Humility in Mentoring Others

Make no mistake, the part I was raising my hand about had nothing to do with “the great people” I’ve known - but I have indeed underestimated the value I can add to others through one-on-one mentorship. Later on, we’ll take a focused look at how some of the most humble mentors I’ve had in my life have helped me understand my true worth. For now, we’ll keep it to how their humility served as a tremendous foundation for the value those mentors have added in my life and how that’s helped me recognize the impact I can have on the folks I have the privilege of mentoring.

The reluctance I mentioned seeing in Mark had nothing to do with him being fearful of the spotlight. He’s just been incredibly intentional to always serve John Maxwell the best he possibly can and to never give the perception that he’s trying to replace John. In direct conversations with Mark, he’s said to me, “I’m not the communicator that John is. I’m a practitioner, I’ve worked very hard to apply what I’ve learned from him.” While I understood where he was coming from, I pushed back by explaining how much I’ve learned from him that I hadn’t picked up from anything I ever heard John share.

On a significantly smaller scale, I realize that this is my version of the proverbially pot calling the kettle black. I frequently downplay my background and experience. While I don’t have any fancy degrees, I’ve worked as hard as I possibly could for a very long time and I’ve had a ton of great people to learn from along the way; I’ve referenced several of them here to this point, but there have been a bunch who taught what not to do… Some of that downplaying is to do all I can to help whoever I interact with feel more connected with me, but a lot has often been me just not appreciating that I can truly offer something impactful to many of the individuals we interact with. (Cindy has started politely calling me out on that…) The point I need you to catch here is that it’s easy for any of us to underestimate the difference we can make in the team members around us, whether they report to us directly or they’re our peers. If we’re not willing to pass along what we’ve learned from others along the way, the folks in our sphere of influence may never hear exactly what they need to take their next step.

With that in mind, the humility we’ve been looking at is nothing short of critical. Not only do most of us tune out arrogance - I certainly do, and quickly - I can’t point to many arrogant people in positions of authority who are willing to invest the energy necessary into serving anyone but themselves. Humble mentors prioritize others’ growth. Over time, that creates a lasting legacy. In studying Mark Cole for more than a decade, I’ve witnessed how much he pours into everyone around him. I’ve never seen him take the time and proximity he has with John for granted; that clearly drives him to invest all he can into building future leaders. Again, on a much smaller scale, I feel a similar obligation each day as my feet hit the floor. Had Terry, Kevin, Rod, Chris, and many others not been so quick to sow into me, I’m not sure what path I’d be on, and my daily goal is to do everything in my power to provide that same support to anyone who will act on it. 

The humility I’ve experienced from each of my mentors is exactly why they have so much influence in my life. That influence is what causes me to do everything in my power to take action on the ideas they share. For more than twenty-five years, I’ve heard John Maxwell say that “Leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less.” Their humility led to me getting results I likely would have never accomplished if they had delivered the same message from positional authority alone so we’ll pick up soon by working through exactly to do the same thing ourselves.