Humility

I attended a Communitech breakfast this morning. Since I had already had breakfast and read the morning paper before I arrived, perhaps I should just call it a Communitech “event.”

The opening speaker – I can’t recall his name or company, but they are involved in video production and have had some great success – started with a joke I enjoyed. “What’s the difference between pizza and an entrepreneur? A pizza can feed a family of four.” Great ice breaker. He spoke quite well.

The main speaker was John Keating of Com Dev. He focused on the wonderful story of ComDev’s recent – over the past several years – turnaround.

I’ve heard John speak once before and quite enjoyed his presentation. Today was no different. I think perhaps I’ve met him once before, but I can’t recall. We’re certainly not friends or even acquaintances, but I could tell from what he said – and he spoke without notes – that our value systems are closely aligned.

John came across as very humble. He spoke of the many brilliant people at ComDev and noted repeatedly that he was not one of them. He repeatedly acknowledged the great contributions all staff/”team” members had made. He spoke about the many stakeholders in ComDev (shareholders, employees, suppliers, customers, the community at large) and how he takes the company’s responsibilities very seriously. Mostly though, he deflected the credit for the turnaround away from himself, and back on his team. He showed great humility. He admitted his own mistakes.

I sat there juxtaposing John with another local technology company CEO that I heard speak a couple of years ago. I’d describe them as polar opposites. The other fellow, who shall remain nameless, used the word “I” in every sentence. “The company was a mess before I arrived.” “I started by rightsizing our staffing.” (That means he fired a lot of people.) “I then looked at what we were good at, our core competencies.” “Then I …”

Well, you get the idea. Apparently the nameless CEO ran the entire company all by himself.

I value humility. I value selflessness and servitude/servant leadership. I believe a strong leader takes the blame but distributes the praise.