Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love and Leadership

A brief synopsis of the book

Humilitas is basically Latin for humility and that is what this book is all about, humility.

The author starts of with a thesis of what he believes humility is and why it is important to be humble. He defines humility as “the noble choice to forgo your status, deploy resources or use influence for the good of others before yourself… The humble person is marked by a willingness to hold power in service of others.”

He explains why we should pursue humility.

1.   It is common sense

“What we don’t know and can’t do far exceeds what we do know and can do. A little humility, then, is hardly rocket science. It is common sense.”

2.  It is beautiful

He gives a couple of examples of people we admire because of their humility.

3.  It generates abilities

“Perhaps the most obvious outcome of being humble is that you will learn, grow and thrive in a way that proud have no hope of doing.”

4.  It lifts those around you.

He gives some examples of humble heroes.

5.  It creates harmony.

It doesn’t mean that you compromise on convictions. “Humility applied to convictions doesn’t mean believing things any less, it means treating those who hold contrary beliefs with respect and friendship.”

6.  You simply cannot lead without it.

You can’t persuade people if you can’t connect with them and you are going to find it hard to connect with people without some humility.

He gives a very thorough and interesting explanation as to why the ancient world didn’t like humility and then moves on to explain how Jesus redefined greatness for all man kind.

He closes the book with 7 steps that would help you to become more humble.

1.     Recognize that you are not humble.

2.    Start loving humility because “we are shaped by what we love.”

3.    Reflect on the lives of the humble.

4.    Visualize yourself being humble before you move into the “tempting” situations.

5.    Act humbly. You need to exercise the humility muscle because actions influence thoughts.

6.    Invite criticism. Constantly ask others for input.

7.    Forget about being humble. (Don’t try to appear to be humble.) 

Super C Leadership

A couple of years ago a read a great book - Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels -that had a section in it that really influenced my thinking on what it takes to lead. The author referred to three C’s (Character, Competence and Chemistry) being the ingredients for someone he would look to hire on his team.

As a leadership team we discussed this concept at length for months and eventually landed on a descriptive term for the three C’s that we called a Super-C leader. A SUPER-C leader is someone who (though not perfect) exemplifies the three C’s.

1. CHARACTER

The Web dictionary define character as ‘the inherent compound of attributes that determines a person’s moral and ethical actions and reactions.’

In short, it is who you are when no one is looking. It is who you are before God and for God. It is things like resilience, discipline, passion, determination, grace, compassion, kindness and a desire to learn and grow.

You are going to find it very hard to lead others if you are not able to lead yourself.

2. COMPETENCE

The ability to get the job while leaving wake of relationships of people who loved the journey. It doesn’t help to get the job done, but hurt people in the process and it also doesn’t help to be everybody’s friend but not achieving anything. The competent leader is able to balance the two.

3. CHEMISTRY

Relational savvy. It is difficult to go along if you can’t get along. The person must have the ability to relate with and connect with people.

I have recently heard some share an exercise to determine whether you have chemistry with someone or not. Let say you are in your office fully engaged with and important assignment and someone pops their head into the door to ask you a question. If you see them as an interruption you most probably don’t have chemistry with them. If their face is an welcome sight you most probably have chemistry with them.

So there you go, a SUPER-C leader has character, competence and chemistry. The purpose of this blog is to help you grow in these three areas.