ABSTRACT
Leading with humility is a guiding principle that precedes learning and improvement. Humility is best described as a leader’s behavior that demonstrates a willingness to seek input, to listen carefully and to continuously learn. In many cases, Information Technology (IT) leaders have come up through the ranks, often based on extensive knowledge of the technological landscape. Lean leaders stimulate and inspire employees through dialog and by setting challenging expectations at the individual level. Lean leaders influence by being knowledgeable, by getting into messy details, by coaching and teaching. Lean IT organizations achieve both a more positive “feel” in terms of better collaboration, higher customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and higher acceptance of decisions, and better results in terms of lead times, inventory and quality of products and services, that is, both “noticeable” and “measurable” improvements. Traditional Western leaders tend to work to a financial plan or budget and focus on achieving the numbers.
