Refuting the Post: "Great Leaders Share a Common Trait: Intellectual Humility"
Today I came across a linkedin post on intellectual humility of which we are great fan of at SystemsWay and may be only academy that focus on epistemology which develop the intellectual humility trait. But we would like to tell you that if you are Systems Thinker, you do not and should not express intellectual or epistemic humility trait even if you have developed it specially if you want to grow in leadership position because in many places it's seen as a sign of weakness. We are not saying that intellectual humility is not a good thing as per us, all we are saying that intellectually humble people may not rise in leadership level if you are surround by people who seek strong, always right personality, so be careful when you fall for sense making post because they could be anti your career.
The linkedIn Post of Great Leaders are intellectually humble and My refutation Below.
My refutation:
Leadership is one of the easiest topics to write about—anyone can list traits or offer a formula for success. But let's be real—no one becomes a leader just by following prescribed traits.
Look at the claim: "Great leaders share intellectual humility." Do they? I challenge this assumption.
Make a list of the most powerful political, corporate, and social leaders today. Don't cherry-pick—look objectively at those in power, because they are the leaders. Do they all exhibit intellectual humility? Many—perhaps most—do not. In fact, intellectual humility in today's world can be seen as weakness, and exhibiting weakness is a surefire way not to rise to leadership.
Leadership isn't about chasing a fixed set of traits. Many who rise to leadership position possess qualities conventional wisdom discourages. If we had a way to measure it intellectual humility, we might find that highly intellectually humble people struggle to advance at all.
I value intellectual humility and prefer engaging with those who have it. But just because I value a trait doesn't mean it's the key to leadership. Yes, I want that trait in my leadership, does not mean it's the shared traits of leaders. Leadership is about understanding, navigating, and reshaping systems. In some environments, intellectual humility can even work against you. Sometimes, an intellectually humble person must act otherwise to survive and influence change. If humility is undervalued in a system, a humble person may be ignored.
So stop blindly chasing traits because you want to be a leader. Chase those traits because you value them irrespective of it drives you to become leader or not. If you want to be a leader, study and understand the systems you're in—that's the key to leadership. Once you lead, you can change those systems.
BTW, if you want to develop intellectual humility, only way I know is to question your current epistemology and adopt the epistemology of fallibilism. We are rare academy that teaches epistemology which is of intellectual humility or fallibilism.
