I attended a seminar in which the audience was bored out of their minds. It was not the speaker’s content or even his presentation that was boring.
It was the presenter, himself. The presentation was all about how great he was. His need to stroke his ego for all to see was uncomfortable.
I am certain that his intent was good, and he felt the message that he had was important. I could identify with the guy pretty easily, since I think we suffer from the same disorder of self-importance.
It got me thinking about a term that I had heard from William Taylor, co-founder of Fast Company - “humbition. ” Here is his definition from an article Taylor wrote in BusinessWeek:
“What’s humbition? It’s a term I first heard from Jane Harper, a nearly 30-year veteran of IBM. It is, she explains, the subtle blend of humility and ambition that drives the most successful leaders—an antidote to the know-it-all hubris that affects so many business stars. “The more I know,” she says sensibly, “the more I know there is to know.”
In my experience, humility is not something that can be worked for or forced to increase. It seems like a natural consequence of being an arrogant jerk. After I belittle others enough, I realize that playing the big shot is not having ambition, and, believe me, I am not the first person who notices.
What are ways that we can hope to inspire a humble, yet ambitious spirit in ourselves and others?
Another, more difficult question is (especially for people like me): what are you so insecure about that you need to play the big shot?
I wish I had good answers for you, but that would make me a know-it-all now, wouldn’t it?
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Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer (CEO), St. Louis Small Business Monthly
