask yourself how your attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs have recently shaped the outcomes around you. It might be uncomfortable, but real wisdom comes from these kinds of evaluated experiences.

Humility in Leadership is a Long Game

Like most of the juicy stuff within leadership development, leadership humility doesn’t come from a grand gesture. It comes from the daily choice to stay curious, to treat your team as people worth listening to, and to measure yourself honestly.

Our leadership report card is an excellent tool here, but remember that the art of being humble is to want accurate scores, not flattering ones. Even better, actively hunt down those bad scores so you can try to improve, instead of kicking back with your feet up because you’re top of the class.

Because the leaders who build organizations that last tend not to be the most impressive in the room. They're the most self-aware. And they’re the most willing to ask what they might be getting wrong, and what others around them have to offer.

Find out more

If the idea of humility in leadership has given you something to think about, our My Daily Leadership Assessments can help you take that next step. They’ll give you an honest picture of how your leadership is experienced by others, which is an act of humility that can have incredible knock-on effects

Our Stop Managing, Start Leading podcast also digs into many of these themes in detail, among many others.