Humble Pie

I had a chance to meet with an executive last week and we discussed some ways that we could help him get better results out of his sales people. After the meeting I was reflecting on why the meeting had went so well, why we had made such progress in such a short time, why we had got along so well and the answer to all of these questions has to do with this executive having the oh so rare quality of Humility!
This gentleman was very savy, very smart and obvioulsy had some excellent leadership skills. His business had grown very progressively over the years and yet rather than getting overly confident or even pompus about his success, he still had an "I don't have all the answers" demeanor. Oddly enough those who follow this mantra usually find themselves having all the answers.
One cannot help thinking about how different things might be if more people were like him. The political realm right now is full of people who say they have all the answers and the current President - of course he has all the answers. When people have all the answers they never ask for help, they never consider another opinion and as a result they make more mistakes and end up looking foolish more often.
As bad as current leaders might be I can certainly think of worse.Legend has it that King Canute of England had his throne taken down to the ocean so that he could demonstrate to his subjects that even the sea obeys him - then his subjects would stop questioning him. Guess what happened?