Less Ambition, More Humbition

Mavericks at Work explores a new addition to the workplace lexicon—humbition.
What’s humbition? It’s a term Polly and I first heard from Jane Harper, a nearly 30-year veteran of IBM. It is, she explains, the subtle blend of humility and ambition that drives the most successful leaders—an antidote to the know-it-all hubris that affects so many business stars. “The more I know,” she says sensibly, “the more I know there is to know.”

I’m sure we all work with and for people who could improve themselves with this advice. Not that we don’t need to take a spoon or two of it ourselves, just for good measure.