Keeping humble... and real

Humility is a virtue that helps us keep everything – even business matters – in perspective.

Lent is a season where we are called to take up with more spiritual acts such as turning away from sin, doing penance, practicing self-denial, and giving of ourselves. We examine ourselves interiorly, focus more on others, and strive for greater virtue. As a result – with God’s assistance – we should enjoy better and more productive relationships across all sectors of our lives.

One particular virtue, humility, precedes and facilitates this process.

St. John Chrysostom called humility “the mother of all virtues.” It takes the virtue of humility to be honest enough with ourselves to see where we are weak in other virtues. If we don’t recognize our vices and shortcomings, we won’t know which virtues we need to work on most.

In business terms, one might say humility enables us to do a SWOT Analysis on ourselves as we identify our personal strengths and weaknesses, our opportunities to improve, and the threats to our wellbeing.

Yet often we find humility as difficult to achieve as it is to define.

Writing in Harvard Business Review a few years back, leadership experts John Dame and Jeffrey Gedmin lamented how the attribute of humility appears to be neglected in corporate leadership development programs. And when humility is considered, it usually is misunderstood.

“Humility is not hospitality, courtesy, or a kind and friendly demeanor,” they wrote. “Humility has nothing to do with being meek, weak, or indecisive. Perhaps more surprising, it does not entail shunning publicity. Organizations need people who get marketing, including self-marketing, to flourish and prosper.”

That’s true of the word as used in the interior life as well as in the corporate world. Humility often is associated with being profoundly submissive, like a humble maid; or with seeming strikingly poor and simple, as a humble beggar or humble home. It also is associated with humiliation or comeuppance, as when a team in playoff contention suffers a humiliating defeat. None of these reflects the proper context.

Reality check

Instead, humility as a virtue is not something imposed upon us, but something we choose and cultivate within ourselves. It begins with honest self-assessment.

Many of the saints — St. Teresa of Avila, St. Vincent de Paul, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux among them — related humility with truth. That’s because true humility results from an awareness and acceptance of who we really are. Saint Ignatius, in his Spiritual Exercises, likewise emphasized the need for self-awareness and self-acceptance of both our gifts and our limitations, even our sinfulness.

In his 1996 book The Heart of Virtue, philosopher Donald DeMarco described the virtue of humility in such terms. “The humble person makes a realistic assessment of who he is and puts that unillusioned judgment into practice,” he wrote. “He does not judge himself to be smaller or larger than he really is. In so doing he avoids despair as well as pride.”

St. Teresa of Calcutta put it another way: “Self-knowledge puts us on our knees, and it is very necessary for love. For knowledge of God produces love, and knowledge of self produces humility.”

The person with true humility, then, has a healthy self-image. He is neither inflated with pride nor excessively down on himself. He is modest in receiving praise and gracious in accepting constructive criticism. He understands that he possesses dignity and value as a beloved child of God, and he has confidence that he can overcome his weaknesses and failures with God’s grace.

Authentic humility is a key character trait for great leaders, including business leaders.

In his 2001 bestselling management book Good to Great, author Jim C. Collins describes five levels of leadership, with Level 5 as the highest. “Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company,” he writes. “It’s not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious – but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.” Their humility is coupled with a strong will for good; they take blame, share praise, and are proactive in developing those who report to them, even to the point of grooming successors to be even better leaders than they are themselves. Other writers refer to this type of leader as a “servant-leader,” a phrase coined in the 1970s by management expert Robert Greenleaf.

In Mere Christianity, author C.S. Lewis expressed this balance simply: “True humility isn’t thinking less of yourself; but it is thinking of yourself less.”

It ain’t (just) about you

An important aspect of authentic humility is in not giving ourselves too much credit for our strengths and achievements. St. John Chrysostom said that Christ teaches us to be humble “by making us see that our virtue does not depend on our work alone but on grace from on high.”

That’s why a key trait of the humble person is gratitude. If we are humble enough to realize that every good thing we receive is ultimately a gift from God, then naturally we ought to turn to him in thanksgiving. That goes for everyone from servants to servant-leaders.

“Every day, I thank God for three things: His mercy for the past, His love for the present, and His providence for the future,” said Dan McClory, a managing director with the international investment banking firm Boustead Securities, in a recent interview with Catholic Business Journal. “Understanding and knowing and believing that God is active in my life is reflected in my relationship with my family, my professional relationships, and increasingly in charitable and philanthropic causes I’ve become involved in.”

Brian Engelland, author of the 2017 book Force for Good: The Catholic Guide to Business Integrity, agreed on the need of leaders to humbly recognize God’s role in their success and maintain a strong relationship with Him.

“A lack of spiritual grounding can blind our understanding of right and wrong, close our ears to the advice of others, and make us more sensitive to time pressures. This can alter how we evaluate what is going on around us and twist our analysis in the wrong direction,” said Engelland, associate dean for academics at the Catholic University of America’s Busch School of Business.

“Each of us needs to cultivate a strong relationship with God through prayer, spiritual reading, and frequent reception of the sacraments,” he continued. “We need divine inspiration and divine strength to be true to the values we hold dear. Without such a relationship, we don’t stand a chance.”

Pandemic and providence

For some business leaders, the challenges of the COVID-19 outbreak have inspired an increased reliance on God.

Laura Pugliano, marketing and content strategist for the digital solutions provider Candoris and co-founder of Ciccio’s Olives, wrote recently about having endured “many waves of emotion and heartache” as she adjusted to the challenges of working remotely during the pandemic.

“These past few months have given us an opportunity to cultivate our hearts and remember who we are and what we need, because they’ve wreaked havoc in our mind and in our world,” she wrote on the Catholic Women in Business website. “We’ve been forced to stillness — exactly where God is.”

Another CWB contributor, Sarah Coffey, plunged full time into her marketing and communications business, Coffey Copy+Content, after the pandemic forced the elimination of her position with the Archdiocese of St. Louis last spring. Her transition was smoothed by her humble reliance upon faith.

“God gives us stuff in our lives to break down our pride and lies we tell about ourselves,” which helps us come closer to Him, Coffey said. It’s a matter of surrender and submission to God. When facing a challenge, she asks herself, “How can I give it up to Him?”

GERALD KORSON, editorial consultant for Legatus magazine, is based in Indiana.