The Colonel said, “Don’t take yourself too seriously, kiddo. Truth is, if you take yourself too seriously, no one else will.”
In his time, my father was quite influential in the research and development of aircraft and ordnance. Without a doubt, his ideas and the teams he led shaped the trajectory for the future of the United States Air Force. When he called, people answered. When he spoke, people listened. His insights and wisdom were taken very seriously. Nonetheless, The Colonel never took himself too seriously.
Dad rarely shared small talk with us. He was usually teaching us one thing or another, but he did so while having fun. Dad was a master at making light of himself. When I was little, Dad would dribble his food on purpose, while seeming to instruct me on proper table etiquette. It made Mom crazy. When the movie Airplane came out in 1980, Dad spent a good six months throwing water on himself and saying he had a “drinking problem.”
When you are doing significant work with others who hold you in high regard and pay attention to you, it can be all too easy to internalize that attention and begin building a puffed-up sense of self-importance. That might even be a natural response. But significant leaders understand that when you start to take yourself too seriously, others stop doing so. When you believe yourself to be too significant, you become less so.
Read Lauren’s Whitepaper on The Nine Essentials of Significant Leadership.