I was recently at a business roundtable in New York City, and I enjoyed a spirted conversation with some corporate officers about the general attitude of the current workforce. During this session, the discussion circled around employee morale and edging back to a new normal in and around the office. Soon enough, the conversation moved to the topic about traits most looked for in an employee. Dedicated, enthusiastic, team player, teachable, and ethical were most heard from the employers. Conversely, the topic of career ending characteristics found among employees surfaced and the discussion suddenly veered to the topic of most fatal flaws or traits that curtail or shorten the advancement of some employees. Interestingly, and perhaps peculiarly, the words pride and arrogance rose to the top of the pile of traits that would or could quickly derail a once promising trajectory. I found some of the observations at this forum interesting and that lit a fuse for this column—and here we are.
As I have written before, my career in public service has been quite an educational ride for me and I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything else. Those experiences and many interactions with the masses have allowed me to get front row seats observing human behavior. A few lessons learned along the way.
I have long advised others that you can and will make a lot of mistakes in this business, and most of them are fixable. Rule one in politics and in life, if you make a mistake, own up to it immediately and move on. We are all human and will make mistakes, people understand that. In politics, it is the age-old adage about the coverup being worse than the underlying crime or mistake. There is a lot of heavy duty truth to that one.
The only problem with the admission stage, is that some of the more narcissistic ones out there refuse to admit a mistake or continue to blame others for everything under the sun. Out of the starting gate, these folks are lost and are not redeemable or fixable.
The rest of the student body in life are very capable of admitting a mistake, and that is good news. As I started before, make it, fix it and move on. The insidious problem when dealing with owning the mistake and admitting it, is the tempting vacillation between the two. Therein lies the real danger zone.
Time for a visit from those two despised personal foibles cited by the corporate crew—the deadly viruses pride and arrogance. Those characteristics simply prohibit any honest reflection or look inwards, and that only leads to bad things and being redeemed isn’t one of them. Those two deadly sins are often permanent and unforgiving. You can use a few other words to substitute in for pride and arrogance like ego and hubris, but you get the message.
On a more basic level, I have long held to the truth that you can get by in life, even do well, even if you lack certain skills, but you can’t find your way in the winning circle if you are prideful and arrogant. That is truly a recipe for disaster, and sooner or later comes the fall, biblically speaking.
You would be surprised by the sheer level of ego and arrogance that is on display in the place we call politics. Many promising up and comers fail to make the peak of politics because of this flaw. And many folks who were riding the wave of politics came crashing down shortly after the half pipe of ego and arrogance shows up and breaks the surface.
I’m not known to quote the Scripture too often, but the King James Bible can afford us some instruction on the lesson of the day. To properly set this table I will need to quote Proverbs 16:18, “pride does before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall.” I see pride as the opposite side of the coin of humility. Time to hit the extract button.
We need to remind ourselves daily that humility is never out of fashion, and you can never have too much of it. So, in an effort to try and course correct and assist some of our misguided or waylaid family, friends, and colleagues who have walked down the path of pride and arrogance, let’s try a healthy dose of humility to cure their ills.
I list a few random quotes (none are mine) that deal with this powerful concept of humility and provide for your reading pleasure:
- True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less
- Humility is the solid foundation of all virtues
- Life is a long lesson in humility
- Live life full of humility, gratitude, intellectual curiosity, and never stop learning
- Pride makes us artificial, and humility makes us real
- There is beauty and humility in imperfection
- We come nearest to the great when we are great with humility.
- To counter one’s arrogance or pride, you need to reflect upon shortcomings in you that can give rise to a sense of humility.
- Pride divides humans and humility unites them
So if you are looking to be a better person, looking to advance in the corporate space or are yearning to hit the next mountain top in politics, I suggest you take a look at yourself and check to see if pride and arrogance are more commonly found in your bag or do you have ample spots of humility to carry you on.