HUMILITY AS A CORPORATE VALUE

These are chaotic times. Times of excessive self-love in which the selfie cult has brought vulgar narcissism to the public domain, with social media contributing to the rise of Facebook and Whatsapp tribe, which is so obsessed with self-recognition that it breaks the norms of basic decency. But in such torrid times comes like a whiff of fresh air — the news that several corporate houses have enlisted humility as a key behavioural trait in their performance management system.

There is no doubt that humility has always been a core human value rated as a virtue since times immemorial. That, in fact, was the difference between Rama and Ravana. According to many, it was this lack of humility that became the undoing of Duryodhana in the Mahabharata war. From Buddha to Gandhi, all great personalities displayed humility in their behaviour. But in the corporate scheme of things, humility seems to be a late entrant.

Given the fact that corporate life is more about dashing and flashing behaviour and those young management graduates in blue and black suits often blow their own trumpets. In fact, it was a sign of self-confidence to brag about one’s abilities and achievements, sometimes magnified manifold. And it did work in a corporate culture where the popular belief was that nice guys finish second. Nice girls, even more so, if researchers from Tel Aviv University and University of Haifa in Israel are to be believed.

Researchers from these universities have found that dominant, assertive women, who clearly express their expectations and do not retreat from their demands, are compensated better than their more accommodating female peers. In fact, the researchers got similar findings with regard to their study on dominant men versus more conciliatory counterparts.

Thus, in a culture where being nice is an undesirable value, the rise of humility is certainly a welcome change. Particularly, when blowing one’s own trumpet has become a norm in the modern-day corporate culture. The performance management system of some of the big companies is now considering humility as an important input, a success factor in high performance behaviour chart.

The Primal Group has taken the lead in rediscovering the virtues of humility, and gradually, there may be many more who would recognise the worth of unassuming performers. In the management jargon, the trait humility would be placed in the group of soft skills, or basket of attributes, which are getting recognised these days as important for effective performance.

One reason seems to be the changing paradigm of business where customers are no longer the beneficiaries but the cause of business. Another reason is the cut throat competition that demands collaborative teamwork in which humility is certainly a great cementing force. Moreover, humble employees are usually liked by customers and help in relationship marketing that has become so crucial these days.

Talking about humility as a virtue, however, one needs to remember that great leaders always practised this. Power made them more humble. Abraham Lincoln to Lal Bahadur Shastri, they all owed their mass appeal to their humble nature. In fact, this is why Lord asked Lakshmana to stand by the feet of a dying Ravana to take some lessons. The Hindu religion has always portrayed devas as humble and the asuras as haughty. It is this haughtiness of the asuras, their ahankara that has proved their undoing. The corporate trend then is in the right direction.