From the Editor.

Abstract

Humility appears to be one of the most important characteristics of effective communicators. Perhaps, this is because the genuinely humble communicator is the person who does not automatically snap out a message and assume it is properly understood by all, and it is the person who does not simply assume that his or her initial understanding upon receiving a message is always accurate. The humble communicator is one who knows that he or she can easily be incorrect as either sender or receiver of a message unless the message is immediately confirmed. Two of the greatest causes of communication failure are embodied in a pair of implicit assumptions to which anyone can fall victim: 1. Assuming that others know what you are talking about without obtaining and/or confirming feedback. 2. Assuming that you understand what another has said without initiating feedback to make certain. A measure of genuine humility is required of a person who will automatically take the initiative to ensure the feedback needed to minimize or eliminate the causes of misunderstanding. We can suggest, however, that a great many people in organizational life are not sufficiently humble to initiate this critical feedback in all situations. This is perhaps because so many people tend to associate humility with timidity, tentativeness, and other perceived weaknesses rather than seeing it as the strength that it can be. Yet, perceived weakness or not, we would all be better off giving serious attention to the need for basic feedback, to the necessity to ‘‘close the loop’’ in even the simplest communication where the correct information appears so obvious that to seek or provide reassurance seems foolish. If we do not always close the loop without being conscious of the need to do so—and in fact most of us do not— we can perhaps train ourselves to do so if we can agree with the necessity. We should accept as fundamental the need to close the loop in every interpersonal exchange and behave accordingly. Managers account for many of the communication problems resulting from violation of the closed-loop principle. It often appears that, the higher in the chain of command and the supposedly more ‘‘successful’’ the manager, the more likely is this manager to be lacking the humility required to ensure effective communication. Think of some of the characteristics encountered in managers, especially those at the executive level, characteristics that are often actively sought in persons being recruited for such positions. Organizations tend to regard successful executive types as self-confident, self-assured, decisive, focused, no-nonsense individuals. An individual describable by these characteristics usually possesses a strong selfimage and a healthy ego, and more often than not, a person so described may be found lacking humility. In brief, humility is not usually a characteristic sought in selecting executives; in fact, many selection processes essentially guarantee the absence of humility. Thus, business is populated with a significant number of managers whose interpersonal communication styles leave much to be desired. The best of these managers, often lacking humility but not driven by ego and arrogance, regularly commit basic communication errors in that they often do not provide or elicit feedback, so misunderstanding results from their behavior. The worst of such managers are those driven primarily by ego and arrogance The author reports no conflicts of interest.