For the next few weeks, I’m going to be using The Leader as a Mensch: Become the Kind of Person Others Want to Follow by Bruna Martinuzzi as a guide. For Martinuzzi, we are all leaders in some aspects of our lives, and her advice is very useful for bosses, employees, family members, and friends.

 According to the Random House dictionary, humility is defined as the “modest opinion of one’s importance or rank.” Humility has gotten something of a bad rap in the work force today. We’ve been to told to get noticed and let people know of our accomplishments.

But Jim Collins, in his key book on business success Good to Great notes that leaders of really successful companies have in common the ability to put aside their personal egos for the good of the companies they lead. Having humility does not mean denying our accomplishments, but accepting them without arrogance. A person with humility respects others’ accomplishments and is patient with their faults, knowing how easy it is to make mistakes.

Some practices for humility:

• Don’t get engaged in “contests of perfection,” where both sides try to look good and avoid admitting mistakes. Simply step back and let the other person have the limelight.
• Let other people be right.
• Don’t preach or coach without permission.
• Don’t attempt to do others’ job. Although you might think you’re doing someone a favor when you take over a task they’re struggling with, it is actually belittling.
• The next time something goes wrong, don’t spend time assigning blame. Instead, ask ‘What can we learn from this?’