!!!!! PLEASE LOOK AT THE EXAMPLES AND TIE IT TO THE READINGS. JUST LIKE THEY DID USE SOME OF THE READING EXAMPLES THEY USED PLEASE DO NOT GIVE A GENERIC RESPONSE. !!!!
Discussion Overview
The “Build Your Cultural Agility” book in chapter 5 makes a strong case for effective leaders being humble leaders. The Wall Street Journal recently even claimed that “The Best Bosses are Humble Bosses” (). We want to better understand and reflect on this critical leadership trait in this discussion. I also welcome if you add cross-cultural aspects to your answers (e.g. if you can think of a situation in which an employee was humble–meaning wanted to learn and adapt a growth mindset–but cultural differences prevented effective outcomes).
Questions & Instructions
- Can you think of a business situation where humility allowed you to improve your and/or your team’s performance? Or where a lack of humility made a business situation more difficult?
- Would you consider yourself a humble leader? If so, how do you accomplish being humble (and not appearing needy, etc)? If not, how do you plan to adopt humility in your leadership style?
Examples:
1. 1. Can you think of a business situation where humility allowed you to improve your and/or your teams performance? Or where a lack of humility made a business situation more difficult?
On my last job we encountered a situation where we would have to perform road work that was not planned. Instead of admitting our fault or trying to understand why we would need to do the road work my Project Manager started yelling at the county worker, to the point where he almost walked off our jobsite, but I was able to convince him to stay. While we ended up completing the work in the end, it took longer to complete, due to a lack of humility and respect from one of my team members. By simply not being humble by one person of our team it made a difficult situation even more difficult and ultimately cost us time in our master schedule. That is when I learned no matter who the person is I always remain humble, even if I am correct, it is better to remain humble to make any situation go as easy as possible.
2. Would you consider yourself a humble leader? If so, how do you accomplish being humble (and not appearing needy, etc)? If not, how do you plan to adopt humility in your leadership style?
I would consider myself a humble leader. I always do my best to ensure I hear other people’s point of view and make sure everyone gets their input in. Ive encountered plenty of situations where I may seem right, but end up being wrong. So I know I will not always be right and I learned to stay humble and hear people out before coming to conclusions. One way I display this is during team meetings is when needing to come up with a plan for anything, from scheduling to safety on a jobsite, I make sure everyone gets their input so we can collectively decide on a plan that we all agree upon. While experience does help a lot, people with less experience can still have valuable input. No matter at what point I am in my career, there will always be something to learn from someone and I will never always be correct in every situation.
Examples:
1. In one sourcing project, I recommended changing suppliers to reduce costs across multiple business units. The numbers looked strong and I felt confident in the proposal. However, the plant team was hesitant. Instead of pushing the decision forward, I slowed down and asked them to explain their concerns. After walking the production line with them, I realized the new component would slightly slow installation time. The savings were real, but the operational impact would have hurt daily performance. By listening and adjusting the plan, we protected efficiency and strengthened trust. Humility improved both the outcome and the relationship.
This connects directly to the Michelin case and Mr. Chalons situation in Greenville. His challenge was not a lack of competence. It was how his leadership style was perceived. His direct communication style may have worked in France, but in the United States it came across as distant and overly formal. The reading emphasizes that humble leaders show curiosity, invite input, and adapt to their environment. If Chalon had invested more time in informal conversations and shown more openness to feedback, he likely would have built stronger engagement with his team.
The case also highlights the cultural dimension. In some cultures, strong authority is expected. In the United States, employees often expect approachability and involvement. Without humility and adaptation, a leader can unintentionally appear arrogant even if that is not the intention.
I would describe myself as a developing humble leader. For me, humility means separating ego from results. I try to ask questions before finalizing decisions and openly acknowledge when I need more information. At the same time, I stay clear and decisive so humility does not look like uncertainty.
Overall, I agree that humble leaders are often more effective because they create trust and psychological safety. The Michelin case shows that leadership success depends not only on expertise, but also on the ability to adapt and connect with people in different cultural contexts.
Examples:
1. There was a situation when I was working at my college job at the black resource center on campus, where we were thinking of ways of expanding our center and trying to renovate it to make it more appealing and welcoming the first timers, when there was something that happened with our equipment apartment, where a speaker might’ve gone missing or something. No one knew what happened to it, but we were trying to figure out who had done it. Humility: I stepped up and said I don’t know what happened with the speaker, but I’m willing to take ownership because we used it for a Black Wednesday presentation, and I probably didn’t lock it up the way I should have. Taking humility into consideration, I showed that I was flawed and made mistakes in putting equipment up where I needed to and in following proper protocol. It showed that I was human and I made mistakes and that I was flawed and that I was open enough to admit that so it showed that I was down the Earth and that I was a perfect all the time and that I too am able to learn from my mistakes and be able to ask for help and knowing where certain things go and how certain things are done within are organization.
I will consider myself a humble leader because I never put myself on a pedestal. I accomplished being a humble leader by knowing that I am ambitious and that I have goals that I won’t like to accomplish, but also knowing that there are flaws with my goals and that there may be some failures and executions, but also letting that be known to parties that are investors who may want to invest in me. Of course, I want to show that I am confident in my goals and ambitions, but I also want to be real and say, “Hey, these are the risks of investing in me, and this is what it could look like.” I want to be able to adapt a healthy level of narcissism, but also humbleness in humility with leadership, and knowing the right amount and indulging in narcissism, but also being humble to my roots, and knowing that I know where I started from, and I’m not Mr. hotshot or have it perfect all the time. There’s a delicate balance, and I just want to find the right balance for that so I can excel in any field I may venture into, whether it’s project management or my YouTube space on the platform. I am not too far gone from asking for help and asking questions to help me better get an understanding of my mistakes and where I messed up and how I can elevate and learn from other people.
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