Have you met someone who pretends to be humble, but in fact, is giving you signals to be accepted as superior? I notice this very often when I meet leaders in executive positions during coaching sessions and there is no dearth of instances in routine life either.
Imagine yourself complimenting a colleague for a recent award and his response is:
‘It’s just luck.’
‘The boss has been kind to me.’
‘I haven’t done much about it.’
In some cases, it could also be a display of genuine humility, but their body language will tell you what this truly is.
Let’s first understand what fake humility or false humility is and why one carries this.
When someone tries to appear humble, but his intentions are not genuine is called Fake humility.
There are many reasons for one to show fake humility. Though the more frequent ones are intention to make others comfortable, to misguide rivals, to manipulate others and to attract compliments.
Now, you would ask whether this is a good trait. The answer is, it depends.
If you are genuinely trying to make others comfortable, then the context is right. When you are doing strategically to beat your competition, then it’s also right from a business standpoint. But, in a social setting or in close relationships, if you are using it to fish compliments or to display subtle superiority, you would score a loss.
In the last case, even if your words may sound humble, your vocals and body language would give a conflicting signal that people would catch and it would lead to distrust.
I have seen many business leaders claiming publicly that they are very humble. If you are one of them, you need a reality check.
Keep in mind, authenticity is a super power for leadership.
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