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Are You Humble Enough to Be a Lean CEO?

If you've answered the question above with, "Absolutely yes, I am a very humble leader," you probably are not.

But don't get me wrong: Humility should not be a substitute for confidence. In fact, perhaps the two greatest assets a lean leader, change agent, innovation pioneer, or a continuous improvement champion can have are to be both confident and humble, or quietly confident. So, while the assertion of "Absolutely yes, I am a very humble leader" displays an immense amount of confidence, a quietly humble person would have more likely answered, "I believe I am, but it is best that you ask those who work for me, since they are on the receiving end of my direction." This same person would have been confident in his own humility but open and interested in the responses from those who work for him, be willing to accept the criticism, and even possibly change. He also would have known that the most accurate and truthful answers would not come from him but from those who work with him.

But why is humility important to lead a successful lean effort? A true lean (or continuous improvement) transformation requires change to the very foundation, structure, culture, business practices, organization, metrics, and perhaps even the principles upon which the organization is based. If the organization is to truly transform—and an organization is oftentimes a reflection of the leaders who run it—then the leaders need to be open to transforming the way they manage and lead. To be open to change, then, a CEO must be humble, realize that she doesn't know it all, and hire the right people, and allow them to drive the bus. A CEO needs to be open-minded to different ways of operating the business, regardless of past success, and open to criticism. A CEO needs to learn from others because others know so much, and she can be guided by them as subject matter experts.

"Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble... when you're perfect in every way."
—Mac Davis

A CEO needs to realize that he is not "perfect in every way," nor should he be. "CEO" does not stand for chief ego officer. A true leader sets the example for others to follow. If a CEO is pushing change through a lean transformation and expects others to change, that same CEO must show that he is willing to change as well. Continuous improvement is not just about improving organizations; it is about improving people, and it all starts with you improving yourself. As Art Byrne, former CEO of Wiremold, wrote in The Lean Turnaround (McGraw-Hill, 2012), "If the CEO won't change his ways and become totally engaged (become the company's lean zealot), then there is little, if any, chance of turning any company around using the lean principles."

In Good to Great (HarperBusiness, 2011), Jim Collins discusses leadership qualities that distinguish "Level 5 CEOs" (the highest level for leadership effectiveness) of the Good to Great companies to CEOs of companies who never made it to "great" status. One of the attributes of Level 5 CEOs is, as you've probably guessed, humility. Of the 11 companies that met the tough criteria of being a good company for years and then, almost overnight, transformed itself to a "great" company for a sustained period of time, all had Level 5 leaders who were humble and hardly known in the business world, much less the consumer world. Most of us would never have even heard of them. They were the anti-Lee Iacocca's of the business world, happy at running a successful business without having to proclaim that fact to the rest of the world.

Can humility be taught?

I believe everything can be taught, if the learner is open to learning and has the desire to do so. A humbling experience often will create that willingness to learn. Running a company into the ground, losing a major customer or contract, loss of close friends, divorce, or getting fired can all be humbling experiences that may provide the desire to learn about humility and reassess who you are as an individual.

But what if you do not have that humbling experience? Let's face it: If you are a CEO and have experienced a great deal of success throughout your lifetime, you do begin to feel that you are perfect in every way, and therefore it's hard to be humble—very hard. The ego expands to such a huge size that it becomes the sole explanation as to why the company has been so successful. Then, since the company is already "perfect," the ego actually impairs the vision of being even more successful, or the possibility of changing the organization with changing times and customer demands.

One begins to think, "OK, Toyota has been extremely successful over the years, so let's copy the tools they use. Toyota was successful because of these tools, and they can work inside our organization, too. In this way, we don't have to change management styles, leadership, the organization, our principles, or our culture. These are the things I created, and they are good. I don't have to change, either, because I have always been successful. We just have to change the tools we use, just like going out and buying a new ratchet set. We definitely don't need an organizational change.

Or, in extreme cases, one might think, "So what if Toyota has had great success? So have we. They are in a different industry—that stuff doesn't work in our industry. Toyota can learn a thing or two from us, if people only knew about us. We're good for now, and there's no need to change."

Past success is the greatest deterrent to change.

Overcoming ego

The biggest killer of improvement of any sort is the ego, and we are all subject to its uninterrupted growth unless we have mechanisms to control it. But how? A large ego stems from a lack of self-confidence or self-esteem, which almost seems counterintuitive. How do we overcome such a strong force as the lack of our own self-esteem?

Perhaps you can start here: Convince yourself that humility is a good thing. Read about Level 5 leadership in Good to Great. Think of the people you admire, whether they are friends, relatives, business associates, acquaintances, world leaders, religious figures, or historical figures. Think of the athletes you've listened to being interviewed. Do you respect the egocentrics or those who are humble and appreciative of their teammates? Think of how great you felt as a youngster when someone shared a success story and gave you a lot of the credit. Also, think about how low you felt when someone stole the credit from you and lauded themselves for your efforts. Humility is a good thing!

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