Leadership
Hekman).4 To be humble, it is necessary to get to know oneself, i.e., to be aware of one's limitations: accepting what one knows and is capable of and, above all, acknowledging what ones does not know and is not capable of. Humble managers are not only immune to jealousy, but are actually proud of the success of their employees. They do not think they have reached the summit of anything nor are they blinded by how much they still need to accomplish to become a better manager and, ultimately, a better individual; nor are they saddened if others have progressed further than them.
Having a competent and humble leader, which is very different from having a pusillanimous and weak one, is one of the best tools for promoting people's talent. Humility is necessary not only in the leader, but in all members of a company. It endows realism, which is precisely the key feature needed to analyse the situation and understand the position of a manager who has a jealous boss.
Generosity, which leads us to prioritise the wellbeing of others, lays the moral foundation that, along with humility, allows for the professional development of employees.
The responsibility of senior management is twofold: they need to be humble themselves and to develop leaders who are also humble. There may not be a better antidote against such a human and understandable passion as jealousy.
On the other hand, the virtue of generosity, which leads us to prioritise the wellbeing of others ahead of our own, lays the moral foundation that, along with humility, allows for the professional development of employees. To promote growth among the people we manage, they must become the priority of our action. Generosity enables managers to go beyond the formal exercise of their power, the efficiency of the required business results and the superficial chemistry that results from satisfying the desires of others, and leads to the sacrificed delivery of setting a good example. The response is the respect and trust of employees: respect for what managers do for their companies and trust in what managers do for them. There is no longer a place for jealousy to thrive.
People are managed, influenced or supported the way they are, not the way they should be. Here are some thoughts that may give a clue as to how to deal with one's own jealousy and that of others: • Jealous people may cause problems for others, but they torment themselves. • Great people make listening a priority; petty people tend to monopolise the conversation. • The most important thing in communication is hearing what has not been said.
• Remember that it is not what you say, but what the other person hears. • Leadership has less to do with position and more to do with disposition. • People are more likely to change as a result of observa-
tion than of argumentation. • When we really understand the point of view of others and what they are trying to do, we see that nine out of ten times they are right. • The secret to getting something we want is to disregard it. Quite often, we cannot find something when we look for it and then unexpectedly come across it later on. • To become an exceptional person, you must begin by considering yourself unexceptional.
About the Authors José Ramón Pin is professor at IESE Business School in the Department of Managing People in Organizations, director of IRCO (The International Research Center on Organizations) and holds the José Felipe Bertrán Chair of Governance and Leadership in Public Administration. His book Consistency: The Key to Managing People in Organizations is published by Pearson Educación S.A. His areas of interest include the development of management skills, capacity and careers and the relationship between ethics and management processes.
Guido Stein is associate professor at IESE Business School in the Department of Managing People in Organizations. He is partner of Inicia Corporate (M&A and Corporate Finance) and a consultant with firms in diverse sectors such as finance, industry, energy and professional services. His recent book is Managing People and Organizations: Peter Drucker's Legacy. His current research focuses on undesirable turnover in top management, power and taking- charge processes.
References 1 Liu, D., Liao, H. and Loi, R. (2012). “The dark side of leadership: A threelevel investigation of the cascading effect of abusive supervision on employee creativity,” Academy of Management Journal, 55, 5, pp. 1187-1212. 2 Maslow, H. A. (1991). Motivation and Personality, Díaz de Santos, Madrid. (1998) Maslow on management, Wiley, New York. 3 Eldelberg, S. G. “Envidia y celos en el trabajo,” a note by INCAE Business School. 4 Owens, P. B., and Hekman, R. D. (2012). “Modeling how to grow: An inductive examination of humble leader behaviours, contingencies, and outcomes,” Academy of Management Journal, 55, 4, pp. 787-818.
66 The European Business Review January - February 2014
