A Heart Held Humble Levels and Lights the Way

Observations on executive training& executive restJohn Halamka, M.D., president, Mayo Clinic Platform, and Paul Cerrato, senior research analyst and communications specialist, Mayo Clinic Platform, wrote this article.Humility is not a very popular word among business and health care executives. Often considered a sign of weakness, this personality trait is not often applauded in executive training programs or boardrooms. A revealing piece inHarvard Business Review sums up the problem in its title: “If Humility is So Important, Why Are Leaders So Arrogant?” The article goes on to discuss the push among HR consulting firms and psychology experts to develop the H Factor, a combination of honesty and humility. Despite this celebration of humility, “it flies in the face of daily headlines in theWall Street Journal and the realities of our business and political cultures, ” says the HBR article.Several management experts have tried to explain this paradox. Edgar Shein from MIT Sloan School of Management posits that the prevailing mindset about managers is that life is a competition and being a successful leader is all about getting results at all costs, which in turn requires telling others what to do. There ’s little room for humility and gentleness in that formula for success.Which brings us to the blog ’s title: a heart held humble levels and lights the way. It’s a quote fromAlong the Road, a song by Dan Fogelberg. It suggests that informed humility accomplishe...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs