I recently overheard my friend Brian, (A Board Member for the non-profit, Standup for Kids) sharing a conversation he’d had with a group of teenagers in Chicago who were struggling with the endless cycle of homelessness.
Brian said, “If you’re teachable you can learn, you can change your situation and make it much better. If you’re unteachable, not willing to learn what to do and how to do it, you won’t ever get off the streets.”
Do you have salespeople who are unteachable? Not humble enough to say I don’t know what I don’t know sometimes, but I am willing to learn?
Professionally humble people can grow, they can take organization from good to great.
Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, wrote that personal, professional humility ranked #1 of 7 principles of the best leaders of the greatest companies he studies.
Can we learn from this ever so important characteristic? To be humble takes courage. Be careful of those who may say they have the desire to be successful, yet are un-teachable…they will be the ones who will ultimately fail.
- Jill Kirshenbaum
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