In this solo episode of the No Days Off podcast, host Brian Gubernick argues that intellectual humility is a critical, non‑scalable leadership trait for entrepreneurs. He defines intellectual humility as the willingness to admit ignorance and to revise beliefs when new evidence appears, emphasizing that it is a strength rather than a weakness. Gubernick outlines four psychological components—openness to opposing views, respect for contradictory evidence, willingness to change one’s mind, and acknowledgement of personal limitations—and explains why these traits are essential for rapidly updating mental models in a changing business environment. He cites Google’s former SVP of People Operations, Laszlo Bock, who made intellectual humility a core hiring filter, illustrating how the company values candidates who can admit mistakes and listen deeply. Gubernick then presents a six‑question self‑test (drawn largely from Warren Berger’s The Book of Beautiful Questions) designed to assess an individual’s level of intellectual humility, covering listening to opposing viewpoints, questioning one’s own assumptions, admitting error, seeking challenging information, preferring understanding over being right, and enjoying the surprise of being mistaken. He challenges listeners to apply these questions to a current personal or business decision, optionally gathering external feedback, and argues that embracing intellectual humility leads to faster, more agile decision‑making, stronger team trust, and ultimately better business outcomes.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Just yesterday, we talked around the four, four common traps in decision-making. There's more than these four, but there's four common traps that I've experienced in making decisions, specifically in, in business. We're going to continue along this making better decisions path by today talking about intellectual humility and how it's a leadership trait that I think that if you're an entrepreneur looking to scale, well, you can't do so without it. As entrepreneurs I think a lot of us are expected to have answers. We need to, to lead with conviction. But I think there's a quiet truth. I think the best leaders that I, that I know, at least, they're not just confident, they're also extraordinarily curious. They practice something called intellectual humility. So let's unpack what this even means, how Google, of all companies, made it part of their hiring DNA. And I'm going to give you 6 questions to test whether you really have it. I think this is a really important check-in episode, maybe one of the most important check-ins you do with yourself this entire year. So what is intellectual humility? What am I talking about? Intellectual humility is the willingness to admit that you don't know everything and the ability to revise your beliefs when new evidence shows up. It's not about being soft. It's not about being wishy-washy. I think it's about strength, the strength to put truth over your ego. Now, psychologists say that it involves 4 key traits. Intellectual humility involves 4 key traits. Number 1, openness to opposing views. Number 2, respect for evidence even when it contradicts you. Number 3, willingness to change your mind. And number 4, acknowledgement of your limitations. I think for entrepreneurs, that's gold because the world is always changing. And I think your success depends on, on how quickly you can update your mental models. Which is why we're always talking about mental models here at No Days Off. Now, at Google, you may have heard of the guy Laszlo Bock. He wrote— he's written a book or two. He's pretty well known. He worked at Google for a while as a senior vice president. At Google, when he was running people operations, intellectual humility was actually a core hiring filter that he leveraged. He didn't just want IQ or technical, technical skill, which is certainly something that Google was looking for— high IQ, high technical skill. They wanted people who could admit when they were wrong and then listen deeply when better ideas showed up. This was critical. This was so important. They made it a core hiring filter. Laszlo once said, he said, the best leaders have a fierce sense of ownership, but also intellectual humility. They're willing to step back and embrace the better ideas of others. Think about that. Bold enough to lead, but also humble enough to change. That sort of balance, I think, is pretty rare. But it's what makes companies like Google pretty agile and leaders rather resilient. Company's massive, but it's this intellectual humility that allows it to pivot. Now, what is this 6-question self-test I think you can run? How do you know if you've got intellectual humility, or where might you have a gap? Where might you need to grow? Well, here's, here's 6 questions. They come from, uh, 4 of the 6 at least come from a book called The Book of Beautiful Questions written by Warren Berger, and it got me thinking around this, this concept. And I'm going to give you 6 total. 4 of them come out of that book and a couple other additions that I've personally found kind of powerful. Number 1, and this is in determining if you have intellectual humility, okay? Number 1: Do I truly listen to and consider opposing viewpoints? Do I truly listen to and consider opposing viewpoints? Gotta really look in the mirror and ask that one. Do you really listen? Do you really consider opposing viewpoints, or do you just wait to reply with your own? I think this one checks your ego because if you cut people off or you silently judge, you know, what they're saying or judge them personally while they talk, you're not really listening. You're, you're just defending. Number 2, do I ever question my own beliefs or assumptions? Do I ever question my own beliefs or assumptions, or do I just assume I'm probably right most of the time? I think this reveals how much of your identity is tied to your ideas. I think the more attached you are, the harder it probably is to grow. Number 3: Am I open to admitting when I'm wrong? Am I open to admitting when I'm wrong, or do I maybe instinctively find a way to justify my choices? I think self-justification is, is pretty natural. It's human. But again, I think that growth starts when when, when you own your misses, you know, your mistakes? Are you open to admitting when you're wrong? Number 4: Do I seek out information that challenges my thinking? Do I seek out information that challenges my thinking, or do I just scroll or follow or talk to people who agree with me? The algorithm, right, of the socials, or the algorithm of life, it gives you comfort. You actually have to choose. In this particular case, you have to choose discomfort because usually the truth is going to live closer to discomfort than comfort. So are you seeking out information that challenges your thinking? Number 5: Would I rather be right or would I rather understand? Would I rather be right or would I rather understand? One path clearly feeds your ego. The other path feeds again, growth or evolution. Usually can't do both of those at the same time. I had someone once say this to me a little differently. They said, would you rather be right or would you rather be rich? I found that one to be pretty funny. This core question though, would I rather be right or would I rather understand? And then number 6, do I enjoy the pleasant surprise of discovering I'm mistaken? Do I enjoy the pleasant surprise of discovering I'm mistaken? I think that this question here is the ultimate test. You know, if you feel excited when you realize you were wrong, I think that's the mark of someone who's really committed to truth over ego and pride and all that comes along with that. So here's your No Days Off challenge for the day or for the week. Pick a decision you're currently making. You may have picked one yesterday. Maybe it's the same one when yesterday I challenged everybody to pick a decision. Maybe pick a decision you're currently making in your business or maybe in your personal life. Then ask yourself those 6 questions, the 6 I just ran through. Write your answers down. Better yet, ask someone close to you or on your team, someone that knows you well. Maybe ask them to answer the questions about you. Get that outside view. That could be interesting. It might sting, so, so, so be prepared. But I don't know, maybe that sting makes you a little bit smarter. At the end of the day, I don't think you need to be right all the time. You need to be willing to change fast when you're wrong. I think that's how you win in business. When you study those that have won in business, it's usually not because they're right all the time. It's because they're agile. It's because they're, they're willing to change and they're, they're willing to make that change quickly when things aren't going the right way, or the decision they made, or the way their thinking is wrong. I think it's how you also build a team that follows you, not because that team has to follow you, but because they trust you grow when they speak. In other words, they trust that you're listening. They trust that you're objectively analyzing decisions and they're influencing that. That is one major part of leadership. So that's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
