I believe humility is an important characteristic for all people to have or at least understand. After reading Ruscio’s piece on humility, I now see how humility is one of the most important characteristics to good democratic leaders. Kennedy, Washington and Lincoln are some of the most recognized democratic leaders and they for sure embodied humility at some point during their terms.
I think that humility is a forgotten virtue in civilian life in general bus especially in the political sphere. Today we want political leaders to have new ideas, be firm, decisive, strong and powerful. Strong-willed people can still be humble however it is becoming less and less common to have both. In a world where people must fight and be their own advocates, humility is more often replaced with confidence and pride, sometimes in excess.
We have talked at length about perception in this class. In relation to the perception of confidence with charismatic leaders, what matters more: how we see leaders or how they see themselves? With confidence and charisma, it matters that we perceive the leaders to be confident even if they see themselves as self-conscious. However Ruscio claims that with humility, it matters only that leaders see themselves as imperfect. I disagree with this statement because a leader’s personal belief of humility can and probably is different than what the public perceives as humility. If Trump thinks he is humble, does that mean it does not matter what the rest of the country thinks? Perception plays an important roll in all leadership characteristics but I think it is more important in the case of humility than charisma.
Your question as to whether it’s more important how we see leaders or how they see themselves brings up an important point– it may not matter how they feel internally if followers see them as charismatic and humble. Trump’s dialogue insinuates that he sees himself to have traits of charisma and humility, but it does not mean anything if the country of followers does not see him as that way.
I really liked the point you brought up about public perception of a leader versus their own view of themselves. I think that the heart of the question lies in how people define humble. For example, Trump may view himself as humble, but his public actions and words indicate that by the most commonly accepted definition, he is not, indicating that he operates with a different definition of humble. On the other hand, if any leader did not view themselves as humble but their actions indicated to the public that they recognized and understood their own limitations, then they would be considered a humble leader.
I liked how you listed some important democratic leaders to show examples of leaders who had humility. I also liked how you talked about perception and how leaders used perception as well. I also agree with you when you said that a leaders personal belief can be different then the publics belief.
Your point about perception is right on. Personally, I think that perception is the only thing that really matters. Just as one can fake being confident, they can also put on a facade of humility. While it may be more difficult, simply because one wrong move can shatter that facade, it’s just another personality trait that can be pretended. There’s no concrete way to discern how the audience views a leader and how the leader views themself.
I agree that it is very important to understand the difference between how a leader views themselves and how their followers view them. Everyone acts differently around different groups of people, therefore, they have a different perception of you based on what you show them. I think a perfect example of this idea of perception is Trump because his comments do not match his beliefs about himself.
I really like your point about perception. This is the case because one can easily be viewed as a humiltarian character and this is extremely important. When a leader is being exemplified it is extremely imperative that they have a good sense of perception, so much so that they make the followers intrigued.