'Humble leadership is by no means weak and meek': PV Ramana Murthy

P.V. Ramana Murthy

"Humility in leadership is a much deeper subject than a few leadership attributes like listening, learning, or sharing credit," says P.V. Ramana Murthy, a hospitality industry veteran and author of The Power of Humility: How Humble High Achievers Are Rewriting the Rules of Leadership.

Ramana Murthy, who worked with Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) as global head of human resources and executive vice-president from 2014-21, and now runs Mumbai-based consulting firm Pinsight By PV®, explains humble leaders operate in a different environment than corporate who equate hubris with good leadership and great results.

In an email interview, Ramana Murthy spoke about what it means to be a humble leader, great examples of humble leaders in India and the first step corporates can take towards becoming a more humble leader. Excerpts:

How do you define humility in the context of leadership in the book?

Humility in the context of leadership in the book is putting others ahead of yourself. Leadership by definition is about leading others. Leadership is not about yourself as a leader – it’s about the people you lead. That’s where, funnily enough, humility is already imbibed in the definition of leadership.

In the last several years, there are any number of theories, frameworks, and concepts that came up around the subject of leadership. Also, there is a plethora of academic research done on this subject. Unfortunately, some of this literature, concepts, theories, and frameworks were based on the current leadership in some of the corporates, which promote heroism and hubris in the name of leadership.

Leaders and corporates need to realise that leadership is not an individual sport for a medal. It’s a team sport where together, you will overachieve. Humility in leadership leads to high achievement at the organization level and that’s what the book talks about.

Is it about being life-long learners and sharing credit, or is there more to it?

Humility in leadership is a much deeper subject than a few leadership attributes like listening, learning, or sharing credit. The book, through its conversations with prominent leaders, identifies and describes the attitudinal and behavioural characteristics of humble leaders and how it leads to greater success of an organization.

Also, there has been some credible work done by Robert Greenleaf in the form of servant leadership, Jim Collins who talked about level 5 leadership and Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid. Specifically, Jim Collins level 5 leadership garnered lots of interest about humility in leadership. However, as admitted by Jim Collins himself, his book, Good to Great was not about humble leadership. He chanced upon the concept of level 5 leadership while researching about companies achieving sustained greatness. While all the books available till now talked about certain leadership attributes of humble leaders, to my knowledge, there is no book which delves deep into the subject and comes up with modalities to develop humble high achievers. This book, The Power of Humility – How Humble High Achievers are Rewriting the Rules of Leadership, addresses this gap.

20th and 21st century leaders are typically expected to have qualities like hustle and assertiveness. How does humility/humble leadership fit into/challenge this paradigm?

Humble leadership, by no means is weak and meek. Humble leaders are much more assertive than those who are not humble, because humble leaders' focus is not upon themselves but on a larger purpose. Humble leaders are also much more ethical. The book dispels some of the wrong notions about leadership. Like Dr Ram Charan wrote in his foreword for the book, humble leadership is needed more than ever now.

Are there any pitfalls to being a humble leader?

The major pitfall the humble leaders face is the pressure they face from the external environment. Humble leadership is different. It’s unique. For example, many leaders and corporates believe that hubris amounts to good leadership and leads to greater results. That’s wrong. The humble leaders are operating in an environment which is diametrically opposite to the approach adopted by them. That’s where there is pressure from the environment – from various stakeholders who are in the game. This is the biggest challenge for humble leaders.

Your tips for humble leaders to avoid these pitfalls/overcome the most common challenges arising from humble leadership.

Humility builds the tenacity to skillfully tackle different situations and stakeholders who create pitfalls for leaders. When leaders have humility at their core, which can be developed, the humble leaders emerge as the leaders who overcome the pitfalls and go on to create sustainable growth for their people and organizations. The book deals with this through examples of such leaders.

Could you name two Indian leaders whom you consider humble, and why you categorise them as such?

It’s difficult to name just two leaders here because it sounds unfair to me and there are several such leaders. I interviewed some of them for the book. But since you asked me to name just two - I would take the liberty of saying Mr Ratan Tata of TATAs and Mr Nitin Paranjape of Unilever.

Is humble leadership more useful in some sectors, like hospitality?

Humble leadership is useful in every sector – be it FMCG, manufacturing, hospitality, services, or whatever sector we can name here. Not only in the corporate world, it’s also useful whether at home or society. Its applicability is universal and all pervading.

Are humble leaders born or are they made? If it is the latter, what would you say is the first step leaders can take today towards becoming humbler?

Humility can be developed among leaders and that’s what the book talks about, albeit briefly in its second section. The first step the leaders need to take to become humbler is more psychological in nature – they need to realise the importance of humility in leadership and make a mental note to move in this direction. It’s more of adjusting the frame of mind which is the fundamental and foremost step for leaders to take up the journey towards humble leadership. Once this is done, the attitudinal and behavioural skills can be developed.