As a believer in God, I was taught that the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility (please refer to Proverbs chapter 15 verse 33). Today, I’d like to focus a bit more on the last part of that verse…
“ … and before honor is humility”.
So, humility should come before honor. This begs to answer the questions: “what is humility?” and “what is honor” Some people might define humility as the lack of arrogance. Others might define it as the acknowledgement of our spiritual and intellectual shortcomings.
I like thinking of humility not only as the personal acknowledgement that we are nothing but imperfect before God, but also to give God the opportunity of showing us how great He is. Honoring God with our everything is us giving Him the opportunity to manifest His greatness.
Though I’d enjoy it, the aim of this post is not to talk about the greatness of the Lord. As usual, I’d start by illustration something I witnessed as an employee, and explain how such experience has changed my views on how to run a business…
His loudest opponents were promoted as top managers…
Most of my employers were believers of God, too. I figured it out, not because we discuss it, but because of they were behaving with integrity. Does that mean they were perfect? Far from it. However, it didn’t stop me from learning from them, along my own imperfections.
There was this one employer of mine: lovely, very demanding, humble, with a (not so quiet) temper and very harsh at times. Most of my colleagues feared him to the point of doing whatever he would ask to, even if it went against common sense or their core values…
Basically, from middle management employees downwards, most of the people were operating according to our boss’s moods. Even my superior, who was in a top managerial position, acted more in fear of our boss than anything else.
Yet, when I started to truly observe how that specific employer was operating, I was truly baffled. Most of his top managers – those that were the key to the wellbeing of the company – also had a temper.
I first assumed that the stress related to that job was what was bringing their temper out. I had no idea how wrong my assumption was. It turned out that my employer had specifically handpicked them and groomed them to become top managers.
Why?
He needed people who were able to stand to him. Yes, he was looking for employees strong enough to correct him when he was wrong, even if it would take heated arguments. He wanted people able to stand their grounds whilst professionally giving him a piece of their mind.
In other words, by promoting people who constantly strongly disagreed with him …
He demonstrated humility.
My employer demonstrated humility. As simple as that. As intimidating as he could be as a boss, he let his key managers not only bring their expertise onto the table, but they also brought their loud voices.
The key managers’ temper was forcing the employer to listen to their innovative ideas to ensure the company maintained and improved its leading position on the market. As a result, the order book was extremely healthy, and we were always understaffed.
In my opinion, this was made possible because my employer had acknowledged his shortcomings and his imperfections, and he let other people show him their own greatness (i.e. their expertise). I firmly believe that such behavior highly contributed to the company’s growth.
My employer focused on his area of expertise, and let his key managers focusing on their area of expertise. Each party kept challenging the other for improvement purposes.
If there was no humility from my employer’s end, this wouldn’t have been possible. After all, it only takes a strong leader not only to accept constantly being contradicted, but also to promote those that do so in a “loud” way.
Accepting to face objections and to collaborate with those who keep challenging us may put us out of our comfort zone, but then, the growth possibilities become infinite. It makes us see things in such different perspective that we can start dreaming and imagining growing faster and faster.
Conclusion.
Having witnessed such beautiful aspect of humility is making me not only honor my previous employer, but also testify that this is how I intend in running my business: letting contradiction humble me, correct me, and make me see things the way God wants me to see them.
What about you? Do you believe humility come before honor? How so? I’d love to read your opinion down below in the comment section.
This post was and before honor is humility. I hope you loved it. Feel free to share and to comment, so I can learn from you too.