work hard, stay humble

My husband and I moved from rural Victoria to Melbourne around May 2020, just in time for the major lockdowns. For those of you outside Australia, the lockdowns meant you could only leave your house to get supplies, exercise, go to work (for essential workers), or access health care. I only met the first two criteria, which meant I could only leave the house for an hour a day and only within a 5 km radius of our house. It was pretty significant and made making connections in a new city challenging to say the least.

I was pretty burnt out at the time, having spent the previous three years working as the Nurse Unit Manager in a small rural hospital. A role, that to this day, remains the most challenging and rewarding I’ve had the privilege of holding. Shortly after we moved back to the city, I got a role in the quality team of a large health service and started working in an entirely remote capacity.

Like many people, I set up my home office. One of the items that I

spruced it up with was a Jamie Oliver cheese board, which I repurposed as a small chalkboard (don’t worry, I have many cheese boards). On it, I wrote, “work hard, stay humble”. In my mind, when I wrote this, it was going to be something I would change up, a quote of the week perhaps, it was a chalkboard after all.

** Side note: consider yourself warned, I not only love cheese on a board but also in quote form. I am a sucker for a cheesy inspirational quote and there will be many more to come in this blog. I gather them up in notebooks and notes on my phone.

But for all my love of cheesy quotes, “work hard, stay humble” has remained on my tiny chalkboard. Steadfast through moving house and moving home offices. It has been a regular meditation of mine as I have taken on a number of new and challenging roles.

Working hard is something I think I have always done. I don’t know if it was because I was in competitive gymnastics as a child, but I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t a keener. As a young person, I was embarrassed by how hard I worked, by how many hours I spent doing my homework. But as I have aged, I try to give myself permission to be proud of it.

I think the reason the second part, stay humble, has really struck a chord with me is because I have experienced first-hand the negative impact of leaders not challenging their own ways of thinking, of surrounding themselves with “yes” people, of silencing dissenting opinions.

For the past couple of years in particular, I have been referred to by coworkers as an “expert” in things I know myself not to be an expert in, simply because of my job title. It is tempting to roll with this, accept that I am doing a great job and know all there is to know. But what is more productive (and less fun) is to make sure I am responsive to any more constructive feedback that I receive and link up with actual experts to test what I think are good ideas.

How leaders respond to feedback has a profound impact on the psychological safety of those they lead. One of the things I really enjoyed about the military was it seemed like it was much easier for people to leave their ego at the door. In the years since leaving the military, I’ve reflected a lot on why this doesn’t seem as consistent in the civilian setting and I think a few factors contribute to this.

First, and most obvious, is the intensity of shared experiences you have with people in the military accelerates team bonding and promotes a sense of camaraderie and trust that takes much longer to develop in the civilian world.

Second, the high-risk environments and situations that the military works to raise the stakes when it comes to people not admitting when they are out of their depth or need more support. A high-functioning team is one where the strengths and weaknesses of each individual are well understood. A high-performing team is one where anyone in the team, regardless of rank or position can speak up if a mistake is made, if they have important information to share, or if they have a skill set that will help move the team forward.

Third, it is the commitment to a clear, well-defined mission and recognition that this needs to be communicated. I’m not saying the military always gets this right, but it is at its core what basic officer training was all about. When given a particular mission or task, learning how to lead a team of people to complete that task, whatever it may be. It helps develop leaders who understand the importance of communicating the goal, and ensuring each team member understands their role. It also helps develop followers, because if you’re in a platoon of 20 people during basic training, 95% of the time, you’re a follower. In this way, you come to understand the importance of getting on with things. The idea of “that’s not my job” is replaced with role flexibility and teamwork to achieve the collective mission.

I think the simple reason "work hard, stay humble" has stuck with is because I love the duality it offers, of being proud of my hard-working nature, but remaining humble about those things I need to work on. It encourages me to actively welcome feedback, even if it is at times uncomfortable. So I’m curious, what are you most proud of about your leadership style, and what are you working on?