{"id":38963,"date":"2018-12-07T09:06:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T09:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/best-bosses-are-humble-bosses\/"},"modified":"2018-12-07T09:06:00","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T09:06:00","slug":"best-bosses-are-humble-bosses","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/best-bosses-are-humble-bosses\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Bosses Are Humble Bosses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An article in <em>The Wall Street Journal<\/em> notes that many corporate employers are realizing they&rsquo;ve missed one of the most important traits of leadership: humility. According to several recent studies, humble leaders inspire close teamwork, rapid learning, and high performance in their teams. The article defines a humble leader as someone who tends &ldquo;to be aware of their own weaknesses, eager to improve themselves, appreciative of others&rsquo; strengths, and focused on goals beyond their own self-interest.&rdquo; They can be highly competitive and ambitious. &ldquo;But they tend to avoid the spotlight and give credit to their teams &hellip; They also ask for help and listen to feedback from others, setting an example that causes subordinates to do the same.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p>Humble leaders have linked to lower turnover and absenteeism. Another research study found that teams with humble leaders performed better and did higher-quality work than teams whose leaders exhibited less humility.<\/p>\n\n<p>The article notes one company in particular that values humble leaders&mdash;the apparel company Patagonia. They start scrutinizing job applicants for humility as soon as they walk through the door for interviews. Managers screening new recruits follow up by asking receptionists, &ldquo;How did they engage at the front desk?&rdquo; If staff members report disrespectful or self-absorbed behavior, &ldquo;that can be a deal killer,&rdquo; he says.<\/p>\n\n<p>The company also asks potential leaders to talk about their failures. &ldquo;If they say, &lsquo;Wow, let me think about this, because there are a lot of times when I&rsquo;ve messed things up,&rsquo; that says a lot,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If they have to pick among a lot of humble learning moments, that&rsquo;s good.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"> <\/h2>","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3546,3559,3858,3859,3862,3931,4189,4191,4296,4351,4885,5126,5127,5247,5294],"tax_ctp_topics":[403],"class_list":["post-38963","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-career","tax_ctp_tags-character","tax_ctp_tags-employee","tax_ctp_tags-employer","tax_ctp_tags-encouragement","tax_ctp_tags-failure","tax_ctp_tags-humble","tax_ctp_tags-humiliation","tax_ctp_tags-jobs","tax_ctp_tags-leadership","tax_ctp_tags-satisfaction","tax_ctp_tags-team","tax_ctp_tags-teamwork","tax_ctp_tags-vocation","tax_ctp_tags-work-career"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Best Bosses Are Humble Bosses - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/best-bosses-are-humble-bosses\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Best Bosses Are Humble Bosses - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An article in The Wall Street Journal notes that many corporate employers are realizing they&rsquo;ve missed one of the most important traits of leadership: humility. 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