The following is an excerpt from Lead by Greatness.
If business is a university of greatness, then dealing with bright, talented young Planet-Es is one of its most challenging and important classes.
Perhaps what makes the creation of strategic alliances with younger employees so challenging is that their success depends more on humility than on any other single character trait. Humility does not always come easily to successful leaders. If business is, as I see it, a university of greatness, then dealing with bright, talented young Planet-Es is one of that university’s most challenging and important classes. This is because you can only engage brilliant young talent if you are willing to learn from them. Learning from people younger and less experienced than you requires a large dose of genuine humility and authentic greatness, qualities we are not taught in business schools or in the corridors of corporations.
Humility is not the opposite of self-confidence or self-esteem. Humility is the opposite of arrogance. It is surprising how easy it is for other people to see us as arrogant, even when we do not see ourselves as such, nor do we intend to come across that way. The reason for this is that people come across as arrogant whenever they feel internally insecure. When people feel insecure, they lean on the structures that support their insecurity; structures like power, status, or arrogance. Instinctively, they put up barriers that keep others at a distance, fearing others might pierce the thin layers camouflaging their fragile egos.
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