How Humility Builds Trust in Professional Relationships

As we looked at investing in mentorship for exponential returns, I shared how Kevin Arnold frequently taught me things that he had learned from his mentors. I can’t remember a single time where Kevin took credit for how much he knew about workplace safety or the results he achieved. He was always quick to pass any praise on to whoever he worked with, but he was just as quick to accept responsibility when something went wrong. Kevin was one of the first great examples I had in learning the power of humility. That said, he and the others I’ve mentioned by name to this point are just about the only ones I can think of within that large manufacturing company who at least held regional responsibility and remained even remotely humble. One was so far on the other side of that fence that he earned the not-so-affectionate nickname of “Lumbergh” from Office Space. He had extremely smooth moves but had built little trust in his closest professional relationships. While now isn’t the time, I’d welcome you to ask me one-on-one about how I tracked his poor attendance or about some of his other shenanigans I called attention to on occasion.

Since leaving that organization and starting our business soon after, humility has been one of the key traits I’ve looked for in mentors, business associates, and even clients. In chapter twelve of What’s KILLING Your Profitability?, “Are You Answering the Cry for Help?,” I detailed how the manager I worked for immediately after leaving manufacturing modeled that humility as well as anyone I had seen. That was especially refreshing since he was several years younger than me and his dad owned the company. While he had a tremendous skillset, and he had experience outside that industry that few others on the planet ever will, he was always intentional about learning all he could from everyone else inside and outside that organization. His genuine humility built trust with me immediately, and it yielded him strong professional relationships with nearly everyone else he met.

While from a distance, the humility we felt from John Maxwell - be that through his books, audio lessons, or in large groups where we heard him speak - was a significant part of why we were drawn to his body of work. In the two and a half decades of learning from his material, I’ve always appreciated how open he’s been about the areas where he counts on his team for support. Whether he was joking about his poor singing voice, how poor his hiring decisions were due to believing he could develop everyone he interviewed into great team members, or his story about laughing at a high-profile CEO who disagreed with him about being so open with his weaknesses, Maxwell may be the most influential leader I’ve ever studied who is consistently transparent about the things he’s just not good at. Just like I’ve learned through interviewing thousands of candidates, someone who says they’re good at everything will lie about other things too! With a global leader like John Maxwell displaying that kind of humility and openness about all the areas he’s struggled with throughout his career, trusting him in his areas of expertise was easy - for me and for hundreds of thousands of others worldwide. 

Even though I had never interacted with John personally, I had tremendous respect for him. I first heard a brief lesson from his CEO, Mark Cole, just a few months before attending the event where I completed the licensing process to teach and train on John’s work. During my time at that event, I studied Mark carefully, watching how he carried himself in front of 2,500 people and how he interacted with each individual. Near the end of the event, I pulled him aside and shared how impressed I was with what I had observed and how much it meant to me to see him in a role where he would truly carry John’s legacy. Let’s be honest, those comments from some random guy out of a sea of people weren’t likely very memorable. But I vividly remember how much humility I felt from Mark’s response, humility that showed me I could trust him as much as I had learned to trust John. And that created the foundation for the relationship Cindy and I have with Mark today, allowing us to learn from him in a way we never expected - and we’ll look at that next…