Sustainable Leadership: Ego, Trust, Humility
How can leaders lead sustainably? When leaders sit in despair and urgency, thinking they are the only person who can help, does that help? Is it sustainable to lead this way? Does it lead to burnout?
Recently, I watched an episode of Season 2 of The Pitt, a show that focuses on emergency room events in a hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I found myself struggling with Dr. Robby’s character this season. It all hit home in one conversation he had with Nurse Dana. Dr. Robby won’t leave for his sabbatical, and he tells Nurse Dana he is convinced the entire hospital and all the people he supervises will fall apart in his absence. Wow! I have experienced many leaders like this, and I have felt this way at some point or another. To me, this can be a dangerous place for leadership to live.
Leading like Dr. Robby
I believe many factors can lead to this type of unsustainable leadership, including constantly pivoting during the workday, making endless decisions on the fly, and having people persistently come to you with questions and problems. This can lead to a sense of overwhelm, an inflated sense that you are the only one who can resolve issues, and a tendency to catastrophize. Unfortunately, this type of leadership often gets praised, and because of that, the behaviors get repeated, and the cycle does not break.
Learning to Let Go and Rely on Trust
What if Dr. Robby were able to trust the people he trained and knew they were skilled in their own ways? What if he could know that he is not a stand-alone character and that his work is only successful because of those around him? What if his ego allowed him to see how small we all really are in this world and how capable and skilled the people around him can be if we allow them the opportunities and trust in them? This requires a certain level of humility.
Leaders in Dr. Robby’s mindset may have…
- Lack of humility
- Lack of trust in the ability and skills of those around you
- Exaggerated view of your singular importance and the impact of you and your role
- Lack of understanding of connectedness and how we all work in a system and a web, not as individuals in silos
- Lack of willingness to delegate and see something done differently than you would do it
- Fear of letting go
A more effective leader may have…
- A sense of humility, embracing the beginners mindset, accepting when you do not know
- Knowledge that you are not the only person who can do what you do
- Trust in those around you to develop and build skills and follow through on tasks in their own way
- Understanding how your role is connected to those around you
- Fear of letting go, but also see the benefits
It’s Not About You: Surrender Your Ego
Sarah Jaqueet Ray, a professor who works at the intersection of social justice and climate emotions was on a compelling podcast episode with Shankar Vedantam of Hidden Brain, entitled ‘When It’s All Too Much’. She spoke of a type of leader who sometimes carries the burden of all the issues and almost compels themselves into martyrdom, thinking they are the only way to the solution. She called it a Western American consumer culture that thinks everything is all about us. We personalize everything and that increases our ego. Sarah Jaqueet Ray states that if we can surrender the ego and the idea that we have to be the savior, then we may actually find pleasure in our work, see opportunities for rest, and see the collective and connections in what we do. She encourages us to think beyond our lifetimes and “invites us to tap into much more kind of humble, grounded, long-term engagement, rather than this kind of, I need to be the savior, and if I’m not the savior, then I give up.”
Sustainable leadership implies that we can lead effectively over time. Dr. Robby’s way of leading focuses on his ego, shows a lack of trust and connectedness, and humility. This is not a sustainable way to lead. He will burn out quickly. I believe that it is never too late to change the way you lead. Small changes and realizations can lead to more effective and sustainable leadership in which you see opportunities rather than catastrophes, connections rather than loneliness, and joy rather than despair.
