Humility

As we wrap up the 42 Rules To Lead by Jonathan Rosenberg, SVP of Products for Google,  the last lesson on Rules focuses on Humility.

• Never Stop Learning – School is never out.  Your education is never over.  Part of being humble is realizing how much you don’t know.  “Learn something new so you can remember how hard it is to learn.  Corollary: teach something so you can learn.”
• Grow Up – Humility is correlated with age.  Arrogance is inversely correlated with age.  Why?  Because as we get older, you realize how hard it is to get things done.”
• Delegate – “You get personal leverage through empowerment, delegation and inspection.  As a smart leader, you surround yourself with great people.  Your people get to understand what they’re doing better than you.”  That’s how pride takes root.
• Mean What You Say – A great leader has to commit – body and soul – to a team’s goal and vision.  People can tell if it’s not the case, and they’re always watching.  “Smart people can smell hypocrisy.  So think before you speak, and make sure you spend your time on the things that you say are important. Culture is set from the top, and once set, it cannot be changed.”
• Watch People On Their Way Out – The tech world can be a very small place.  Everyone is more and more connected, and you’ll run into people you’ve worked with again and again.  “Observe people when they leave a place.  You learn a great deal about a person and your ability to judge them in that moment they resign and the manner they walk out the door.”
• Know You Are Not Exempt – Would you work for yourself?  If you wouldn’t, why should anyone else?  On this score, Rosenberg says he writes a critical self-review every year.  “It’s the only way to learn he says.  Communicate, confess, and comply.  No one is perfect – not even you.”