Going Humble with the Amish
Erik Wesner, a nationally-recognized researcher and author of Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive recently posted the following leadership lesson.
I recently gave the teenage son of an Amish friend a lift. Amish don’t drive of course, but generally have no problem accepting rides.
We had a big day planned: first stop was a carriage shop in the heart of the Lancaster County settlement, where “Elam” as we’ll call him, would order a new buggy. A younger brother was turning 16, which meant he’d inherit Elam’s vehicle, clearing the way for Elam to get a new one (the tab for a new buggy, in case you were wondering? Around $7-8000 or more, depending on the features—and there are more than you might think).
Next, we stopped at a hardware store, where Elam had a $150 gift certificate to spend. The gift certificate was a present from his boss on the local carpentry crew where he’d worked a little under a year.Curious, I asked Elam some more about the gift. It was a year-end bonus he had received as a thank-you for work well done. As he spoke about his boss, Elam nearly bubbled over, going on and on in warm tones. Something about the man had obviously moved him.
As Elam continued, I learned that on another occasion he’d received a titanium hammer, tough and light, for a more efficient drive. Another nice plus, but I sensed the gifts weren’t the root of this young man’s affection. I tried to dig deeper. “What exactly is it about him that makes him a good boss?” I asked.After a few stops and starts, he explained as best he could that it was the fact that he didn’t “act” like a boss. He wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.
From time to time Elam’s boss would show up to work on jobs with his employees. While there, he’d follow his own foreman’s instructions—essentially subjugating himself to one of his own employees, who, he was able to recognize, knew more of what was going on and was in a better position to make decisions on that particular job.
The Amish man realized that he didn’t know everything. He let the people he put in charge do the work he’d entrusted them with. He was a boss without being bossy. He was a humble leader.Even at his young age, Elam could sense that his leader was special. Having listened to his explanation, I was hardly surprised. Among Amish businesses, humble leadership is nothing unusual.
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Daniel H. Pink's posting is worth sharing. In the early 1990s, he worked for Robert B. Reich, then the U.S. Secretary of Labor. Reich taught Pink a simple (and free) tool for diagnosing the health of an organization.
