What role does humility play in today’s leadership and how does this trait benefit leaders in facing the challenges present in today’s global market? That’s one of the questions I discuss with CEO Dave Balter in the latest episode of “Leadership Biz Cafe”.
Dave is the CEO and founder of the word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing company, BzzAgent, which has been featured on CBS News, the BBC, and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His company has also been the focus of two case studies done by Harvard Business School.
Recently, Dave started a new web project titled “100 Days of Humility” in the hopes of drawing more attention to the need for greater humility in today’s leadership. The goal of the project is to encourage people to share their thoughts on humility in leadership, with the community voting for the story or idea which best illustrates the important role humility plays in leading others.
Over the course of our conversation about the importance of humility in leadership, Dave and I discuss:
- The personal experience that lead Dave to recognize why leaders need to embrace humility.
- The tangible benefits or improvements leaders can create by bringing a greater sense of humility to their leadership.
- How the level and type of interactions leaders have with their employees affects their ability to be humble.
- The relationship between how much you trust those you lead and the level of humility you exhibit through your leadership.
- What a sense of humility reveals about your character and ability to lead others.
- How humility can keep leaders grounded in their vision in the face of organizational success.
- Four measures leaders can employ to bring a greater sense of humility to their leadership.
I’d like to thank Dave for reaching out and wanting to share his own experiences as a leader coming to terms with the role humility plays in leadership. The experiences and insights he shares helps to shed some light on how humility is not just a nice trait to have, but a critical component to ensuring the success of your team’s efforts to reach your organization’s goals.
As I mentioned at the end of the show, I’d love to hear what you think about this episode, as well as what other topics you’d be interested in hearing more about in upcoming episodes of my show. You can share your thoughts/ideas by leaving a comment below or by filling out the contact form on my website.
I’d appreciate it if you could help support future episodes of this leadership podcast by taking a moment to rate my show on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your preferred streaming platform.
Noteworthy links:
- Dave Balter’s Inc. Magazine article on humility in leadership – “The Humility Imperative: CEOs, Keep Your Arrogance in Check”.
Great podcast. Outstanding information shared here. Thank you!
Thanks Fred; glad you enjoyed it.
Very nice interview .. Impressive ..
Thanks Mark; appreciate it.
A lot of people could learn from that guy. CEO's tend to be pretty arrogant these days, success seems to make them jerks for whatever reason. Thanks for the feature, it was a great interview.
Thanks; it is indeed rare to have a CEO come forward and admit their arrogance and ego got in the way of their fulfilling their responsibities to their employees and their organization.
That's why I was delighted that Dave wanted to share his story, and the lessons he learned, with my readers because it is a powerful and important message we can all benefit from and take heed of.