An Article By Vijay Batra
Over the years I have realized that two major causes for anyone of us to become weaker are jealousy and arrogance. Jealousy is triggered when we feel inferior compared to others. Arrogance is triggered when we feel superior compared to others.
The way to become stronger is to overcome the tendency to be jealous, by learning from others and thus improving oneself. At the same time, when we start helping others become better, that is nurturing others we overcome the tendency to be arrogant, and remain humble.
In organizations as in families, there are seniors and there are juniors. The mistake often committed is that the individual starts feeling superior or inferior. A senior and a junior have a common purpose and that is to serve each other, and others in the organization or the family.
When individuals seek being served over serving is when disharmony occurs, leading to weakness. I went to a school called Delhi Public School. On our blazer, we wore the crest which read `service above self.`
A senior should focus on developing the juniors, so they collectively deliver on serving the members of the organization or the family better. If a junior commits a mistake or fails to do his or her part, the senior should not make the junior feel inferior, but develop and guide the junior so he delivers.
Equally important is that the junior at all times should respect the seniors and not feel that he or she is superior or inferior to the senior.
To ensure that the organization grows from strength to strength and that seniors and juniors build and sustain a culture of service, learning and sharing that leads to growth. To ensure that service, learning and sharing take place, the leaders need to role model humility. Increasingly companies such as Google are looking for candidates for leadership positions who are humble, instead of aggressive self-promoters. In a world, where Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) has become a norm, no one person can know what to do, and how to do it.
When individuals in a team, senior or junior practice humility, they ensure that jealousy and arrogance are held at bay, and the organization or the family grows from strength to strength.
The starting point is that as seniors or juniors, we need to realize that practicing humility is challenging and we need to be humble enough to admit and realize that the moment we get some form of power, humility tends to become distant, and that we need to be aware of being overconfident about being humble and make the effort to be humble.
Humility is not to be confused with inferiority, but the state of being aware about one`s ability to keep learning, becoming better, with the intent of adding value to fellow team and family members. `