ABSTRACT
That night, as on previous ones, although Thomas arrived in his hotel room exhausted, sleep would not come easily. The temperature had started to drop and the wind was kicking up. Driving from the plant to the hotel required a lot of effort. “As Daniel explained today, I was in autopilot mode,” he said to himself. While waiting to fall asleep, his mind wandered. He thought about the training day, how dense it was, and was quite happy that it ended with some results that he celebrated to keep the energy high in his team. He thought that his role as a leader was important, but he wanted to develop more leadership around him to ensure everlasting results. He strongly believed that real success would be powered by teamwork. In this sense, he was not a big fan of industry leaders strutting in the media, telling everyone who wants to hear that it’s all about their genius. In his mind, the person who best illustrates this “me first” account of success was Jack Welsh.* Thomas would clearly agree with Jim Collins† that humility is an essential part of a great leader. He lamented that fewer and fewer senior managers around him showed this character trait. To his disappointment, he noticed that most people perceived humility as a sign of weakness or incompetence, and therefore a disqualifier for leadership roles. The conventional wisdom was that “you need to show your teeth and play lot of politics,” Thomas conceded.
