Chad Silverstein explains the importance of humility in leadership, emphasizing making strong first impressions with new hires, remembering what it’s like to be new, and leaders serving their teams ("flip the accountability chart"). He shares anecdotes about onboarding, warns against arrogance, and urges leaders to stay teachable and accountable.
Chapters
One of the things I always made sure I did on my team whenever new people started is I really went out of my way to try to make a good first impression with brand new people and try to never let the curse of knowledge get in the way of not remembering what it's like to be new. And for me, I was 25 years in when I sold my company. It was really hard, but I always made an attempt when I was leaving to meet with people on their first day and to schmooze with them a little bit, check in with them in that first week and do my best to remember what it's like to be confused and insecure and trying to make a good first impression. And one of the ways that you can build humility is to remind yourself that you're no better than anyone else. No matter what position or role or authority you you hold, you know, you're never too good to talk to people who are brand new to help them. I'll never forget, I've told the story before, but I had someone in my company who was a hired gun and she didn't want to talk to brand new people. She thought that they were beneath her. And I'll never forget the arrogance of that. And I think, you know, you have to humble yourself and just know that, you know, for me, at least the way I saw it is if you have an accountability chart, it should be flipped upside down. You know, the leaders are at the bottom serving everyone else. Not it's not the other way around. You don't have new people in kind of serving you. You've got to give people around you all the tools, the resources, the mentorship, and the time to help them become successful. I mean, otherwise, you know, that can be helping you with what you want to accomplish in your company, on your team, or whatever mission or purpose you're leading. So just remember that you can learn something from everyone and there's always someone better than you at whatever you think you're so good at. And if that doesn't humble you, then you've got other issues that you need to address in your core. And if you are misunderstood because you have confidence and people see you as arrogant, then you just have to accept that and know that your edge, that all the work you've done to give you the confidence that you have in whatever area of your life that you're confident, if that rubs people the wrong way, you have again, you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable with that. It's a hard thing to do, especially if you know down in your heart that, you know, you humble yourself, whether it be through a spiritual way or through, you know, a physical way. When you. When you are in something that you know, you know you can't do as well as other people. And same thing mentally, if you're not as smart as other people, you know, you just have to own it. It. There's something very attractive about people who just say they don't understand something, they don't know something, and they can ask questions. And usually the people who are the smartest ones don't know as much as everyone else, but they ask the best questions, and they sit humbly, listen and learn from everyone. And so make sure you build that into your. Into your way of being. And to always remember where you came from, where you're going, and who holds you accountable.
