The Grace Of 'Humility' In Corporate World

Leadership has sparked a great deal of debate, and numerous books have been written on the subject. Yet another leadership book? That’s when   P.V. Ramana Murthy (PV), Pinsight By PV – A Global Human Capital Company, explains what is so intriguing about his book at the Indian Business Literature Festival at Mumbai. 

Based on extensive research and 37 years of experience in the corporate sector, the author feels that humility has not been well addressed in literature. The author said that the topic of humility has not been discussed, despite the fact that leadership has been studied and discussed extensively.

The author also narrates his inspiration for writing this book. When he was working at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai in 2009, the attack took place. Heavy constraints were placed on the corporation.  The decision was made to take debt reduction and organisational regeneration into account. In order to address this, they created a programme for managers that was nine months longer and included a leadership development component that emphasised humility.

An Author's Stance On Leadership

Providing an overview of the current state of leadership in the corporate world, he states that “one of the biggest challenges the world faces is leadership. It's a matter of concern in many corporations and it could be in society as well. The intention of authoring this book was to examine leadership and humility and to define their specific meanings at the mindset and behaviour levels," he adds.

Talking further about leadership themes, he mentions, “Leadership is not a race for individual medals; it's for a team sport. Unfortunately, the way leadership has been defined or incorporated in the recent past is very different.” He continues by pointing out the improbable reality of the present, in which the majority of leaders either exude extreme pride and arrogance or have a penchant to exaggerate and harass others.

Humility In Focus

The concept of humility differs from culture to culture. The author believes that there are various points of view. 

From the perspective of the book, Murthy defines humility as “putting others ahead of ourselves;  it profits through people rather than profit at the cost of people.” He adds on by saying, “When it comes to humility, it is all about putting customers all ahead of ourselves and serving them.”

Additionally, he cites the example of Bhaskar Bhat, a former leader at a Tata Group company, who was graciously bid farewell by his workers upon retirement due to his humble behaviour towards them. 

He offers meaningful leadership advice to the current generation of leaders. He says heroic leadership won’t work for the corporate sector. Leadership is about leading others.

He claims that, in a sense, the idea of leadership already involves humility and, as a leader, one cannot act in a frivolous manner.

“I would advise leaders to look at it from a perspective and think in terms of making a change at the mindset level, " Murthy asserts. 

He says in his conclusion that it's preferable to let a narcissistic leader leave the company rather than try to change him. Leaders can be developed as humble high achievers.