The Confidence-Humility Balance

Let’s be clear, positional authority can get results - as long as the individual with that authority is present and willing to crack the proverbial whip. But the authentic influence we earn through humble leadership earns a level of discretionary effort that even the most demanding chain-of-command never will, even when we’re not around. Even then, though, humility alone won’t be what yields that influence or the oh-so-necessary results that follow. Few people ever commit to someone who isn’t confident.

Fresh off the manufacturing floor and just a couple of years removed from being a mediocre carpenter, I didn’t have much confidence. Quite honestly, aside from being willing to out work most of my peers, I had very little reason to be confident. I had just accepted a new role after four years with the company, but I was still one of the least senior employees and one of the youngest in the building. To top that off, I had barely graduated high school and only hit college with a stick to that point. The one thing playing in my favor, even though I didn’t understand it at the time, was the fast pace and focus on each task at hand that I put into everything I did. Anything I did then that remotely displayed humility was mostly because of a lack of self-confidence. Most of the bumps I experienced in the year I worked to roll out that Lean Manufacturing initiative was due to the people I needed engagement from being reluctant to change what they had always done. Looking back, I can’t really blame them; I’m not sure I would have taken that version of me all too seriously.

As I transitioned to behavior-based safety, I became more stable in performing most of the tasks I was responsible for and I felt like I had more support - at least from folks like Terry, Kevin, and Rod. I still worked as hard as I knew how and I was developing the skills I’d need to be successful in the role without having any real positional authority to demand participation or compliance. I quickly became comfortable enough to deal with just about anything in my home facility, but it was a completely different story the first few times I met with corporate executives or was expected to report audit findings to another location’s management team. Over time, my confidence in even those situations grew. I suppose the fact that our corporate safety director selected me for the role and was footing the bill for my travel finally sunk in enough for me to realize that I could actually offer value through what I shared at each location. Still, with little formal education and no fancy title, the confidence-humility balance was absolutely critical if I wanted to build lasting relationships and get results long term.

Fast-forward to starting our business, I often battled feeling inadequate for the same reasons: I still hadn’t finished that stupid college degree despite the results I had achieved in every position I had held to that point. As we looked at turning relationships into measurable leadership growth, I referenced Chris Rollins inviting me and Cindy to contribute a chapter to a collaborative book he was putting together on applying the DISC Model of Human Behavior in the workplace. That was nearly four years into our business but served as a crucial moment in solidifying the confidence I’d need to play a role in truly driving organizational transformation for any team we worked with. While everyone else Chris invited to participate in that project appeared more qualified, I didn’t see any of them deliver any more than we did. And seeing Chris count on me for input along the way, much like I’ve mentioned Mark Cole doing occasionally since, showed me that I did indeed have something to offer in this space too.

At the risk of beating a dead horse, I’ll emphasize once more how important the confidence-humility balance always is. Even with the highest level of positional authority, balancing confidence with humility earns discretionary effort we’ll never see from a carrot or a stick. And without positional authority, humility that’s not backed by confidence yields little buy-in. The most effective leaders I’ve had the chance to learn from have been the ones who have mastered that balance. They’ve also been the ones who have led organizational transformation so we’ll dig into that next.