The Humble Leader

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that a lot of people like to post about themselves on social media.  Posts like, 'I'm so humbled to be shortlisted to be the best business leader of all time..' appear to pop up quite frequently.  Now, I need to say that I'm 'all on' for encouragement and congratulations, but goodness me the need for attention does seem to be getting out of control.  I think it was Winston Churchill who said, 'If you have to tell someone you're the leader, you probably aren't.'

Where did good old fashioned humility go to?

John Ortberg in his book, 'All The Places To Go, talks about the need to be careful of the epidemic that ‘The Likes” of social media are causing.

It’s called FOMO (Fear of missing out)

If we're not careful we start comparing our lives with those of other people. We begin to think that other people are doing more interesting things than us.  We find ourselves reading about all the wonderful experiences people are having and we get worried that our lives are becoming dull, boring and insignificant by comparison.

Using social media as a counter to this, people start posting pictures and experiences that make their lives sound more glamorous than they actually are. The problem with this is now other people fear that they are missing out somehow as well - and on and on it goes. FOMO is fuelled by comparison.

Here's the thing though, If we compete with ourselves and not others, then it doesn't matter who is behind or ahead of us.  Our challenge is to do the best we can with what we've got, not with what others have.

When we get to the place where we can honestly say, 'I am comfortable with others because I am comfortable with myself,' then humility has an opportunity to play a significant part in our lives wherever we go, whatever we do, and whoever we lead for that matter.