When are you showing hubris and when are you being humble?

Transcript

Hi there, it’s Peter Winick. I’m the founder and CEO at Thought Leadership Leverage, and here’s the idea that I wanted to share with you today, and that’s this:

As a thought leader, as an expert, as an advisor, as a consultant—when are you showing hubris, and when are you showing humility?

Now, lots of folks don’t want to show any hubris, but quite frankly, a lot of clients or prospects or people that are considering working with you are looking for a little bit of it to give them the confidence that you’ve got the expertise, that you’ve got the gravitas, that you’ve seen situations like the one they are in now and can help them get through it in a better way, in a quicker way, in a way that’s going to be fairly painless.

Now, there are other times to show more humility. As a thought leader, you don’t want to be too cocky, you don’t want to be perceived as arrogant, and you also want to be honest with them. Right?

So, when you’re in that front-end part of a conversation with a client, trying to figure out what exactly it is they’re hiring you to do, what it is they’d like to achieve, what they would like to get fixed—that’s where you can be humble when needed and say, “You know, I’ve never done something quite exactly like this before, but I’m willing to put in the effort. I’m willing to try the work. There are some things I’ve done that are similar, and I’ve got some tools and experience that should work. But let’s be honest, I’ve never, you know, solved this problem in this exact way with someone quite like this situation that you’re in today.”

So anyway, question to ask yourself: When to show hubris, and when should you show a little bit more humility as a thought leader?

Love to hear your thoughts.