Four Steps to Leadership: Humility

It has been the view for nearly all of human history that men, especially fathers, are called to be to be leaders within their households and in their communities as a whole. I whole-heartedly believe this to be true, yet despite this being a call of all men I recognize that not all men are effective leaders. For a leader to be effective they must maintain a virtuous character, and I believe that there are four central virtues to effective leadership that are most important. These virtues are humility, prudence, self-control, and self-sacrifice. It is interesting to note as well that these virtues are sequential. Humility leads to prudence. Prudence leads to self-control. Self-control leads to self-sacrifice. Once all four of these are mastered, effective leaders are born, which is why I call this a four step process to leadership.

Today I am going to embark on a series of these posts discussing each one of these virtues in their sequential order to help us all come to a complete understanding of them and provide examples of them in how they apply to effective real world leaders. As this is the first of these posts, we'll be starting with humility.

Humility is tricky to provide an accurate definition. In fact, it is one of the most misdefined virtues of all time. I looked up the dictionary definition of humility earlier today and it was defined as a low view of one's own abilities. I don't think this hits home though. As virtue is a mean between extremes, I think a more proper definition is that humility is an appropriate view one's own gifts and abilities.

God gives each and everyone of us unique abilities, and it is expected of us to use our abilities as best as we can to build his Kingdom. True humility calls to accept that there are that specific talents that we each possess that we should take responsibility of while still understanding that everything we have has been given to us by our heavenly father and that we owe it to Him to use our gifts and abilities according to His will. Therefore, it is appropriate for one to say that they are talented at something, so long as they are accepting that their talents are not of their own making. 

God also expects us to cultivate our talents and abilities and not let them go to waste. This is clearly seen in Christ's Parable of the Talents. As a brief summary, there is a master who has three servants. To each of his servants he lends a certain number of talents (an ancient type of coin). The first is given four, to the second two, and to the third one. The first two each invest their talents doubling what they have been given. The third however goes off and buries his talent in the ground out of fear. This third servant is viewed as wicked and lazy. Clearly, we need to use our abilities, not only just to use them, but as a form of practice to improve them.

There is one more aspect to humility that I need to mention. Since we are members of a community, it is important for us to recognize the gifts and abilities of others in addition to our own. It is also important the we realize that while we are all talented individuals, some are more talented than others in certain areas. For example, I am a decent martial artist and quite strong. Am I as gifted in martial arts as Conor McGregor, or as strong as Brian Shaw, by no means. It’s the realization that there is always someone who can surpass us in any given area that helps prevent the sin of Pride. If as a community we can all recognize the abilities of others and what their best strengths are, then society is most likely to organize itself based on this and would be highly productive and efficient. 

To sum up, there are three key aspects of humility crucial to effective leadership: the realization that our gifts and abilities are God-given, the responsibility to use and maintain our abilities, and the ability to recognize the gifts of others around in relation to our own. When called upon to be leaders, that does not mean that we are expected to take control of everything and do it all. Effective leaders allow those under them to rise according to their strengths in order to best meet the needs of the whole. 

Stay tuned next week for step 2, Prudence.